Dear Editor:
RE: Resident believes Puslinch needs to beef up economic development efforts, April 18.
Having been present for Joesph Hutter’s presentation to Puslinch Township council, I had hoped I had heard wrong when he spoke about agriculture negatively and the need for private landowners to develop lands in Puslinch to encourage economic development. The article showed me I had heard it correctly.
I know that there are others in the county who feel the same, that farm fields are just empty lands that should be developed and that the world would be better off economically. I take offense to that.
Agriculture is the number one industry in Ontario, a top five industry in Wellington County and is not shrinking in its importance of economic input. From 2012 to 2017, GDP for agri-food value chain in the county increased $347 million to reach $2.3 billion. Agriculture affects over 822,000 jobs in Ontario and more than 48,000 in Wellington County. This percentage is less in Puslinch as a large amount of farmland has been annexed, turned into gravel pits or used for mansions.
The comment was made that agricultural lands don’t provide much for taxes. That’s correct, agricultural lands (excluding the home and one acre around it) pay a lower tax rate. Farms don’t use many of the municipal services that residential or commercial zones use and actually end up paying more than they use. When’s the last time you saw a sheep looking for a book at the library or a load of corn using a soccer pitch? Commercial and industrial taxes do pay their share and more, which ends up supporting the residential areas.
But is developing an industrial park worth bulldozing under a proven economic driver? Farm land is worth preserving. Its importance to economics is the real fact that everyone has to eat, drink, fuel up their vehicle and wear clothing. Another economic importance is the ecosystem it provides for many flora and fauna, areas for water table recharging, soil for filtering rain water, having perennial plants that sink carbon from the atmosphere and those same plants producing oxygen. Some people would argue that there is a monetary value to those latter things.
I don’t think anyone should look at agricultural land as empty space or space that needs developing. There are more organisms per square metre that depend on agricultural land in Ontario, than anywhere else except for a rainforest.
We do need space for factories to manufacture goods, we do need commercial strips to sell those goods with further services offered and we do need homes for people to reside in. It’s a delicate balance for municipal planners.
I will end this by saying don’t overlook agriculture and its lands when looking at the economics of this county and its municipalities, they are very important.
Barclay Nap,
Puslinch