Ontario to protect farmers' right to work in smelly, noisy settings
Law to stop strict bylaws from hog-tying agriculture operations
BY RICHARD MACKIE
Queen's Park BureauTORONTO - The Ontario government has a warning for those thinking of escaping the crowded urban core for the pastoral vistas of a rural homestead.
The noise and odours of some farming practices would be protected under a proposed law introduced as the legislature was adjourning for its summer break. The legislation also would allow late-night noise, vibration and dust from heavy farming machinery and lights from massive greenhouses, even where they disturb their neighbours.
"The purpose of the law is to ensure that farmers are able to do what they do best, which is to produce food without being hassled," Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve said in an interview.
Mary O'Connor, vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, welcomed the legislation, which was drawn up in consultation with her organization along with many other farm groups and the Rural Ontario Municipal Association.
"Farmers in Ontario can now get on with the business of farming without being subject to a series of nuisance complaints or restrictive bylaws that really have gone too far in restricting ... normal farming practices," Ms. O'Connor said. The proposed law would broaden and strengthen legislation that has been in place since 1988.
Ms. O'Connor said conflicts arise because of "the changing dynamics of the whole rural community. It's nothing new, people moving out to the country. They have expectations sometimes that are somewhat unrealistic. Nobody likes to have noise, odour, dust.....
"What happens [on a farm] in 1997 is very different from, many years ago and the bucolic image that many people have. It's a big industry and it's a high-tech industry, she said in a telephone interview from the cattle farm she and her husband operate near Ayr in Waterloo County, 'There is more use of heavy equipment and heavy equipment running through the night to get the job done in the window of opportunity that Mother Nature allows you," especially when planting or harvesting, Ms. O'Connor said.
Some farm operations run from early morning to late at night 365 days a year, she said., For example, a poultry operation may have heavy trucks entering and leaving late at night. Poultry is shipped at midnight, or whatever. Well, that's part of their normal practice. They gather' the birds at night."
The legislation' also specifies the presence of flies and the production of smoke as acceptable results from "normal farming practices."
Mr. Villeneuve said it is important to protect the farming: industry because the agrifood sector is the second biggest in the Ontario economy, after the automotive sector, and generates an estimated $25 billion a year.
Farmers would be allowed to apply to a revised Normal Farm Practices Protection Board for permission to continue their farming operation in the face of a municipal bylaw that would curtail it, Mr. Villeneuve said.
The board's responsibility will be whenever there is a dispute, to establish what is the normal farm practice for that type of operation in that location, he said.
If the farmer is operating in a normal fashion, then he is allowed to continue without further interruptions or without further hassle from whomever doesn't like the smells, the light, the dust, or whatever.
"But it's certainly not a licence to pollute or anything. It's simply [if you] operate under normal farming conditions, you're allowed to do so," Mr. Villeneuve said.
The legislation has become . necessary, he said, because of "the expansion of urban areas and the intensification or fanning operations, We're going to be. running into some pretty large commercial farms here, and some of them want to expand.
"Municipalities, in some instances, are saying, 'No, you can't expand.' Well, the job of the Normal Farm Practices Board will be to say: 'All right, this is what you're doing now, this is what you're anticipating. This is normal. Or, this is not normal.' "
At present, farmers who have invested heavily in their land and in equipment face the threat of being told that a municipal council has ruled against their operation, be said.
'A million-dollar investment in a farm today is a pretty small amount. Some of these farms have got quite a few million dollars invested."
Mr. Villeneuve acknowledged that the legislation is not going to end conflicts over farm practices, especially where there are strong objections from neighbours.