<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi Greg,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">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.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks,</div><div class="">Kevin.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">-------------------------------</div><div class=""><b class=""><br class=""></b></div><div class=""><b class="">1) Ontario Federation of Agriculture MZO Concern Letter</b></div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
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