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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-08 Minutes AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE of CLARINGTON MEETING THURSDAY, October 8 th, 2015 MEMBERS PRESENT: Elgin Greenham Brenda Metcalf Mary Ann Found Jenni Knox Don Rickard Henry Zekveld Tom Barrie Eric Bowman Ted Watson REGRETS: John Cartwright, Les Caswell, Councillor Partner, GUESTS: Betty Khattab, Management Development Centre, University of Ontario, Institute of Technology and Marg Zwart, Orono Times STAFF: Faye Langmaid Brenda welcomed all to the meeting, with introductions. Adoption of Agenda 015-21 Moved by Eric Bowman, seconded by Don Rickard That the Agenda for October 8, 2015 be adopted th CARRIED Approval of Minutes 015-22 Moved by Eric Bowman, seconded by Henry Zekveld August 20, 2015 meeting be approved th CARRIED Presentation/Discussion: Betty Khattab provided an overview of the Management Development Centre and some of the other Certificate Programs they have. In response to the inquiries made by the committee and the meetings earlier this year with has been designed to address the needs of young entrepreneurs involved in agriculture. The program has drawn on other programs that exist in other Universities but is a local resource and program for this area. The concept is that the program will be tailored as much as possible, a pre-learning survey of the participants will be carried out. They are hoping for 10-15 people in the course. People can sign up for individual days but it is recommended that the full coursebe taken. It is a self-betterment course and will be an adult learning situation with case studies but no homework or exams. Committee members were very pleased with the development of this course and will be assisting with spreading the word about the certificate program. In addition funding from various organizations (such as Soil and Crop) may be available to attendees. Betty will post information about these other resources to the website once this information is provided to her. Business Arising from Minutes Tour of Colborne processing facility Laura is working on arranging a tour date, st December 1 is a possible date. Orono Fair - Committee display was in the Agriculture Building. th Durham Region Farm Tour held September 18, good turnout (+/-100), the focus this year was the horticultural industry, sod farms and nurseries. Parade of Lights Permits have been signed and submitted. Eric is looking for more nd floats, scheduled for December 2 Enniskillen, Haydon and Tyrone. CLOCA Strategic Plan Eric attended on behalf of Committee, he providing input about the consistency of stewardship grants across conservation authorities, that the Boards should have agricultural representatives and appointments be staggered to provide continuity. And where lands are in the hands of farmers, being cropped and going to continue to be cropped, there is no need for CLOCA to be buying properties as they are already being cared for as part of the operating landscape. Correspondence, etc. C of agriculture in Environmental Assessment should be increased. Survey received from OMAFRA on rehabilitation of aggregate sites for agriculture. Faye responded. Liaison Reports Durham Agriculture Advisory CommitteeRegional Works presented on environmental sleuths, this is the enforcement arm for illegal use of hydrants and waste dumping a very interesting presentation. At Regional headquarters the cafeteria is using four local farmers as suppliers. The halah chicken processor that was being pursued is no longer interested in coming to Durham. th Durham Region Federation of Agriculture Annual General Meeting is October 20 in th Nestleton. Celebrate Agriculture is October 29, Dan Needles is the speaker, tickets have been selling well, about 40 tickets remain to be sold. th Agricultural Advisory Committee of ClaringtonOctober 8, 2015 DRFA had hoped to apply to Trillium for a trailer but because of the new process they have not been accepted into this round of applications. They will try again, this gives them time to put together a business plan. Farm Connections is proceeding for elementary schools in the April, the high school program was postponed due to the labour dispute at the school, working to set up later this year or early 2016. The committee is working on a strategic plan and volunteer retention. Committee is looking for assistance from the Agricultural Leadership Program as they will supply a team to assist. Clarington Board of Trade ery successful, 140 attendees. The Board is working with Municipality, Oshawa and Whitby on a joint effort to get GO Transit (the train) to downtown Oshawa and Bowmanville. The Municipality is reviewing how to deliver tourism services, CBOT is also reviewing what role they could play such as holding an annual Tourism Summit (similar to the Agriculture Summit). It was noted that agriculture is part of the local tourism draw with pick-your-own and on-farm markets. Other Business Port Granby Nature Reserve Proposal end use that was approved by Council and community in 2010. Since then a group has been meeting working on moving this initiative ahead on the properties that are not part of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission license but are adjacent to the site. Some of the land is currently farmed by Robert White. The concept is to create in conjunction with the end use of the mound a natural reserve that would highlight the bluffs along Lake Ontario and create habitat for migrating birds, butterflies, etc. Some of the properties are already forested and have ravines. The proposal developed by the working group has been endorsed by Clarington and Port Hope Council, Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority Board and a number of other interested stakeholder groups and agencies. It has been presented to the Agreement Monitoring Group and progress is being made on next steps of sorting out how the land could be turned over to the local municipalities. - at each meeting that committee members will select an item to circulate to their colleagues (agriculture community contacts) to help spread the word. For this meeting it will be about the new agricultural leadership certificate program. Future Agendas Sara Munoz of SPCA is willing to attend the December meeting. Faye will seek out a speaker on invasive species for the January meeting. Tom Barrie moved to Adjourn Next Meeting, November 12th, 7:30 p.m. Room 1C at Municipal Administrative Office Evan Elford, New Crop Development Specialist at OMAFRA (hops) th Agricultural Advisory Committee of ClaringtonOctober 8, 2015