Public Meeting Announcement 

July 28, 2016 at 7:00 PM
Horning's Mills Community Centre, 14 Mill St., Horning's Mills

We are at a critical juncture in land planning. Policy change and advocacy does not have many thrilling moments, and there are precious few opportunities to impact policy. When one comes along we need to seize it.

The Co-ordinated Land Use Planning Review draft is now available for public comment. It is the result of thousands of submissions and many public meetings. This is a rare watershed moment and our time to speak with a united voice. This policy will have implications on the Mega Quarry lands, prime farmland and watersheds across this province. In other words it will affect all of us in Ontario.

Since the Highlands Company withdrew its application, there have been few asks or calls to action, yet NDACT has remained vigilant towards permanent protection of prime food producing land. Through our campaign of Food&WaterFirst we have kept you informed on the issues and the movement of the Provincial Policy statement, the Aggregate Resources Act (public input complete, awaiting a draft) and now the Co-ordinated Review. Once these pieces of policy become legislation they will likely be closed for years.

The Co-ordinated Review draft needs explanation for most of us. What exactly does it mean and what are the implications?

To help us understand what it means and what our comments should be, NDACT is hosting a Public Meeting on July 28 with Victor Doyle and Janet Horner.

Victor is the Manager of the Coordinated Review process and will give us an overview of the proposed changes.

Janet Horner is a Mulmur councilor, the Dufferin representative on the NEC, and the Executive Director of the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance. Janet will articulate further what the draft means for Dufferin.

For our local supporters and residents, Tom Eisenhauer of Bonnefield Financial will also be with us to give an update of how land ownership is doing under their investment model, and will highlight this as a viable option to keep farmland for farming.

All of this will help to inform NDACT on our submission to the review and what we will encourage partners and supporters of NDACT to submit. We hope that you as our neighbours, friends and partner organizations will join us to be informed together.

Sincerely,

Shirley Boxem
NDACT Chair