The National Farmers Union is opposing the forced sale of six farms and six homes totaling 770 acres in Wilmot Township, south-east of New Hamburg.
There is widespread speculation that the Waterloo Region is buying the land at the behest of the provincial government for a site for Toyota to build a battery plant and possibly also an electric vehicle assembly plant.
It is no secret that Toyota has been seeking a site in either the United States or southwestern Ontario where it has assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock.
The property owners have been approached by offers of $35,000 an acre and threats to expropriate if they did not agree before a deadline of Mar. 20.
But more than one of the farmers was approached earlier by the Vive development company with an offer of $85,000 an acre. The farmers have spurned both offers because they don’t want to move.
It’s mysterious that Vive sought to buy the land which is zoned agriculture, has neither water nor sewer services and stretches to within metres of wells pumping water to Kitchener. That land has been deemed at risk of polluting the city-well aquifer.
The National Farmers Union is calling the land purchases bullying and farmland theft.
Municipal officials and politicians refuse to reveal any information, claiming they are involved in nondisclosure agreements.
“We cannot stand idly by as our political leaders make decisions behind closed doors that will permanently destroy our finite prime farmland,” said NFU president Jenn Pfenning.
The Pfenning family is a long-established and large organic farming operation with 10 kilometres of the land assembly in Wilmot Township..
“I encourage all Ontarians to fight back against this undemocratic assault on our food system by signing one or both petitions, writing letters to their local leaders, and joining us in our call to keep farmland for farmers,” she said.
Mark Reusser, president of the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture, has also spoken out against the land assembly.
Ontario Realty Corporation has enlisted an American company to try to buy the farms. Ontario Realty Company is operating for the provincial government and the Region of Waterloo government.
Others who have spoken out against the land assembly are Waterloo MPP Catheriine Fife and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner of Guelph.
The Waterloo Region Record has carried a multitude of stories about the secrecy surrounding the land assembly, including one day when the entire front page was devoted to the issue.
