Farmers on Toronto's outskirts decry province's handling of national urban park proposal

Friday, March 20, 2015

by MIKE BEAUDIN

Farmers who lease land on Toronto’s northern boundary say their future is in limbo after the provincial government refused to go forward with plans to sign an agreement with Ottawa to create a national urban park.

The York Region Federation of Agriculture, in a statement Monday, criticized provincial Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid for not handing over the land to the federal government for the Rouge Urban National Park.

The park would have protected 7,500 acres of prime farmland, much of it Class 1, said the federation. It would have given farmers more control over what they grow, and extended farm leases to 20-plus years.

The two levels of government have been wrangling over the park for months and appeared to have worked out a plan that would have seen the land transferred to the federal government under Parks Canada.

But provincial Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid said last week that Ontario would not go ahead with the plan to transfer the provincially controlled lands because the Conservative-controlled Senate refused to hear amendments to the agreement.

Kim Empringham, secretary of the York agriculture federation, said the amendments would allow environmental and conservation considerations to take priority over agriculture. She said environmentalists want agriculture within the park boundary to be restricted to small organic farms because they believe corn and oilseed crops are better suited to private lands.

However, in an email to Better Farming via his press secretary, Jeff Leal, Ontario minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, said agriculture would remain an important part of the park.

“We’ve been clear from the start that our government supports agriculture in the Rouge Park,” said Leal. “The establishment of the park must be done in a manner that protects the land for agricultural production and ensures farmers are an important part of the conversation. Farmers will continue to be able to manage and make their own decisions regarding what crops they grow.”

Farmers within the affected area have been working on one-year leases since the mid-1970s when the land was expropriated, in part to make way for the proposed Pickering Airport that was never built.

Ontario controls about two-thirds of the 58 square kilometres of land in what would be Canada’s first urban national park. The area includes a large portion owned by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority that cannot be sold without provincial government approval. The park stretches from the Oak Ridges Moraine in York Region down to the Lake Ontario shores in Toronto, and is designated as part of the Ontario Greenbelt.

The federal government owns the remaining third of the land while the cities of Toronto and Markham hold small parcels.

Empringham said the farmers involved are discouraged.

“They've been frustrated for the past four 40 years, never knowing what might happen,” she said in a telephone interview. “At one time there was an option to buy farms back and that was closed abruptly. The (farmers) who have all their operations inside the park need some security. This is just another layer they have to deal with.”

Most of the farmers are leasing land that had been owned by their families for generations before it was expropriated. They bought farms just north of the park and continued to lease the expropriated land. Corn and soybean are the predominant crops in addition to three dairy farms, two pick-your-own markets and a couple of nurseries.

Empringham said the environmental groups that want the province to restrict farming usage are misinformed.

“The environmentalists don't actually understand agriculture,” she said. “They don't know what they are asking for. If you are using environmentally sound management practices it shouldn’t matter what the crop is.

“On the surface to most people (the amendments) likely don’t look like a problem but with the provision to put the environment first – it’s the slippery slope we’re worried about. (Duguid) uses general terms like there will be farming in the park but that doesn't mean he will protect all the farmland.”

The federal bill to create the national park has passed second reading in the Senate, which means the park will still go ahead on the federally owned land. That would leave about half of the farmland under provincial control.

In a statement, Duguid said he was disappointed the federal Conservatives rejected the amendments that would have added Ontario’s preferred wording regarding environmental protection. He said Ottawa has ignored the concerns of both the province and stakeholder groups.

Federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, said the Ontario amendments would “prioritize nature over the conservation of culture and agriculture.” BF