Ford government pauses proposal to build housing on dwindling farmland

Premier Doug Ford's government has hit the brakes on a proposal that would allow more housing to be built on Ontario's dwindling farmland.

Steve Clark, Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, said Wednesday that the government is not moving forward with the proposal that would have allowed the owners of agricultural land to carve out up to three housing lots on each farm parcel, a policy known as severance.

CBC News reported on Tuesday that under pressure from farmers, Ford's government was considering backing off from the proposal.

"We made a very clear decision as a government to not move forward with the severance policies," Clark told reporters at Queen's Park.

"We've extended the consultation period on the provincial policy statement just to make sure there's adequate time for ideas that don't involve severances."

Clark said the premier made the commitment not to forge ahead with the proposal at one of the meetings he had with farm organizations recently.

"I stand with the premier," he said.

Clark added that there's still an opportunity for the farm groups to provide suggestions moving forward, adding that the province is "in the middle of the housing crisis."

Last week, leaders of a range of farming and agricultural groups met with senior government officials to raise their concerns about proposed changes to provincial land-use policy that Ford and his ministers have said will spur new home construction. 

The contentious proposals formed part of the government's overhaul of Ontario's land-use guidelines, floated by Clark last month. At the time, Clark called his plan "housing-focused" and said it would create more homes in both urban and rural communities.

On Monday, Clark told the Ontario Federation of Agriculture in a letter obtained by CBC News that he "clearly heard the concerns" and promised "to look at alternatives" to the changes he'd proposed. 

Proposal was 'terrible,' NDP leader says

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles welcomed the government's decision to put the proposal on hold, saying the plan to build housing on farmland was not a good one.

"I think it really was historic for all of the agricultural organizations to come together united against this government's latest terrible plan to divide up farmland," Stiles said.

"I think that the government, at least it seemed to acknowledge that they had not consulted, they hadn't asked anybody. I don't know where this idea came from, but it's yet another really terrible idea."

The NDP leader said she hopes the move is an indication that the government will take a different approach going forward.

"You know, maybe start out by actually asking first of all … actually seeking real and genuine input from people," she said.

Farmers said the proposals had the potential to lead to hundreds of thousands of homes on prime farmland.

Ford and Clark indicated their intent was to make it easier for farmers to build homes for their adult children on their land.

But people in the agriculture sector said the trouble with the policy as proposed was that there was no way to ensure such homes stay in the farming family. They also said it would have the ripple effects of pushing up the market value of farmland, enticing more farmers to sell off housing lots to profit and shrinking the amount of land available for agriculture.