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Home My WebLink About2012-05-10 Minutes CLARINGTON AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING THURSDAY, MAY 10TH, 2012 MEMBERS PRESENT: Brenda Metcalf Don Rickard Tom Barrie Mary Ann Found John Cartwright Les Caswell Gary Jeffery Eric Bowman Ted Watson Jenni Knox Mark Bragg STAFF: Faye Langmaid, Kevin Jarus GUESTS: Mark Peacock,GRCA REGRETS: Marlene Werry, Councillor Wendy Partner Gary welcomed all to the meeting, everyone introduced themselves. Adoption of Agenda 012-10 Moved by Eric Bowman, seconded by Brenda Metcalf "That the Agenda for May 10th,_2012 be adopted" CARRIED Approval of Minutes 012-08 Moved by Ted Watson, seconded by John Cartwright "That the minutes of the April 12tH, 2012 meeting be approved, with the attendance corrected to Tim Sargent from Mary Ann Found." CARRIED Guest: Mark Peacock, GRCA was in attendance on the Conservation Authority regulations and their relationship to the Site Alteration Bylaw. Mark reviewed the history of what the Conservation Act allows the CA's to do. They cannot outright prohibit filling. Everything relates back to the natural feature being protected, the act does not consider the impacts on neighbours, noise, mud, dust, etc. Much has occurred in the past few years which is what has brought this issue to light. There are large amounts of money to be made from accepting fill. Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington May 10`h, 2012 Mark addressed questions from committee members with regard to the importing of fill and topsoil, fees, the number of applications he has awaiting approval. Salient points from the Q&A and discussion where: -this is happening now because of the construction for the Pan Am Games and other large construction projects. The other places where fill used to be dumped in the inner city (e.g. Leslie St. Spit) are no longer accepting larger amounts of fill and we are more aware of fill being moved around due to public outcry. The construction of large buildings often has to be founded on bedrock, therefore the upper layers of soil have to be removed. -the large concern is over fill that is contaminated, everything is related back to the originating site, clean fill coming out of a site is desirable, it is the fill that has offending material that is really an issue. -approximately 25% of the land in Clarington is regulated by the CA's it has become the target of the large fill operators, the fill is also going north and west of Toronto (not just east). -with the passing of Clarington's Site Alteration By-law others have updated their by-laws, in the past month the same type of restrictions have occurred in Port Hope, Cobourg and Alwick- Haldimand. -depending on the use of the site in the future some elevated levels of chemicals is acceptable depending what the site will be used for. -there are some soil cleaning operation where soil contaminated with hydro-carbons can be cleaned by bugs (microbes) that eat the offending chemicals -there is co-ordination happening'between Municipalities and the CA's and the Province is happening but the Conservation Act was not designed to address this problem; MOE has been quite hands off on the issue, indicating that they are not in the fill site business. They have produced a set of draft guidelines. Mark also presented on the Clean Water Healthy Land Financial Assistance Program, which has been operating for 5 years with just under $100,000 being funded by the Municipality with matching funds of over$330,000 being spent. There are a number of categories that projects can be funded under. Projects include tree planting, erosion control, well water upgrades and decommissioning, habitat creation or enhancement, stream fencing, best management practices like GPS units and no-till drills and the ever popular "other" category. The program is promoted through word of mouth, events, signage at the sites that the works have occurred. A CA technician will visit the site and provide technical assistance to the applicant. This year the Trees for Rural Roads Program was added to the co-operative efforts of the Municipality with the CA's, over 900 trees distributed, requests have already come in for 2013. Mark also provided an explanation of how the source water protection work will affect the well head protection area around Orono. Because the Region of Durham has been doing extensive work on drinking water well in advance of the Walkerton tragedy and O'Connor Commission, Clarington is in good shape and there will be very little affect of the policies coming out of source water protection as our"threats" are very limited. The same cannot be said for other areas in so the impacts on other agricultural operations may be much more significant. Business Arising Port Granby Funds — Faye indicated that if Committee members had suggestions it would be more appropriate to take them directly to Council members. The Municipality has had the funds since 2001 when the legal agreement was signed and the interest on the funds has been used Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington May 1 0th, 2012 to hold the tax rate down. The Director of Finance will be providing a report to Council on what the funds could be used for. Correspondence and Council Referrals — Broad Band Resolution- endorsed by Council and sent to the Minister of Industry Canada, MPP and MP and circulated to other Durham municipalities. Wildlife Compensation Program — Council accepted as information based on advice from AACC. Liaison Reports DAAC — Eric updated the committee on the work the Region has been doing with Sobey's to get them to buy regionally, and the pursuit of a federally inspected abattoir in Durham. The advantage of federally inspected is that it can export anywhere, versus provincial which would not allow for distribution and contracts with the large grocery chains. The leadership program was well-attended and the six sessions were very useful for the attendees. Everything from an overview of Canadian agriculture to media savvy, networking and how to perfect your elevator speech were covered. DRFA —Meeting of various commodity groups to look at agriculture education and target audiences, students, educators, consumers and leaders in the community. The robot has arrived and is being stored currently at the Regional offices. The AG awareness trailer is showing ware and is also very full, volunteers are needed to help run the trailer. CBOT—AGM for CBOT is April 19th, speaker was from Tim Horton's, Donald has been asked to continue in his role as agriculture advisor. Donald was complimented by the new Chair, Ron Collis. Ron has challenged all of the other CBOT directors to perfect their education of others on the role of CBOT as well as Donald represents agriculture to the Board. AACC members should be aware that CBOT spends considerable time pursuing food processing enterprises. Clarington has been short listed for a number of agriculture related businesses. The pursuit continues. CBOT is moving into the Balmoral, looking forward to having more space and being in the downtown location. Other Business Food and Farm Care- Discussion on recent article in Toronto Star about the purchasing practices of large corporations like Tim Horton's that are looking to obtaining chickens and eggs from non-battery cage farms and pork from farms that do not use gestation stalls (farrowing units that protect the piglets for 3 weeks while nursing are still allowed). Discussion on the lack of understanding of what is happening behind the farm gate; chicken laying barns often do not allow anyone to see operation because of bio-hazards (disease, bacteria) and this is perceived as the farmers hiding something when in fact the chickens have better living conditions than many humans. If the regulations that have come into place in California (which only has 3 Agricultural Advisory Committee of Clarington May 1 0th, 2012 chicken producers) comes into place in Ontario it would mean total rework of barn interiors for an enriched operation which goes beyond the regulations that are in place for care of animals. Mary Ann suggested people watch a youtube video on Farm and Food Care. The education of consumers about the conditions that animals are raised in is one of the aspects that all farmers have to work on. Greater understanding of where food comes from and how it is cared for needs to occur. There is a great deal of misinformation and fear mongering occurring by animal rights groups that is unwarranted. Doors Open - June 9th, the barns of the Bowman Farm will be open, along with the Knox Farm house and former Hampton Creamery. 10am to 4pm. Enfield Substation - Meeting on May 23`d at Solina Hall at 7:00 p.m. Volunteer Recognition - Tom and Ted thanked committee for the recognition they received by the Province at the recent volunteer awards. Five of the members will be recognized at the upcoming Municipal Volunteer recognition on May 16th Future Agendas July Meeting, Susan Todd and Don Lovisa from Durham College will be in attendance. John Cartwright moved to adjourn. CARRIED Next Fleeting June 14th, 2012 7:30 p.m. Kevin Jarus (Municipality of Clarington Planning Intern) will be asking for feedback on Secondary uses in the Rural area. 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