[All] Important letter from Ontario Federation of Agriculture re MZOs

Mon Jan 3 11:55:05 EST 2022

Hi Greg,

Thanks for circulating this letter from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture expressing concerns about the provincial use of MZO’s.  I have attached a copy of it below just incase anyone was unable to open the link.  This letter was written over a year ago and unfortunately since then the provincial government has actually increased its use of MZO’s issuing dozens of additional Ministerial Zoning Orders to the dismay of citizens across the province and causing the destruction of thousands of acres of farmland.

To date we have managed to avoid the use of many MZO’s in Waterloo Region (with the Cambridge/Blair Amazon Warehouse fiasco being one of the only ones that so many in the City of Cambridge now regret so much).  Hopefully, we will be able to send a very strong message tomorrow to Wilmot Council that we do not want MZO’s in our community and that all development needs to follow proper planning processes including public consultation, environmental assessments, reasonable timelines, etc.

This MZO announced on Christmas Eve with no information publicly available or even known to Wilmot Councillors at the time is absurd.  Now that we have learned it is for an entirely new town - Wilmot Village there are even more troubling questions and issues.  Delegations don’t even know if they are registered for the tomorrow’s meeting since Township Staff don’t even return from holidays until tomorrow and there are so many unanswered questions.

Since this MZO is specifically seeking to bypass our Regional Official Plan and all the integrated planning, it could have far-reaching consequences across the region and for many years to come. This is not how we should be planning our future and we need to ensure as many e-mails, letters, phone calls and delegations as possible.

The OFA will be delegated at the Wilmot Council meeting tomorrow and we are hopeful that we might be able to get a motion that will either deny this MZO outright or at least defer any consideration until after the Regional Official Plan Review is completed this coming summer.

Making up for the lack of local media coverage since no Wilmot newspapers were publishing over the holidays we have had front page coverage in Friday’s Record, online coverage by the New Hamburg Independent and even the Toronto Star.  I will be on the Mike Farwell 570 CityNews Radio show tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:30am.

Please be sure to speak up and ensure that Wilmot Council and Staff receive a strong message about the future we want to see in our Region.

Thanks,
Kevin.

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1) Ontario Federation of Agriculture MZO Concern Letter

2) Wilmot Township Contact Information

The Wilmot Township Clerk can be reached at: clerks at wilmot.ca <mailto:clerks at wilmot.ca> or (519) 634-8444 x9228

Wilmot Township Planning Staff can be reached at:  harold.okrafka at wilmot.ca <mailto:harold.okrafka at wilmot.ca> or (519) 634-8519 x9236

New Wilmot Township CAO Sharon Chambers can be reached at:  sharon.chambers at wilmot.ca <mailto:sharon.chambers at wilmot.ca> or (519) 634-8519 x9237

The Wilmot Councillors can be reached at:

	Les Armstrong - Mayor - les.armstrong at wilmot.ca <mailto:les.armstrong at wilmot.ca> or (519) 634-8519 x9231
	Angie Hallman - Ward 1 - angie.hallman at wilmot.ca <mailto:angie.hallman at wilmot.ca> or (519) 998-3983
	Cheryl Gordijk - Ward 2 - cheryl.gordijk at wilmot.ca <mailto:cheryl.gordijk at wilmot.ca> or (519) 998-8317
	Barry Fisher - Ward 3 - barry.fisher at wilmot.ca <mailto:barry.fisher at wilmot.ca> or (519) 807-8597
	Jeff Gerber - Ward 4 - jeff.gerber at wilmot.ca <mailto:jeff.gerber at wilmot.ca> or (519) 496-5769
	Jennifer Pfenning - Ward 4 - jennifer.pfenning at wilmot.ca <mailto:jennifer.pfenning at wilmot.ca> or (519) 998-6029

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Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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> On Jan 3, 2022, at 11:02 AM, Greg Michalenko <gcmichalenko at uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> 
> Please distribute and emphasize if communicating with Wilmot Council.
> <OFA letter to Minister Clark regarding use of Minister’s Zoning Orders - Ontario Federation of Agric.html>

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