Many rural farm owners do…

Many rural farm owners do support the farm residential lot proposal included in the new planning statement.
According to the Ontario census on agriculture 2021, 2016 and 2011. Ontario has experienced a net gain in cropped farm area. Canada has also experienced an overall net gain in cropped land area. Farm productivity per unit of land continues to increase and can be attributed to plant breeding livestock genetics and advanced cultural practices such as irrigation precision farming etc. Gene editing technology is the next game changer in agriculture productivity reducing time required to introduce new higher yielding and disease resistant varieties.
The productivity of greenhouse grown fruit and vegetables can have a yield potential 20 times higher per unit area using less water per acre than that of outdoor grown crops. Greenhouse area since 2016 has increased by 40 percent with forecasted future increases projected to continue at a greater pace.
Any food security concerns being floated in the press are very misleading and very simply fear based misinformation.

General farm organizations did not conduct proper consultations with their membership on this very important planning statement to be able to say their members are united in opposition to the PPS.
In a joint statement to the provincial government released May 18 2023 they claimed to have all farm groups uniting with them. This was a misleading statement as only a nine commodity groups that were all livestock based signed on to the joint statement. This represents less than 29 percent of the total 31 thirty commodity organizations that belong to the OFA. There are also 51 county federations of Agriculture groups across Ontario and only 30 of the local federations supported the joint statement on May 18. It is important to note farmers are now actively productive agricultural crops in agricultural areas with 80 percent of the rural population are not farmers. The land continues to be farmers without any any producers having to idle land due to nearby residential development.
Most farmers were unaware of Bill 97 and the PPS released on April 6 2023 and furthermore when a private members introduced by an independent MPP bill 62 was voted down in March by the Ontario MPPs and failed to pass, farm land owners who were in favour of lot severances believe that a failed Bill 62 meant that the Ontario government was going to pass Bill 97 and the PPS on June 4 and there was no need to comment on the PPS.
We believe the PPS contains very good policy proposals to help Ontario address the housing crisis by building 1.5 million homes by 2031 and many of us in Rural Ontario are prepared to do a small part in helping achieve the governments goal.
It is also very important to keep in mind lot severance policy would be completely voluntary and not mandatory on behalf of the rural community.
Thank you.