Preparing for southern Ontario farmers to move north

Agriculture has always been a part of the history of Timmins.

"There is farmland from one end of the city to the other end and some of it is almost encased in residential now, but it’s still farmland," said Noella Rinaldo, a director for the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC).

And, she's not surprised to hear recent news from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) that the province is losing 319 acres of farmland every day.

The OFA president said farmland only accounts for about five per cent of the province's land and the organization has a number of possible solutions in the works.

"One of them is actually a website called homegrown.OFA.on.ca and we’re asking people that support this idea of protecting farmland and as well as looking at other options to sign on. We have 34,000 signatures so far," said Peggy Brekveld.

The TEDC has been developing an inventory of potential agricultural land, including having soil testing done to assure its viability.

"It’s been over 10 years that the North Eastern Community Network System has worked preparing for the fact that it was inevitable that southern Ontario farmers were going to be coming to the north to farm," said Rinaldo.

She also said a note was included with the recent municipal tax bill, asking property owners if they own 10 or more acres of land, would they think of selling or leasing it?

"So we do have a lot of small acreage, some are 50, some are 100. Where that used to be a normal, 100 acres for a family, we have farmers now looking for 1,000 acres minimum," said Rinaldo.

"I think that if you can create a viable farm out of some smaller ones that aren’t currently (being used) to be sustainable, I think that makes a lot of sense and encourages people to consider a city as a place to go and move and farm," added Brekveld.

She said one of the best ways to support farming is to buy from a local farmer and it's an incentive to prepare for the next generation of growers.