A key BFO lobby priority we regularly communicate with the provincial government is to commit to preserving farmland through sound provincial land use policy that sees agricultural lands, including marginal lands used for livestock grazing and carbon sequestration, protected as the highest and best use of our province’s arable land. Increasing protections for Ontario’s agricultural land base is also identified within BFO’s new Strategic Plan.
BFO has long highlighted the ongoing trend of agricultural land loss in Ontario with the government, especially the loss of land used for pasture and hay production. Approximately seven per cent of Canada’s land base is used for agricultural purposes and it is widely known that with Canada’s growing population and expanding urbanized communities, agricultural lands continue to be converted to other uses. In fact, from 1941 to 2016 agricultural land in Ontario decreased by approximately 50 per cent, according to Statistics Canada Census of Agriculture. The latest Census of Agriculture data showed from 2016 to 2021 another 582,392 acres of farmland were lost in Ontario.
Ontario adopted its first land use guidelines for protecting agricultural lands in 1975. In 2005, the Ontario government established a framework of land use policies many of us are familiar with today, such as the Provincial Policy Statement, the Greenbelt Plan, and the A Place to Grow Growth Plan. In regards to protecting agricultural lands, these policies outline various protections for prime agricultural areas or limitations for using prime agricultural lands for non-agricultural purposes. These policies establish what municipalities can and cannot do and/or provide guidance for municipalities to interpret and apply the policies with some flexibility. Despite the existence of Ontario’s land use legislation, policies and on-going commitments from government to protect Ontario’s agricultural land, the continued erosion of Ontario’s agricultural land base raises questions about the quality and effectiveness of our land use policies.
Over the past year, there has been growing attention and concern around Ontario’s land use policies and protections, or lack thereof, for agricultural lands. The growing attention and concern were largely a result of two pieces of legislation the government put forward to increase housing development in Ontario and meet the government’s goal of building 1.5 million houses by 2031.