Bernard Pope Ontario Farmland Preservation

This is what Bernard Pope had to say about the growth plans for Simcoe County and area at the AWARE


News Conference Simcoe County Museum May 23, 2012

It is a pleasure to be able to be here this morning to discuss the opinions of the AWARE Land Use Sub-committee with regard to the Places to Grow legislation.

The main concern that I have, coming from an agricultural background, is that there has been a lack of understanding of the importance of agriculture in our economy.

Currently figures are suggesting that agricultural is the number one value added sector in the Province. The sector, when you look closely, encompasses a huge diversity of enterprise, from the farmer’s markets, to the retail stores that supply farmers, equipment dealers , fertilizer and seed suppliers and all the wages paid through farm work.

Typically, when the farmer or rancher is doing well, so does the economy, because that farmer will buy land, stock, equipment (especially trucks) and other infrastructure for the farm.

I drive a GMC extend-a-cab 4x4 and when I showed up at a Soil and Crop meeting in Blackstock in February I had the smallest truck in the lot.

When the AWARE team met with the Provincial Development Facilitator, last June, we stressed the concern that we had for un-required sprawl on the food producing land and as such asked her to incorporate major protection for this land. All the documents dating back to the Policy Statement of 2005, including the Places to Grow document have stated the importance of the preservation of farmland.

What we want to see is serious legislation that does in fact preserve the land that produces the quality local food that more and more people are demanding.

Since the Province recognizes the value of farming and farmers, I think that, especially now that the global insecurities are so prevalent, that the County of Simcoe should lead the way by showing the respect for the agricultural sector in the preservation of food producing land. This would be a major component of the Official Plan.

A working group that believes in the holistic progression of our development would serve Simcoe County and the Province and be a model for which others would aspire.

I have to say that being invited to work with the AWARE group is a pleasure.

The public is indeed being served well by the activities in which AWARE is involved.