Province hinders farmland preservation in proposed Rouge National Urban Park

By Keith Currie, Vice President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

The federal government is putting farmers first with their plans for the proposed Rouge National Urban Park. The development of this new park would see more than 7,600 acres of mostly Class 1 farmland protected under legislation.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) supports Bill C-40 An Act Respecting the Rouge National Urban Park. The bill recently passed third reading and will double the park’s total footprint to 15,000 acres, creating the first protected urban area for some 1,700 species of plants and animals. The federal government says the enactment of the Rouge National Urban Park will provide protection and presentation of the park’s natural and cultural resources, and encourage sustainable farming practices. For more than 200 years Ontario farmers have been working the land in the proposed park area located in the Rouge River Valley in the GTA.

The area within the proposed park is owned by three levels of government. The development of the Rouge National Urban Park depends on the transfer of provincial lands to Parks Canada, the federal body tasked with managing the park. Ontario farmers have been leasing workable farmland within the park’s boundaries since the 1970s and the proposed Parks Canada management plan supports and encourages the farming community and the farmers who use this fertile parkland for agriculture.

The OFA is disappointed with the provincial government’s recent response to Bill C-40. Specifically Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure Brad Duguid’s proposed amendments would not only threaten the farmers operating in the park, but would also threaten the protection of the farmland they operate. Ontario farmers have always been dedicated to land stewardship and we don’t need extraordinary regulations to tell us how to care for the land and environment that sustains us. Minister Duguid’s proposed amendments not only fails to recognize that contribution, but would impose unnecessary restrictions on farmers within the park boundaries, limiting farming activities and putting farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

The OFA is asking the Ontario government – that owns the majority of the land in the proposed Rouge National Urban Park boundaries – to support Bill C-40 without amendments and transfer the land to the federal government. The government’s plan to establish the first park of its kind in Canada, will provide a tremendous opportunity to showcase agriculture in an urban setting and under the stewardship of Parks Canada and the regulations of Bill C-40, puts farmers and agricultural sustainability first.

The OFA urges the provincial government to support Ontario’s vibrant agri-food sector. The proposed Rouge National Urban Park would ensure Class 1 agricultural land within the park remains farmland in perpetuity.

Source: OFA