Bill 21 is a private members bill introduced by Guelph MPP and Green Party Leader Mike Shreiner and Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady. It aims to protect farmland across the province from accelerated loss by establishing a Foodbelt Protection Plan. 

If the bill passes, a committee of farmers, soil scientists, planners, and agricultural experts will establish a protected base of farmland running throughout the province and develop policy to safeguard it from both speculation and non-agricultural uses. 

The County “strongly urges the provincial government to support this and every measure to protect our farmland, to aggressively prevent further losses and to ensure the future of agriculture in Ontario for future generations.”

A similar resolution came before Council in November, and noted the County loses 3,000 acres of farmland a year. After a lengthy discussion over the accuracy of the statistic, Council referred the numbers back to the Agricultural Advisory Committee for clarity. 

The figure comes from Statistics Canada data and reflects reported land use.

This time, the resolution only cited Ontario data, noting that the province loses 319 acres of farmland a day. 

The resolution will be sent to Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Agriculture Trevor Jones, Minister of the Environment Todd McCarthy, MPP Schreiner, MPP Brady, Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and every municipality in the province.