Tractors made their method by means of downtown Kitchener on Wednesday, a slow-moving protest of Waterloo Area’s dealing with of the Wilmot land acquisition and meeting course of.
Battle For Farmland, a citizen group of Wilmot farmers and their supporters, desires the area to know they’re “unwilling” to go together with the sale of 770 acres of land between Nafziger Highway, Bleams Highway and Wilmot Centre Highway.
The area has beforehand said that it desires the agricultural property for future large-scale improvement.
“[Premier] Doug Ford was very clear back in April that it shouldn’t be foisted on an unwilling community and our community has been doing everything possible to show that it’s an unwilling community,” Kevin Thomason, the vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Community, defined at a Wilmot council protest on Monday.
Regional protest
The Area of Waterloo demonstration began lengthy earlier than Wednesday’s council assembly.
Individuals bought on tractors at Bleams Highway and slowly drove to regional headquarters on Frederick Avenue to satisfy up with different protestors.
Whereas the Wilmot land meeting wasn’t on the council’s agenda, the beforehand schedule assembly was placed on maintain so delegates might have their say. There have been so many individuals inside council chambers they needed to open up an overflow room.
“Farmland is a non-renewable resource,” stated one delegate. “When it’s paved over it is destroyed forever.”
“In a time of increasing food insecurity, we need farmland and farmers more than ever,” said one other.
Tractors make their method down the highway on Aug. 28, 2024 as a part of a rolling protest towards the sale of Wilmot farmland.
Delegates additionally referenced the current destruction of corn crops on a few of the land that had already been bought by the area.
“When we saw the corn was cut down it was like you took your boot and gut kicked us,” stated one.
“Please back off here because it’s going to change the whole community,” Wilmot land proprietor Adam VanBerdeijk stated. “This is a warning and we hope that the region wants to listen.”
Councillors didn’t ask the delegates any questions.
“There’s a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. People are trying to make sure that they’re heard,” stated Thomason. “There is yet to be a single public meeting [on the issue].”
The area has repeatedly said that they can not touch upon personal actual property offers.
After delegates spoke, council left for a closed session then resumed the assembly that had been interrupted.
Protestors reiterated that they need to see extra transparency from the area.
“We hope to hear from council that they’re standing up for their citizens, that they’re hearing us, and that they’re going to abandon this absurd location for a mega site and tell the Premier that we’re going to go about it the way we do things, with proper planning processes, with proper community engagement and proper consultation,” Thomason defined.
Security precautions
Protest organizers stated they took additional steps to make Wednesday’s tractor convoy as secure as doable.
“We had to ensure that the slow-moving vehicle signs were on each tractor,” stated Alfred Lowrick, a Battle For Farmland consultant. “We chose roadways that were four lanes, so that we could easily have [drivers] pass.”
Additionally they bought an escort from Waterloo Regional Police.
