ERO submission March 28,…

ERO submission
March 28, 2024
The Honourable Paul Calandra
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
777 Bay Street, 17th floor
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2J3
Re: ERO-019-8273 Bill 162, Get it Done Act 2024

Minister Calandra
I am a farmer and I am responding to ERO-019-8273 to voice our concerns regarding changes in the Environmental Assessment Act and the Official Plan Adjustments Act that would fast track protective regulatory mechanisms, degrading the quality of decision-making around farmland development.
Growth. We all need growth including municipalities. Plants, trees, animals, humans, depend on this natural growth. But unnatural, uncontrolled growth is called cancer. This bill is calling for more cancerous growth.
Canada has a large landmass but only about 6% is suitable for farming. These 6 % include prairie land that’s only suitable for grazing. Only 4% you can actually grow crops. The most fertile out of these 4% we find right here in this and neighboring Townships of Wilmot where a large land assembly is ordered. Nowhere else in Canada and only a few selected places in the world, like the Ukraine, we find soil and climate as good as here in south western Ontario.
To think we can pave over one block of land after the other of this rare but live sustaining resource our very existence depends on, is not just a war against democracy, but a war against any common sense.
The farm and food sector is the largest Economy in Ontario. Creating, Canada wide, 3 times as much in GDP than the automotive sector and over $90 billions in export every year.
I am particularly concerned that, by making land expropriation easier and fast-tracking standard land-use planning procedures, the government is prioritizing development over farmland conservation. Both Schedule 1 (Environmental Assessment Act) and Schedule 3 (Official Plan Adjustments Act) pose future threats to farmland by proposing to undermine existing regulatory mechanisms put in place to serve the best interest of the public.
Do not expect that after more and more of our farmland is paved over, there always be a farmer, somewhere in the world, out there to feed you and the cities.