More properties sold to the region as fight for farmland grows

It’s been almost a year of fighting for farmland in Wilmot Township as landowners are asked to sell their land or risk expropriation.

They still don’t know why the region is trying to assemble 770 acres of their land in the first place. In that time four properties have been acquired. The Waterloo Region Record reported that the region has spent over $18 million to obtain them.

“It shows to me that they are moving ahead, they have acquired four properties, one farm and three residential properties. They are not going away,” Alfred Lowrick, a voice in the Fight for Farmland group that represents the landowners not willing to sell, said.

“We keep holding their feet to the fire to bring forward some information but as you can imagine they are all passing the buck from province to region to township to region to province again – it’s a bit maddening for a group of volunteers to try and understand.”

The fight started in March 2024, Lowrick said it’s been troubling for the community because no matter what issues they bring forward they don’t feel like it matters to Wilmot or regional councillors, who often reiterate how they have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and pass the responsibility onto the provincial government.

In August, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris Jr. confirmed that the province is helping fund the Wilmot land assembly.

“Really no one has said this is what’s happening to the land,” Lowrick said. “It’s over ten-months now so the landowners are simply not interested in selling at this point.”

All conversations landowners are having with the region are going through a lawyer. Lowrick mentioned there were other offers given to landowners but they had conditions that were “unsettling” and “convoluted” so they are working with solicitors to get clarification.

“There’s a bigger play here, were just unsure what it is and the secrecy around the whole transaction has got us befuddled.”

In a previous document obtained by CityNews Kitchener the region said it planned to build a “mega-industrial site” on the 770 acres of land. It was the same document that first mentioned that landowners or farmers in Wilmot Township could be expropriated.

Joining the fight, a new grassroots organization has been created called Wilmot Civic Action Network (CAN) that just released the first part of a powerful documentary series all about the Wilmot land assembly and the secrecy behind it.