As a farmer, I welcome any…

As a farmer, I welcome any changes to the CA act regulations that currently restrict farmers from bringing new land into production, or prevent us from maintaining our existing drainage systems. Currently "development activities" is intended to prevent building in a wetland. OFA has asked that development activities for Ag uses be exempt. While I recognize the desire to be consistent with the term Ag uses from the PPS, it seems to me that exempting all ag uses, which includes buildings for livestock, grain storage and manure storage is a difficult ask and most likely not to meet with success. I would suggest a better approach would be to exclude ag uses from the term development activities, with the exception of the above mentioned activities. In other words, it would be acceptable to develop a wetland for the purpose of growing crops, but not for, as an example, manure storage. I would also like to mention, that only 5% of the province is farmable, so much of the wetland in the province will never be developed for ag, regardless of the regulation. The areas left to develop for ag are very insignificant to the province as a whole, but can make a big difference to the individual farmer. I am of the firm belief that the best decision on how the land is to be used, is best left to the farmer living on the land, rather than an outside regulator agency, whos resources would be much better used to regulate for flooding and erosion control in actual building development.