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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-11 MinutesAgricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington Meeting Thursday, January 11, 2018 Members Present: John Cartwright Brenda Metcalf Don Rickard Tom Barrie Henry Zekveld Eric Bowman Ted Watson Les Caswell Richard Rekker Regrets: Elgin Greenham, Jennifer Knox, Councillor Wendy Partner Guests: Mike Kopansky, Kyle Schumacher of Miller Waste Systems Rob Maciver, Municipal Solicitor Staff: Amy Burke, Faye Langmaid, Planning Services Brenda welcomed all to the meeting, with introductions. Adoption of Agenda 018-01 Moved by Eric Bowman, seconded by John Cartwright "That the Agenda for January 11, 2018 be adopted" Carried Approval of Minutes 018-02 Moved by Tom Barrie, seconded by Eric Bowman "That the minutes of the December 14, 2017 meeting be approved" Presentation Mike Kopansky and Kyle Schumacher from Miller Waste provided a presentation on Anaerobic Digestion and other aspects of waste composting. Miller is a 100% Canadian owned integrated waste management company. They service over 50 municipalities and collect over a million tonnes of material annually. They have been diverting organics since 1990, own and operate 3 composting facilities in the GTA. Partnership with Maryland Farms of Kawartha Lakes, a 5t" generation family dairy farm with 600 cattle, crop over 2500 acres. The farm has two digesters and older technology that they used for manure with the digestate becoming bedding material. Newer FITEC Anaerobic Digester to process energy slurry from Miller. The reason for the partnership Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington January 11, 2018 was because Maryland had been awarded a FIT contract for energy production and had an existing Environmental Compliance Approval from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change for Anaerobic Digestion that could be amended. The older technology digester could not handle the food waste and contaminates in the process. The energy slurry provided by Miller does not contain contaminates and provides a better quality of digestate that is field applied in place of fertilizer. The energy slurry provided by Miller is from Durham Region's residential green bin composting operations that Miller pre-processes prior to delivering as "energy slurry" to Maryland. Only about one third of the green waste goes to Maryland. Food and organics in landfill generate greenhouse gases and requires considerable landfill space, 93% of emissions from the waste sector is from landfilled food and organic waste. It is forecasted, Ontario will need 16 new or expanded landfills by 2050 is nothing is done. Current posting on the Environmental Registry titled "Food and Organic Waste Framework" has comments due by Jan 15, 2018. Province is attempting to address organics in waste and may ban them which will increase costs for restaurants, flower shops and other businesses that produce organic wastes. Will also affect ICI sector and multi -residential (high rise) buildings. Business Arising Tom Barrie provided a listing of farms where the milk trucks, feed deliveries and egg shipments are now arriving very early in the day for Operations. This listing has been mapped and distributed to the snow clearing crews. Farm field 911 numbers (Emily Project). The information was sent along to the Fire Chief, his question is who will pay for the signs. Faye will discuss further with him. There is also the issue of cell and broadband coverage. Correspondence and Committee Reports 018-03 Moved by Tom Barrie, seconded by Les Caswell "That the correspondence from Jim Abernethy regarding Agro -Forestry in the ORM Zoning Bylaw 2005-109 be accepted and no further action on the specifics of the site be taken by the committee; the committee will provide input on zoning through the Zone Clarington process." 2017 Accomplishments: Brenda attended the Planning and Development Committee meeting on Monday, January 8th. The accomplishments list will be sent out to committee members as a summary of what was discussed at committee meetings in 2017. Brenda's delegation was well received by members of Council, with a number of follow-up questions and thanks to the Committee members for their ongoing work and insights. Durham Agriculture Advisory Committee: No meeting since our last meeting. Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington January 11, 2018 Durham Reaion Federation of Aariculture: No meeting since our last meeting Clarington Board of Trade: CBOT is working with the members of the agricultural sector to determine the focus and messaging for the creation of a video about local agriculture. The scheduling with the videographer and timing of farm harvests has been a challenge. AACC members are invited to submit topics and speaker ideas to CBOT for the 2018 annual CBOT Agricultural Summit. New Business Engage Clarington, Amy provided an overview of the new engagement web tool for the Municipality. Since the first item listed for input is rural living it is hoped the committee members will use it. Link will be sent out to members. Individuals must complete the registration process on the website in order to submit comments, questions and use the map pinning tool. Of particular interest would be the information on road issues on the map feature. Zone Clarington, Amy circulated the existing definitions that appear in the two zoning by-laws that Clarington has which relate to agriculture and forestry - 2005-109 is the Oak Ridges Moraine By-law and 84-63 is southern Clarington. Some of the definitions come from earlier by-laws such as Township of Darlington, Township of Clarke, Town of Bowmanville and Village of Newcastle when 84-63 replaced them in 1984. The table also indicated where certain agriculture and forestry uses were permitted as -of -right in the existing zoning by-laws. At the next meeting we will review the definitions and current use permissions. There were questions about agro-forestry and what its actual meaning was. Amy will look for it in the PPS. Municipal Solicitor, Rob introduced himself, he attended to learn more about the Anaerobic Digester as it is one of the items Durham Region is studying. Also, interested in the committee's input to Zone Clarington. Future Agendas x Someone be invited to speak about the progress being made on Broadband. x (Not yet confirmed) Ontario Farmland Trust x (Not yet confirmed) Hydro One, Harness Saving on the Farm Programs x (Not yet confirmed) Barry and Mark Bragg to speak about their operation and value-added initiatives — John Cartwright to follow up. x (Not yet confirmed) Participation House - Jenni Knox to follow-up. Eric Bowman moved to Adjourn. Next Meeting: Thursday, February 8, 2018 @ 7:30 pm, Melanie Meade, Cci BioEnergy will discuss the small anaerobic digester pilot projects they are working on. Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington January 11, 2018