Battle for Farmland desires Wilmot council to come back away with one message after their protest Monday night time.
“We’re asking the township, the council and the mayor to declare that Wilmot Township is an unwilling host,” stated spokesperson Alfred Lowrick.
The citizen group has been vocal about its opposition to the sale of 770 acres of land between Nafziger Highway, Bleams Highway and Wilmot Centre Highway. For the reason that plan to buy the land for future large-scale growth was made public, farmers and their supporters have requested the township, the Area of Waterloo and politicians to reverse course.
“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,” defined Kevin Thomason, the vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Community.
Lowrick and Thomason spoke to forward of Monday night time’s protest.
“Wilmot citizens, landowners and the population have made it very clear they’re unwilling,” Thomason stated. “The township needs to come forward and state that they’re unwilling as well.”
In June, Battle For Farmland filed 21 freedom of knowledge requests on the location choice course of utilized by the area. These requests have been denied. The group made one other freedom of knowledge request, this time asking for an itemized record of assessments and surveys carried out by the area. That request was additionally denied.
“[Some] get the redacted document that’s all blacked out and everything like that,” Thomason stated. “We’re not even getting that. We’re not even getting the name of the document.”
Supporters at Monday’s protest stated the land represents excess of simply property.
“I’m concerns about the farmland and just generally the environment,” Township of Wilmot resident Dorothy Wilson stated. “We have to be thinking about the future, to think about food security, but access to clean water and those things can be affected if farmland is destroyed.”
The area stays tight-lipped about their plans for the land, saying it will probably’t talk about actual property negotiations.
Provincial politicians and the area, in the meantime, have blamed one another for the secrecy surrounding the method.
“It’s pretty clear to us, straight from the beginning, that the province was funding it,” Lowrick alleges. “We knew all along. It’s been confirmed now.”
Finally, council didn’t touch upon the land deal in the course of the assembly.
Battle For Farmland has one other protest deliberate for the regional council assembly on Wednesday. The group stated it plans to maintain placing stress on native politicians.
“It is what it is,” Lowrick defined. “We are here and I will be here for another year if I have to be.”
