ABC sends out Press Release

Agriculture Business Community, Perth East, Perth South, Wilmot West

PRESS RELEASE


The Agriculture Business Community, Perth East, Perth South, Wilmot West is composed of approximately 300 members in the 3 townships who are or could be impacted by any future road development as proposed by the MTO and the Hwy 7 and 8 Study Team. At the recent Public Information Meetings (PIC) in Shakespeare, (Jan. 17th and 18th) many of our members were alarmed at the amount of agricultural land that will be lost to highway development if this proposal goes through. Others are concerned about the impact on century farm homes.

From our initial ABC member debriefing to review feedback from the January PIC we were disturbed by the number of different answers given to the same questions by the MTO and their consultants. This is generating confusion and misinformation among members.

ABC members are concerned about the producers directly in the path of this proposed route as well as the farm businesses that rely upon access, both north and south crossing Highway 7&8 and those using sections of the existing route to move equipment, forage, manure and animals across land holdings that contribute to the farm business unit.

The community is being asked to comment on this proposal without being provided with information on what north/south links will remain open to farm equipment and the nature of these crossings be they overpasses or underpasses. The design decisions will presumably take more land from agriculture.

All livestock producers within the proposed route would be at risk of being non-compliance of the Nutrient Management Act. This Act is designed to protect all of our water supply and farmers presently carry all the costs to be in compliance.

While the MTO has indicated that they recognize the Act in some respects, individual farmers and businesses should not have to accept this loss or cost on behalf of our society.

Also to date, in spite of repeated requests, the MTO has not agreed to provide for any engineering or oversight for the drains both private and municipal that run beside and through this area. They have been told repeated by ABC that their drainage information is a decade old and yet they have moved forward with recommendations based on it. Individual owners of properties and Municipalities should not be forced to accept this societal cost, either.

ABC continues to contact members and review Report H to try to assess the impact of the proposed route on the agricultural business of the three townships. We will present a final report to the MTO by their March 25th deadline.