Guelph City Council supports Bill 21, Protect Our Food Act…

4:00:32support bill 21 protect our food act 2025 and strongly urges the provincial government

4:00:38to support this and every measure to protect our farmland to aggressively prevent further losses

4:00:44and to ensure the future of agriculture in Ontario for future generations and then that

4:00:50we distribute this motion to other municipalities thank you so morgan thank you for waiting and

4:00:57i'll turn the mic over to you with your up to five minutes uh delegation go right ahead

4:01:04council members staff fellow gualfights we all know farmers feed cities bill 21 protect our food

4:01:15act is designed to protect the land from which farmers feed us because once land is converted

4:01:22away from agriculture it is extremely difficult to get prime crop fields restored

4:01:31every body needs to eat and farmers feed cities even though you can't say it with me

4:01:40you can think it because i believe you all agree yes farmers feed cities

4:01:50a city of guelph document titled agri-innovation sector profile lists many reasons why i found

4:01:57it curious that guelph had not yet given formal acknowledgement or support to bill 21 protect

4:02:04our food act 2025 from jobs to business and research without protecting the land where our

4:02:12food is grown in one of the most fertile agriculture areas of canada we jeopardize the

4:02:19agri-food industry right here in guelph protecting jobs business and research right here in guelph

4:02:29is why i sent an email to all of you after reading the information package and thank you to

4:02:36counselor galler for pulling the report and putting forward a motion of support it only takes

4:02:44a quick google search to learn of the importance of agriculture and agri-food industries in guelph

4:02:50and surrounding wellington county a june 2023 county of wellington report wellington county emerges

4:02:58as an agri-food powerhouse leading the way in crop and livestock production states quote

4:03:07while wellington county covers only 0.2 percent of total land area in ontario it supports five

4:03:15percent of the province's field crops end quote with guelph being in the middle of the doughnut

4:03:25food means jobs jobs in the fields jobs and food processing jobs and research jobs in retail

4:03:33jobs in culinary and most importantly the job of keeping our population healthy

4:03:43three quotes from the 2025 canada job trend analysis job market report for the ontario

4:03:50secretaryal sectorial profile agriculture one approximately 71,700 people were directly

4:03:59employed in ontario's agriculture industry in 2024 two the broader agri-food system including

4:04:07food manufacturing processing and retail supports 861,000 to 871,000 jobs in ontario accounting

4:04:18for about one in nine jobs in the province three the ontario agriculture sector is a significant

4:04:25contributor to canadian agriculture as a whole according to statistics canada's 2021 census of

4:04:33agriculture the province has the largest share of farms and farm operators nationwide and is

4:04:39ranked second in farming operating revenues i believe like rmp this council understands the

4:04:47importance of having a continuous band of agriculture to support a growing population

4:04:53i believe this council understands the importance of agriculture we are after all in a converted

4:05:01building where agriculture was the focus and just down the road is the university of guelph's

4:05:08ontario agriculture college did you know that the oacy website landing page announces

4:05:16founded in agriculture connected to life for over 150 years we've worked across disciplines to

4:05:24connect communities help feed the world and improve life i believe this council will join

4:05:33other agriculturally minded municipalities and send their unanimous support to protect our food

4:05:40today and in the future because we all know think it with me farmers feed cities all right thank

4:05:53thank you very much for your your presentation and delegation is there any questions for the

4:05:58delegate at all at this time seeing none thank you very much and is there any questions at all

4:06:07okay our comments okay go ahead councillor gibson yeah thanks thanks to the delegate thanks for

4:06:13bringing forward councillor Goller i think there's merit i was just reading the bill today

4:06:18i honestly think there's merit i think that the underlying message here is to sort of

4:06:25trying to stop land swapping and trying to stop ministerial orders i think that's pretty

4:06:32plain english in the in the bill looking to stop those practices and i think all most governments

4:06:37in the last 25 years have been guilty of that um that being said i think there's room for improvement

4:06:42in the bill but i'm happy to support today i think it's a good start and it's a good conversation

4:06:47great thank you very much is there anything for coran please yeah just thank you to councillor

4:06:52galler for bringing this forward and standy for putting it on our agenda um less than five percent

4:06:58of ontario's land is class one farmland and uh we are in the gta where we depend on that

4:07:06arable land for our food supply so this is really a no-brainer for me that food security

4:07:12isn't just a local issue it's a it's a national issue and uh i think this sends a message to the

4:07:19province that we want that sustainable future in the gta region thank you is there anything further

4:07:28at all okay if you just give me a moment i just want to ask for the motion to be put back up on the

4:07:36screen uh to help me decide whether or not i will support this or not so give me a second

4:07:43all right i i will support this but uh you know this isn't going to go anywhere the province

4:08:12it's not going to go anywhere at all let's just call it what it is it's not going to go anywhere um and

4:08:21i i have always felt that more and more restrictions when other opportunities arise

4:08:29for land is is always something that is i think important to have as an option and i will state

4:08:36too that as much as you might hear some of the positives there are negatives to this including

4:08:42farmers that have that have actually applied about the negative uh issues around this

4:08:49but i don't mind the wording that you've put in there that is urging to support like i urge is fine

4:08:58i'll go with that because i subscribe to where this is trying to go but um i you know this is from a

4:09:06independent member i i'm you know it will not go anywhere uh at the province i can guarantee it

4:09:12and uh and so good on her for for trying to bring something forward and to try to see if there's

4:09:17municipalities that want to support it and that's why it's here today uh but uh i would just always

4:09:23be cautious of of things that restrict and restrict and restrict uh and um there are always two sides

4:09:31to um to these types of issues they're not all rosy like um like we may we may think there are

4:09:37many farmers that are that are have a lot of problems with it the way that this is so far but

4:09:41maybe in other readings of the bill or amendments it may change with that i'll call the vote has

4:09:47anyone against all right that's unanimous thank you councillor billings you are bringing forward