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24-02 - Access to Crown Land
The BFO Board recently reviewed its federal and provincial lobby priorities, and agricultural access to Crown land and promoting policies that improve the Crown land disposition and access process remains a key priority for BFO.
In May, we held a lobby day at Queen’s Park. Helping to grow Ontario’s agri-food land base through investments in community pastures and policy flexibility that allows Crown land to be accessed by farmers for food production was an issue we raised with Members of Provincial Parliament (MPP) that we met with.
In early August, I met with Deputy Minister John Kelly from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness to discuss BFO’s key priorities for Ontario’s beef sector. Agricultural expansion in northern Ontario and improving the Crown land disposition process for agriculture was discussed during our meeting. We strongly believe further developing farms in northern Ontario is one of the most significant economically sustainable plans for the region and will contribute substantial economic base activity for decades. Improving access to Crown land for agriculture use is a key component of this objective.
We intend on meeting with officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) in the coming weeks to discuss the process for accessing Crown land for agricultural purposes, specifically those targeted for grazing, and if there are ways of making it less onerous. The Northern Livestock Pilot and Beef North initiative are two projects we would like the current government to revisit as viable options for consideration.
BFO will continue to engage the provincial government to improve the process for accessing Crown land for agriculture and ensuring it is defined and transparent. We will keep members apprised of any relevant developments.