Wilmot land grab sparks broad based pushback
Township farmers have supporters from Lake Huron to Peterborough
Proposed legislation that makes it easier for cities and towns to expropriate land and attract new factories with tax-funded subsidies has hit a raw, angry nerve with Wilmot Township farmers and their supporters.
“I think Wilmot is a canary in the coal mine,” said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles to a crowd outside the Wilmot Rec Centre Friday evening.
Bill 185 was introduced by Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government last week, and is scheduled for public hearings at Queen's Park soon. That bill will speed up some expropriations, and for the first time allow local municipalities to offer subsidies to attract new companies. Expropriation for economic development is what ignited a fierce pushback in Wilmot Township. So many people showed up for a Friday meeting in support of the six farmers and homeowners fearing expropriation by the Region of Waterloo and Wilmot Township, the NDP leader spoke to to the overflow crowd outside.
“I am just blown away by how many people showed up today,” said Stiles.
The Wilmot group Fight For Farmland organized the event that attracted supporters from Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Elmira, St. Agatha, Ayr, Huron County, Oxford County, Stratford, Peterborough, Toronto, Hamilton, Barrie and Bradford-Blenheim.
“I feel this is a serious environmental issue, and it makes me so mad the way they are doing this,” said Betsey Daub, who came from St. Agatha with her daughter to attend the Wilmot meeting.
There are 770 acres on the six farms and six residential properties targeted by the region and the township. They are bordered by Bleams Road, Nafziger Road, Highway 7/8 and Wilmot Centre Road. The elected officials refuse to speak publicly about it. All they say is the land assembly is needed to create a big, shovel-ready site for a large economic investment.
The farmers and their supporters believe Ford is behind the land assembly because the region said in December it does not have the funds for something like this. Ford said municipalities should assemble land so they have shovel-ready sites for big companies that want to set up factories. He has also said
Queen’s Park wants willing partners, and does not like the way the region and township are handling it.
The mix of secrecy, expropriation and public subsidies to lure new industrial plants sounds a lot like the glass factory the province and city councillors wanted to force on Stratford in 2021, said Mike Sullivan.
Sullivan was among the Stratford residents who protested and successfully shut down the government plans to set up a glass factory in the Festival City that would have doubled the greenhouse gas emissions for the town, and use a third of the entire city's daily water consumption.
Sullivan said secret talks had occurred for two years, but when city council had to publicly approve $18 million to service land, people started asking questions.
Protesters showed up every day at City Hall, and held Zoom meetings with 600 people. The province had offered up $33 million in subsidies to the glass factory, but sewer, water and electrical services had to be extended to the site by the city, said Sullivan.
The approvals never came. “My message to you is: 'It can be done, you can turn it around,'” said Sullivan to the Friday evening crowd in Wilmot.
He told them to make the politicians fear for their jobs if they continue to support expropriation of farmland to create a big industrial site.
“We signed pledges and sent them to the councillors: 'If you support this I will not vote for you,'” said Sullivan.
The NDP, the Green party and the federal Liberals have come out in support of the Wilmot farmers.
The two Green MPPs at Queen's Park, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner and Kitchener-Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy, tabled a motion Monday to save the Wilmot farmland from expropriation, and restore the urban boundaries established by the region’s Official Plan, which never contemplated industrial uses on that farmland.