Waterloo MPP asks Ontario's auditor general to investigate Region of Waterloo's plans to buy farmland
CBC
Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife has written to Ontario's auditor general asking her to conduct a value-for-money audit of the Region of Waterloo's plans to purchase farmland in Wilmot Township for future industrial use.
In her letter to the auditor general, Fife says the Ontario government "has been funding and directing" the region's plans.
"The provincial government has mandated that this plan proceed largely in secret, requiring local officials to sign non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from explaining to the public the basis of decisions concerning this land assembly, including why the government would seek to place a new industrial campus in the middle of prime farmland," Fife wrote in her letter, which has Monday's date and which Fife shared on social media on Monday.
The letter is signed by Fife and NDP agriculture, food and agribusiness critic John Vanthof. In it, they ask for Auditor General Shelley Spencer to investigate "whether the provincial government's decisions have been consistent with provincial plans, policies and laws, including the statutory responsibility to protect the province's agricultural resources."
Fife and Vanthof write that the audit would provide "crucial oversight and transparency that has been missing."
In March, 12 landowners of six farmland properties and six residential properties were told the Region of Waterloo wanted to purchase their land.
The region has said the land is not being earmarked for any particular project, but would be for future industrial use.
The plan has been praised by some local business leaders but criticized by some of the landowners, their supporters and politicians, including Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles.
WATCH | Wilmot tractors travel to Kitchener for farmland protest:
Two Wilmot Township councillors have also called on the region to be more transparent about their plans.
Back in July, the region said it had purchased nearly a third of the sought land and on-site technical analysis would soon begin. That same month, the region was criticized after it plowed under 160 acres (nearly 65 hectares) of immature feed corn in order to do testing on the site.
The region has since said it looked at ways to save the crop, but there were no options to do so and the deadlines the region needed to meet as part of "the due diligence process" needed to be completed to an undisclosed deadline.
In August, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP and Minister of Red Tape Reduction Mike Harris and Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli confirmed the province is providing funding for the land acquisition, but said there has been a "lack of transparency in [the region's] land assembly process."
Region of Waterloo Chair Karen Redman said those comments "surprised" and "confused" her because "from the very beginning of this project, we worked in lockstep with the province."
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