Barrett highlights potential farmland loss in Brant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2017

 

SIMCOE – Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Opposition Agriculture Critic Toby Barrett expressed concern with the amount of farmland lost to development.

Brant County is a good example of that, where we’ve just seen one of the largest annexations of prime farmland in southern Ontario, with the approval, of course, of the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Bill Mauro,” he said during Legislative debate last week. “This deal gobbles up approximately 9,000 acres of prime farmland, with Brantford annexing 6,700 acres and extending services. It enables another 2,150 acres, mostly of farmland, to be available for development.”

He also pointed out the National Farmers Union is tracking large-scale purchases of farmland by corporations and concurs that government must keep its eye on this issue.

“This is leapfrog development. This is outside the greenbelt, something that we quite ruefully saw happen in the Caledonia Six Nations area about 10 years ago, which was the trigger for 10 years of grief down that way.”

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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett’s office at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org