Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife has written to Ontario’s auditor common asking her to conduct a value-for-money audit of the Area of Waterloo’s plans to buy farmland in Wilmot Township for future industrial use.
In her letter to the auditor common, Fife says the Ontario authorities “has been funding and directing” the area’s plans.
“The provincial authorities has mandated that this plan proceed largely in secret, requiring native officers to signal non-disclosure agreements that forestall them from explaining to the general public the idea of choices regarding this land meeting, together with why the federal government would search to position a brand new industrial campus in the midst of prime farmland,” Fife wrote in her letter, which has Monday’s date and which Fife shared on social media on Monday.
The letter is signed by Fife and NDP agriculture, meals and agribusiness critic John Vanthof. In it, they ask for Auditor Common Shelley Spencer to research “whether or not the provincial authorities’s selections have been per provincial plans, insurance policies and legal guidelines, together with the statutory accountability to guard the province’s agricultural sources.”
Fife and Vanthof write that the audit would supply “essential oversight and transparency that has been lacking.”
In March, 12 landowners of six farmland properties and 6 residential properties have been advised the Area of Waterloo needed to buy their land.
The area has stated the land isn’t being earmarked for any explicit undertaking, however can be for future industrial use.
The plan has been praised by some native enterprise leaders however criticized by a number of the landowners, their supporters and politicians, together with Ontario NDP Chief Marit Stiles.
WATCH | Wilmot tractors journey to Kitchener for farmland protest:
Wilmot tractors journey to Kitchener for farmland protest
Forward of a council assembly, Wilmot Township’s Struggle for Farmland group gathered outdoors Area of Waterloo headquarters Wednesday night for the Not a Keen Host protest. Farmers drove their tractors down Freeway 7/8 by way of police escort to make it to the rally. The group is protesting a deal by the area to purchase up or expropriate 770 acres of land in Wilmot Township for an undisclosed industrial undertaking.
Two Wilmot Township councillors have additionally referred to as on the area to be extra clear about their plans.
Again in July, the area stated it had bought practically a 3rd of the sought land and on-site technical evaluation would quickly start. That very same month, the area was criticized after it plowed below 160 acres (practically 65 hectares) of immature feed corn to be able to do testing on the location.
The area has since stated it checked out methods to avoid wasting the crop, however there have been no choices to take action and the deadlines the area wanted to fulfill as a part of “the due diligence course of” wanted to be accomplished to an undisclosed deadline.
In August, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP and Minister of Purple Tape Discount Mike Harris and Minister of Financial Improvement, Job Creation and Commerce Vic Fedeli confirmed the province is offering funding for the land acquisition, however stated there was a “lack of transparency in [the region’s] land meeting course of.”
Area of Waterloo Chair Karen Redman stated these feedback “shocked” and “confused” her as a result of “from the very starting of this undertaking, we labored in lockstep with the province.”
Redman advised Ontario Chronicle on the time that from the start of the land meeting course of, the area requested extra flexibility on buy timelines and the power to share extra data with the group, however was denied that by the province.
Regional councillors are anticipated to obtain a report in regards to the plowed over corn crop at their assembly Wednesday evening.
