County Regional Environmental
Evaluation KO-Alition
LETTERS - 2003

To:     The Toronto Star

Out here in Prince Edward County, like many other areas in the Province, we are struggling with indifference over the issue of Intensive Livestock Factories (ILO's). These mega-operations are slowly but surely killing the best in rural and quasi-rural Ontario.

Several articles have reported of Municipal Councils struggling with well financed lobbying on one hand and the Conservative regime on the other; indeed there have been lawsuits launched against the former to intimidate Councils in granting operating licences. Witness Ottawa's recent struggles only to capitulate to virtual blackmail.

Attached are three letters that cover the bare essentials of this plight. Our local MPP, Ernie Parsons, himself a farmer, is biased in favour of ILO's and shying away from the issue.

Because I am a constant reader of yours, the thought occured to me that perhaps you might find this topic a fit for your column and hopefully broaden the discourse in these pre-election days.

Thank you.

Michel Synnett
RR4 Picton

Attachments

• A letter from MPP Ernie Parsons to CREEK chair Linda Roberts.
• Reply to Ernie Parsons:
  Upcoming election the place to take a firm stand on ILO's
• Letter to Dalton McGuinty and Howard Hampton:
  Livestock factories: homes and environment under attack

CREEK requests the Council consider placing a moratorium on the establishment of new, or expansion of existing, Intensive Livestock Operations

Mr. James Taylor
Mayor
The Corporation of the County of Prince Edward
Picton, Ontario

Dear Mr.Taylor:

CREEK has been fortunate to be included in the agenda for the Council meeting on March 10, 2003. This package serves to provide some information relevant to the presentation we will be making.

For some time, both the Corporation of the County of Prince Edward, and CREEK, have been reviewing, and responding to, the legislation and proposed regulations for Bill 81, The Nutrient Management Act. The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Helen Johns, recently announced that the passage of the regulations has been postponed until at least July of this year. CREEK believes that, because of the controversy surrounding the regulations, they will not be in place, if they are in place at all, until a much later date. Family farmers believe that these regulations will be so onerous and expensive that they will be put out of business and rural communities will become industrial zones. Environmentalists believe that they do nothing to protect the environment.

We understand that the County has a Nutrient Management Bylaw. However, we are concerned that this Bylaw was put in place without an Environmental Impact Study. We have also learned that Quinte Conservation will be performing a new hydrogeological study of the County this year, mapping the watershed, consistent with Justice O'Connor's recommendations in the Walkerton Report, Part Two.

On behalf of many residents of Prince Edward County, CREEK requests the Council consider placing a moratorium on the establishment of new, or expansion of existing, Intensive Livestock Operations, until such time as the provincial regulations are in place or the hydrogeological study has been completed. This would take the form of an Interim Control Bylaw for the purpose of conducting an "Impact Study."

At the very least we request that the Prince Edward County Council support the resolutions passed by Brockton and Kincardine County Councils, and convey this support to the provincial government.

Sincerely,

Linda Roberts
Chairperson, CREEK

Attachments:

1. Pollution from Intensive Livestock Operations Threatens Public Health
2. Presentation at Queen's Park by Grant Robertson, a farmer from Paisley, Ontario
3. Brockton Resolution
4. Kincardine Resolution

To Ernie Parsons

I have read, with much concern, your re-active letter to Ms Roberts. If you closely consider our plight, indeed all of rural Ontrario's, you will realize that we are under siege by pollution-producers on a scale unimaginable only a few years ago.
Full Letter

CREEK again appeals to Council

Subject:

Request for Prince Edward County Council to follow the examples of Brockton and Kincardine County Councils.

To Mayor Taylor and Prince Edward County Council:

CREEK has, for the past two years,  had ample opportunity to collect and examine a wealth of information and research on the issue of Intensive Livestock Operations.  We can only conclude that large-scale, hog operations, most operating under corporate contracts, compelled to adopt a factory model of production, involving concentrated, confinement housing, cesspool-like liquid manure storage of hog feces and urine, and the spreading or spraying of liquid manure on open fields, represents a terrible future for the Province of Ontario.
Full Letter

I worry that everything we have worked for on our farm, and what others have done on theirs, will all be trampled under by this rush to increase large corporate profits.

At the end of today's talk show you encouraged people to write in with some of the issues they see facing farming. Since I was repeatedly cut-off and interrupted by Ron Bonnett I thought I would send you my thoughts. Our family and other farm neighbours have been working on some of these issues for awhile now and are often contacted by other walk-a-day, average farmers to talk with us about some of their concerns. They are disheartened by the way the once proud OFA has become a spokesperson for OMAF and Minister Johns in particular. Today's show was a prime example. Another example was the recent Nutrient Management Regulations "Public Consultations" in Stratford. Apparently Mr. Bonnett was seated at the front panel, with Ms. Johns and the Deputy Minister. This is entirely too cozy a relationship and undermines the very creditable work that local federations like the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture have been doing for their members. I noticed that you did not invite representatives of the Christian Farmers, the NFU, and some of the other groups that have not been so "completely" consulted.
Full letter

Reply to the radio Call In show on Bill 81 and Nutrient Management broadcast February 12, 2003 by CKNX Wingham.

What a tremendous disappointment that your radio station has such broad coverage among the rural community and yet you chose to stack the deck in favour of Helen Johns. While she did not admit an election is on the way, or even admit she would run again, what other reason would you have for agreeing to such biased coverage?
More

A letter from MPP Ernie Parsons to CREEK chair Linda Roberts.
Below is the transcript of the letter.

February 3, 2003

Dear Ms Roberts,

I want to thank your organization for keeping me informed of the issues that are of concern to CREEK.

Although we live in a world where the general thinking appears to be that 'bigger is better', I am convinced that this is not the case.

I am a farmer and I support family farms. It is clear to me that the 'factory farms' that exist or are in the process of being established, are creating a tremendous problems for their host communities. We must recognize that the amount of manure being produced is simply beyond what can be disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

I believe that in order to appropriately regulate issues of nutrient management, it is first necessary to differentiate between 'family' farms and 'factory' farms. I believe that any Nutrient Management legislation enacted must reflect the different problems created and experienced by these two entirely different types of business operations. The provincial government has a role to play in this process because the current onus on municipalities to restrain these operations is neither feasible or sustainable.

I will continue to share my views and recommendations with my colleagues in the House. I hope that you will advise me of any information that you may feel might be relevant and influential.

Thank you for your letter,

Best regards,

Ernie Parsons, MPP
Prince Edward - Hastings

CARES presentation to Proposed Stage 2 Draft Nutrient Management Regulations

Dear Minister Johns:

Please acknowledge the following as official comments on behalf of CARES (Citizens Actively Representing Environmental Security), Saugeen Shores, Bruce County, Ontario.

The primary goal of CARES is to create awareness in our community to the issues surrounding intensive livestock operations, that jeopardize the environmental as well as the social and economic fabric of our area. Our mission statement declares that: "We defend the right of our natural resources to exist, so that we may preserve: the beauty of the Saugeen River System where we canoe and kayak, our clean beaches that we swim and picnic at, the clean waters that we fish, the clean wells from which we drink, and the clean air in which we enjoy our sunsets."
Full Presentation

A letter to the Ontario Permier, fom a concerned citizen.

Dear Premier Eves,

As you are aware, hog factory related problems persist, are growing throughout Ontario, and your government has not acted to protect, watersheds, people or rural communities.
Full Letter

This is a call for help.

TweedCAN (Tweed Community Action Now) is a new group formed to prevent a 1300 sow Factory Hog Weaner operation from locating east of the village. Mark Slack, the proponent, has previously attempted to establish his business in two locations in Stone Mills, north of Napanee. At that time, a local lawyer and objectors from the Municipality of Stone Mills, each twice warned the Tweed Council that Mr. Slack would try here, and that they should put safeguards in place. Tweed Council chose to ignore this.
More

They don't want to release the Nutrient Management Plan to concerned citizens.  Kincardine may not get requested "public disclosure" clause through the system.

OMAF's response is "nutrient management plans are not public documents."
Full Text

I don't dispute Lloyd's claim that pig farming is an essential part of the rural Ontario economy. However, he is being less than dishonest if he believes that the hog industry has a wonderful environmental track record. Our experience along Ontario's beautiful west coast contradicts Mr. Lloyd's assertion that the hog industry is environmentally responsible.
Full Text

A Letter to Ontario Pork from John Welwood

Subject: Mr. Bradshaw's assertion in London Free Press

Dear Ontario Pork,

I read with interest London Free Press reporter John Minor's article, "Booming hog industry breaks records " of December 10, 2002.

According to the article, Ontario Pork's Environmental Issues man, Mr. Sam Bradshaw, was quoted to say, "groups fighting hog barns don't seem to be as active as they were a couple of years ago."

Let me assure you that Mr. Bradshaw's assertion is dead wrong. As more of these terrible hog factories proliferate and continue to pollute our air and water, more opposition to your industry will grow. Do not, for a minute, underestimate the determination and power of the growing number of Ontario citizen groups fighting the unchecked growth of your industry.
Full Text