Overview

Ontario has an abundance of natural resources – trees, water, aggregates and productive agricultural land. Aggregates are the sand, gravel and stone underneath the soil, and are often found beneath some of the best and most productive farmland in Ontario.

We all depend on aggregates for building and maintain roads and bridges. But productive farmland is also a strategic resource that must be preserved. Once land is disturbed to extract aggregates, it is rarely rehabilitated to the level necessary to become productive agricultural land again.

OFA Position

OFA believes that agricultural activities make the best use of arable lands and that the productivity of those lands must be maintained. Aggregate extraction should be prohibited on prime agricultural land (classes 1-4), and specialty crop lands. While we recognize the critical importance of aggregates for upgrading and maintaining our networks of roads and bridges, as well as for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial construction, we insist that agricultural lands be fully rehabilitated to their former use for sustainable agricultural production, in a timely manner.

OFA believes that all aggregate applications within a prime agricultural area, regardless if they are subject to a Provincial Plan or not, should be required to complete an Agricultural Impact Assessments (AIA).