Local advocates take ‘Fight for Farmland’ to Queen’s Park
Posted Mar 31, 2026 04:22:58 PM.
Last Updated Mar 31, 2026 07:39:25 PM.
The fight against the province of Ontario’s land acquisition in Wilmot township ramped up again on Tuesday.
Members of the Wilmot Civic Action Network (WilmotCAN) were joined by Ontario Green Party Leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner at a press conference at the Legislature.
They reiterated their call to end the land acquisition but also demanded an end to water taking permits on the Waterloo Moraine, which runs under Wilmot, and impacts farmers in the area and drinking water for thousands of residents in Waterloo Region.
Schreiner called the Doug Ford government’s approach “bad planning” that he said is forced onto municipalities.
“A Minister at Queen’s Park shouldn’t be able to overrule responsible local planning to benefit wealthy investors. But Doug Ford continues to bulldoze ahead with a plan to pave over farmland that local farmers desperately need to grow and build their businesses.”
Two years ago, the province announced it was working toward acquiring 770 acres of prime farm land in Wilmot Township. The intention was to create a shovel-ready site to accommodate an unspecified mega-industrial project.
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The landowners found out about the plan when they were approached with offers to buy their properties.
Kevin Thomason, with the Grand River Environmental Network, said it’s hard to grasp just how big the land grab is.
“As dismayed landowners started calling each other, they realized the sheer scope and size of what was being proposed. A massive, mega-industrial site more than 8.5 km in circumference,” he said.
“That’s larger than Disneyland in California. It’s a huge tract of the best and most protected farmland in Canada. A distant 50 km round trip from the nearest urban centers,” Thomason said.
John Jordan, a Wilmot resident, told the gathered media that if the development proceeds, Wilmot will be irreparably harmed.
“This isn’t just another development. This is a permanent transformation of our municipality and region being pushed forward without transparency, without answers and without public consent. And, it fits a very troubling pattern we’re increasingly seeing from this Doug Ford conservative government. Be it Ontario Place, the Science Centre or the Greenbelt.”
Former NDP candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga and member of WilmotCAN, Jodi Szimanski, said with the revelation that the region is facing a water capacity constraint and the fact that the Wilmot area is a major recharge area for the Waterloo Moraine, which supplies the majority of the municipality’s drinking water, a mega development in Wilmot doesn’t make sense.
“If this project moves forward, our population is expected to nearly triple. Tens of thousands of people never planned for it in an agriculturally and ecologically sensitive area on the Waterloo Moraine. We don’t even have enough water for our current citizens and rates of growth, much less an industrial mega-site.”
A statement to 570 NewsRadio attributed to a spokesperson for the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, Todd McCarthy said:
“The claim that the region’s water capacity constraints are related to the Wilmot land Assembly or to the insufficient groundwater availability is misguided. The constraints are a result of limited capacity in municipal water infrastructure in the region.
Over the last two years, our government has invested nearly $60 million in infrastructure funding across the Waterloo Region, enabling 14,000 new homes and helping maintain infrastructure serving approximately 5,000 existing homes. We encourage the Region to apply for additional infrastructure funding for the necessary upgrades and improvements to the Mannheim water system when funding streams reopen, and we will prioritize their applications.
We continue to have regular, productive meetings with the Region on their plan to resolve this issue. Infrastructure must keep pace with growth to ensure residents and developers have a reliable water system. We expect the Region to continue to provide clear updates on how additional capacity will be delivered,” he notes.
Groups like WilmotCAN and other advocates are calling on the province to cancel the Wilmot mega-industrial land assembly. Place a moratorium on provincial water taking permits and new gravel pits, and a reversal of Bill 17, the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act. They also want to see the creation of a “Food Belt” that would offer similar protection afforded to the Greenbelt, applied to the Waterloo Moraine.
But the message wasn’t just to the province. The groups want Waterloo Region to find new local water sources and funding to repair municipal infrastructure affected by provincial funding cuts. and stronger municipal planning rules that can’t be overwritten by the province.
