Land use planning issues were front and centre at the latest meeting of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s Policy Advisory Council (PAC). Agricultural impact assessments (AIAs), rural land designations, and the growing pressure of energy projects on prime farmland were a key focus of the August 6 in person and online meeting.
A highlight was a detailed presentation by Margaret Walton, Senior Associate at Planscape and Board Chair of the Ontario Farmland Trust. Walton walked PAC members through the fundamentals of Agricultural Impact Assessments (AIA), including:
- What constitutes an AIA
- Provincial and municipal policy requirements
- Measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts on agriculture
- Key tenets and current resources available for AIA development
Another presentation focused on the role of Agricultural Impact Assessments in energy project proposals. Proposals must include an AIA Component 1 report to show that farmland was considered when choosing a site. It’s a two-step process that prioritizes avoiding prime agricultural land where possible and then selecting areas with lower-quality soils based on Canada Land Inventory soil mapping.
PAC members also heard about recent regional initiatives, including Peterborough and Kawartha’s 2024 Ag Impact Study and Halton’s land use planning workshop held earlier this year.
This past spring, PAC members were asked to complete a survey on land use planning questions as a way of helping OFA develop positions on the issue. Some of the topics respondents were asked to comment on included:
- Localized prime agricultural areas to protect rural lands in municipalities where the prime agricultural land designation is not available
- OFA’s policy to review all Greenbelt Plan amendments
- Natural heritage designations
- Compensation for environmental services provided by farmers/farm land
- Lot creation policies
- Provincial plan areas
During breakout discussions, members shared local experiences and land use challenges. PAC members were urged to bring the land use planning and farmland preservation discussion back to their local federations to provide additional feed back to the OFA leadership.