I agree with farmers in this…

I agree with farmers in this province who oppose the use of agricultural land for housing development. It is a wrong thing to do.

I would like to be clear that I am not a farmer. I grew up in the middle ring of a major UK city, moved to Canada and lived in midtown Toronto for 15 years, before moving to a small town in rural Ontario where I have lived for 25 years.

Farmers are right in pointing out the issues of infrastructure (well systems, sewage, heating systems/cooling systems, internet availability, road access--especially in the winter and spring) and transportation (even rural towns often have no public transit), along with issues of environmental difference where you have animal and/or crop farming, such as widespread smell from manure spreading, dust from harvesting, burn off of residual in fields. There are also issues of social infrastructure such as provision of schooling, shops, entertainment (even basic things such as cinema or a public pool or park) which urbanites anticipate to be available.

Nor do they understand that the nature of work and entrepreneurship are quite different. You no longer have the same traffic factor that can apply to marketing concepts you might use in thinking about opening a small business in an urban setting.

From experience, I know how little understanding urbanites have of a rural environment and how fast dissatisfaction sets in. Not enough to do, businesses opened and failing, schools not offering the same services and opportunities as in the city.

Building on marginal land within the precinct of existing small towns offers a far, far better approach all round.