WhatFinger


Non-Government Organizations, Stakeholders, Natural justice and common law rights of land ownership

Regulatory over-kill



Management of Ontario’s land planning system is assigned to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) under the Provincial Policy Statement which, in turn, awards Planning Act veto power to the incumbent Minister of that agency. The Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources each maintain separate land planning departments as well but their policies can be modified or silenced by MMAH Ministerial order, an open-ended license in which Ontario land use planning is ultimately left to the discretion of a single individual.

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To this administrative muddle are added interventions of sub-agencies like Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities and numerous Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). When promoting private property restrictions the latter faction, professional lobbyists often funded by the Ontario government, invariably claim “stakeholder” status. In an already crowded field of land managers yet another “stakeholder” recently surfaced, Biochar Ontario. This new arrival aspires to become a facilitator of Research Investment Advocacy, Commercial Development Advocacy, Regulatory and Public Policy Advocacy and, finally, Education and Awareness Advocacy. On this multi-layered platform evidently resides the central Biochar mission to reduce greenhouse gases, improve soil fertility and enhance food security. The latter two objectives imply expertise in productive use of rural land although no verifiable qualifications in that endeavour have yet emerged. Meanwhile, in submissions to MMAH, a group of NGOs criticize soil drainage practices in Greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine and Headwaters areas. This adds to tensions between farmers and their local municipality on the one hand and the provincial/NGO confederacy on the other since soil drainage through municipal trenches in compliance with the Ontario Drainage Act. is an essential part of the farming economy. Nevertheless, some municipal drains are now subject to both (federal) Department of Fisheries and Oceans and (provincial) Ministry of Natural Resources regulations for which Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities are the designated enforcers. Clearly, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and its Minister are not active commentators, much less policy makers, in rural land use planning and issues related thereto. Instead, other Ministries partnered with powerful lobbyists have ascended to super-power status which seemingly allows them to initiate legislation that transfers economic control of privately owned land to the provincial government by regulation without compensation. So much for natural justice and common law rights of land ownership. Bruce Pearse, Chair Land Use Council Sunderland, ON.


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Guest Column Bruce Pearse -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


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