by PAT CURRIE
Closer relations with neighbouring farmers need to be established to flesh out a mammoth report on the effectiveness of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan and health of the Oak Ridges Moraine assessed by the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, Lisa Turnbull, program manager for the foundation, said Friday.
The eight-section preliminary report, spelling out the effect of 177 projects on which $50 million was spent by the foundation on studies and conservation efforts since 2002, was delivered to all Ontario MPPs Wednesday and made public Thursday.
Reaction and comments to the preliminary report will be used to reinforce the message in the final report, to be issued in June, the foundation announced.
The study was confined to properties on the 186,000 hectares of the Oak Ridge morraine, a sandy, partially forested ridge stretching for 160 kilometres across south central Ontario northeast of Toronto. It did not include adjoining farms or those that straddle the study area boundary, Turnbull said.
"We didn’t have the flexibility to devote funds specifically to those properties, even though they are all connected to the same eco-system," she said.
The province enacted the Oak Ridge Morraine Conservation Plan in 2002 to protect the morraine, its swamps, forests and wetlands, from the ravages of urban sprawl. The morraine, left by the retreat of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago, is the source of 60 different rivers and streams.
More attention will be focused on farms in the final report, Turnbull said. BF
Comments
The Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation made a recommendation in these reports that if it can continue its work in the future (pending a renewed investment from the Province) that additional partnerships with farm-based organizations be pursued.
It is not that "more attention will be focused on farms in the final report" - it is that these reports say the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation wants to actually work closer with the farm community in the future.
Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation would not know where to find the farmers. Only 5 farmers presently grow more than 1/2 of the corn in York region and Durham region would be somewhat similar. Most of these farmers have been so ignored by the process of the ORM for the past 10 yrs it would be like geeks asking the cheer leaders to dance. Not a coordinated or pretty sight and not going to be a rave party.
Working closer with conservation also known as "con Ontario" is not an endearing idea to farmers that have already given far too much proportionately for the "great public good" with no appreciation reward thanks or financial compensation.
"The Oak Ridge Morraine Conservation Plan of 2002 was /is to protect the morraine, its swamps, forests and wetlands, from the ravages of urban sprawl". How does protecting the ORM area water which runs downhill get accomplished by regulating the higher agricultural land of the ORM without knowing the source of the needed protection? Who protects the farmer or his interests?
As evidenced by Japan's recent woes of failing backup plans, how will enough new farmers be enticed to replace the dwindling (5-15 producing much of the ORM crop) farmers of the ORM with the average age of farmers being 60+ without substantial profit? How fast will this plan fail before it is terminal?
Shame on queens park for what they have done to the ORM farmers. Ontario premiers has used ORM farmers as pawns, Over the last 30 years our MPs have become self serving getting their pensions, the hell with rural Ontario, flease it, Professional politicans and premiers. It is time for our politicans have term limits. It takes a life time to get the experience to see our sick disgusting MP system.
Almost a year ago a letter from the Land Use Council(LUC)to Premier McGuinty included the following observations:
"We note the Oak Ridges Foundation directorate does not include representatives of private landowner organizations, a circumstance that implies little or no official regard for the views of those Ontario citizens who are titled holders and/or registered lessees of Moraine land. To provide, and be seen to provide, a reasonable balance of opinion and conviction in Moraine management, we believe delegates from at least two recognized Ontario landowner groups should be named forthwith to the Foundation Board.
In a separate letter to a polling consultant (and Board member) of the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, LUC stated:
"We understand your company is retained by the Foundation to conduct a telephone opinion poll designed to measure "stakeholder" awareness and perceptions of the Moraine. We regret primary Moraine stakeholders, namely the Ontario citizens holding legal ownership of land within the designated area, are not represented on the Foundation Board. Accordingly, if aware at all of the current monitoring effort, they may entertain understandable reservations about its intent, format and consequences. LUC wishes to participate in Moraine monitoring as a public service and, to that end, our Board requests a written list of the questions on which your opinion poll is based. As you know, it's generally acknowledged that telephone interviews with unprepared respondents sometimes produce what may be later perceived a manipulated outcome"
Not surprisingly, Premier McGuinty referred our expressed concerns to the Foundation. Its consultant-director then advised us the closing date of the poll in question had expired and could not be extended or reopened. No mention of balanced Board representation was then or since forthcoming and LUC is still waiting for a list of poll questions asked and tabulated, presumably at public expense.
The Oak Ridges Moraine should be managed by an elected and properly balanced Board reporting to the public at large. Otherwise, yesterday's as well as tomorrow's $50 million "studies" might be seen as lacking in basic transparency and accountability.
Two sample questions: (1) Who was the recipient of each contract included in the $50 million studies referenced in the Report? (2) What is the amount and transfer record of public funds, if any, shuttled in the last 5 years between the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, Conservation Ontario, private sector special interests and district Conservation Authorities?
Bruce Pearse, Chair
Land Use Council
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