Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-03-09 Minutes CLARINGTON AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING THURSDAY, MARCH 12,2009 MEMBERS PRESENT: Tom Barrie Gary Jeffery Donald Rickard Ted Watson Jennifer Knox Ross McMaster Eric Bowman Brenda Metcalf Mark Bragg Mary Ann Found Councillor Gord Robinson 1-4 REGRETS: Henk Mulders Orwin Bandstra STAFF: Faye Langmaid Chair called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. Adoption of AQenda 09-07 09-08 da tcalf, seconded by Tom Barrie nutes of the February 12, 2009 meeting be approved. " Carried Business % loads resolution. Council referred to Directors of Engineering and Operations. Fred Horvath would like a couple of members to sit down and meet with Tom Barrie, Ted Watson, Gary Jeffery, and Councillor Robinson volunteered to meet with Fred. Balewrap disposal. Issues with Ritson Road site have been reported to Durham Region and are to have been addressed. Eric is taking another load in and will report at next meeting. Agricultural Hall of Fame. Gary made contact with a Shirley Saar from the Pembroke area. She was a recipient of the Agricultural Wall of Fame several years ago. She provided several other names for follow-up. Renfrew holds this event every third year at present. The OFA and several Producer Groups are in charge of it. Also received a name for a man in Pontiac County, Quebec across the river from Renfrew County. They hold their event at the Shawville Fair. Gary will contact other groups and obtain their criteria, Mary Ann will research what the Federation has done in the past and report back, DRFA previously recognized farm families. It would be more of a Regional base than just Clarington and does not have to happen on an annual basis. Hemp growers (biomass). An article from Northumberland Today was circulated about a meeting with hemp growers for the proposed processing plant in Northumberland. Depending on the location, Bowmanville will most likely be on the outskirts of the catchment area, after 70 kilometers the cost of trucking would not be economical. Tom Barrie may attend the information session, if so will provide an update at next meeting. CORRESPONDENCE REPORTS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES 2 load restrictions in A letter from John O'Toole to Minister Bradley (MTO) support of the resolution put forward by the committee. 407 Committee The 407 Committee Faye had a cou of the over a lane which s the 407 and committee re the the r and under passes. The width into consideration is 6 metres (20') per IS wider than in the previous sections of ents from the agricultural community. The underpasses. The committ if it is only b busy the del that the width nto oad over the 407 (at the East Link) is going to be an issue e cross-section. The members noted that because this road is so hould farm equipment use it would not be appropriate, it is suggested anded since the road is scheduled for widening in the future. The agricultural lands in Hampton adjacent to Holt Road and south of the 407 will have to be accessed off of Holt Road coming down from the Sixth Concession; that is how they are accessed now, there is no way to get farm equipment in from the south. The agricultural lands on Washington Road south of the 407 will have to be accessed off of Washington will require clearing out of the road right of way from the horse farm north; currently they are accessed from the north but will be cut off. DAAC Perry Sisson attended the last meeting and provided a presentation on flood management. Durham Federation of AQ Farm Connections April 7, 8, 9, they have 48 classes coming and another 24 on the waiting list. Brenda will send poster to Faye for distribution. Everyone is welcome at the public session. Recent survey by OFA shows that there is no difference between rural and urban residents and their knowledge about agricultural practices; at one time rural residents understood agricultural practices to a greater extent than urban residents but that is no longer true. OTHER BUSINESS Durham Grows: The proposed amendment to the Durham Region Official Plan to bring it into conformity with the Places to Grow legislation includes some recommendations that go above and beyond the Places to Grow legislation. That includes the identification of potential future growth areas on the whitebelt between Bowmanville and Newcastle. AACC March 12, 2009 In addition, the Region has included in its Proposed Amendment new policies to recognize food security. The Food Security Policy supports the retention of prime agricultural land. Committee members discussed the future elimination of the agricultural lands between Bowmanville and Newcastle and reiterated their position that it should be protected. Moved by Tom Barrie, Seconded by Ross McMaster 09-09 The Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington is supportive of the proposed policies and direction of the Food Security Policy, Repo No. 2009-P-17 for Durham Region; EFW: The onment Baseline Study has been released and is available on the website for review 0 icking up a CD at the Regional Headquarters. Since many of the members of the AACC provided agricultural products for the baseline study Faye reviewed the findings of the study by showing a number of the charts from the study. Essentially the baseline study provides confirmation of how high quality the agricultural products from this area are. The trace metals that should be found are being found in the right concentrations and the elements that should not be appearing are not. In particular the proposed amendment to Sec as follows: "Prime Agricultural Areas shall be of the Region's economy and a secure sou add a new Subsection as a significant element e thought behind the October 9th, 2008 rowing Durham tion 13.2.4 Specific Policy Area 0 e Proposed Amendment do not adhere to rm p,-, n of prime agricultural areas and Clarington st that they be deleted from the proposal. Carried The Committee inquired as to what follow-up and monitoring would be occurring. At this point the recommendation of the consultants to Joint Waste Management Group and ultimately Regional Council is that no ongoing monitoring of the ambient air quality, environmental baseline and human bio-monitoring is necessary. The AACC would like to see ongoing monitoring of the environmental baseline as this directly impacts many of the members livelihoods (their crops, their produce). The EFW may have no anticipated effects but there needs to be ongoing monitoring to show that is the case, especially since many members of the public have already said that they would no longer buy local. Proving that there are no adverse effects is the only way to allay peoples' fears. It has been proven over the long term that there are no detrimental effects of Darlington, but samples are still taken and tested regularly. A resolution will be prepared and circulated for next meeting. Pesticides Act and Regulations: An article from the Windsor Star is attached to the minutes. An update on the new legislation will be provided at a future meeting (May). Assessments: The Landowners Association will be holding a meeting on Assessments on Friday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m. at the Rickard Complex. Contact Ross for more information. AACC March 12,2009 FUTURE AGENDA April Meeting- Invite John O'Toole to provide an update, Faye to update on OPG New Build May Meeting- Gary will provide an update on the Pesticide Act and Regulations Moved to adjourn Eric Bowman AACC March 12, 2009 Eggheads: Clean out your desks By Dan Gardner Windsor Star Tuesday, March 10, 2009 These are tough times. We all need to economize, especially governments. So I have a suggestion for finance ministers. Fire all the scientists. All of them. Just go through the ranks of the civil service, find everyone with a PhO, and tell them to clean out their desks. Unless their PhO is in philosophy or something. Those people can keep their jobs in the mailroom. Who needs them, right? Not John Gerretsen. Recently, Ontario's environment minister announced his government's ban on the sale and use of pesticides will come into force on April 22. That's Earth Day. Apparently the minister is going to save Gaia. What makes this announcement particularly promising is that Gerretsen confirmed that one of the pesticides that will be banned is 2,4-0. One of the world's most common herbicides, 2,4-0 has been used since the Second War and there's a small mountain of research on it. And what does that small mountain say about 2,4-0? Well, like all science, the evidence is often contradictory. And it's extremely complex. Figuring out what it all means is a very tough job that can only be done by highly trained people in broad consultation with other highly trained people. If ever there were a good reason for governments to employ scientists, assessing the safety of 2,4-0 would be it. And as it turns out, the federal government does employ scientists to assess the safety of pesticides. They work for Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). It further turns out that those scientists conducted a comprehensive review of the research on 2,4-0. Last spring, after the Ontario government announced its intention to ban pesticides, but before it settled which pesticides would be banned, PMRA released the conclusion of its very, very, expensive review: "There is reasonable certainty that no harm to human health, future generations, or the environment will result from use or exposure to this product." That seems pretty clear. But Gerretsen and his government weren't interested. They banned 2,4-0 anyway. This clearly demonstrates that governments don't need scientists. They're a waste of money, what with their big salaries and their labs and computers. Fire the lot of them. Think of the money we would have saved if, instead of funding PMRA to review the science on 2,4-0, the federal government had told all those Poindexters to get a real job. Drive a cab or something. Whatever. Just take your PhO and your Bunsen burners and hit the bricks. Of course this doesn't mean governments should abandon science. Oh no. Everybody loves science. Even the McGuinty government. AACC March 12, 2009 In fact, when he introduced the pesticide ban, Gerretsen cited reviews of the scientific literature produced by environmentalists and groups like the Ontario College of Family Physicians. Admittedly, the soon-to-be-unemployed scientists at the PMRA looked at the same material and found it to be deeply flawed. In fact, when I spoke to Leonard Ritter, a professor at the University of Guelph and a leading expert on pesticides, he suggested some of the people doing that work weren't qualified. "I don't offer patients advice on when they should have their gall bladder taken out. And I sometimes think it would be better if physicians, largely family physicians, who really have no training in this area at all, it would be better to leave the interpretation of the data to people who are competent to do it." Still, let's not get all worked up about "competence" and "agendas." What matters is that by firing all the government scientists and letting third parties tell politicians what the science says, taxpayers will save a bundle. Conservatives may object. But that's only because the interested third- parties informing government policy happen to be folks conservatives don't like. But different governments can turn to different third-parties. So sometimes it will be corporations deciding what the science says. Everybody except government scientists, of course. But who needs them? Right? AACC March 12, 2009