PRESIDENT'S LETTER

SPRING 2008

Dear PALS Supporter,

What an up and down few months we’ve had. As you can see by recent press reports, the down is for tender fruit and grape growers, first with the cancellation of Labrusca grape contracts, then the threatened closing of the CanGro canning plant ; and finally, the bank foreclosure of the co-operative winery- the Twenty Bees. The up- news, which preceded all the bad news, was the promise (as reported in our last newsletter) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to proceed with a Ministry-led study of the use of restrictive covenants to protect the tender fruit lands “permanently.”

Nevertheless, even this latter initiative is not clear good news, as the promised study work has stagnated, with no word of its commencement three months after the fact. Of course this is most likely linked to all of the foregoing difficulties faced by the industry. Somehow, it is all quite reminiscent of the late 1980s, when government actions and extremely bad weather left tender fruit farmers ‘out on a very fragile limb’. At that time, drought, a winter deep freeze and hail, were followed closely by Free Trade, which cancelled out tariff protection - a factor in to-day’s CanGro situation, where there is no protection from fruit coming from very far away e.g. China, and any company wishing to carry on the business will have to compete for large contracts with companies from around the world. e.g. the huge U.S.A Dole company.

While this time round, the weather has not been as evident a factor for fruit growers, many Labrusca grape growers are again pulling out vines (as in 1988-90) , but this time without large payments from the Provincial government and only a small amount from the Federal government. Due to the over-planting of the less hardy wine varieties in the last several years, we hear the Grape Growers Marketing Board is not asking for replant money for farmers, but rather compensation . Meanwhile, of the tender fruit growers who supplied CanGro with pears, clingstone peaches and cherries some have found other markets, some will be working hard to switch to the fresh market varieties of peaches, some will receive company settlements and some, without a company contract or track record with CanGro, are left without anything for all the labour and investment they have put into their crops. So far no-one has managed to come to the rescue.

It was this very kind of situation that the successful ( and then cancelled ), PALS initiated, Provincial government Tender Fruit Land Program of 1994 was answering to, and why so many farmers signed up to place restrictive covenants on their land in return for government payments over the next several years. We hope we can be part of a solution for Niagara fruit farmers this time round. However, given the huge economic difficulties the whole province faces these days, one can only wonder what lies ahead for them.

In the meantime, we urge you to join PALS as we continue our 32 year endeavor to promote the farmer, the excellent fruit and the importance of land preservation. We also ask you , and everyone you know, to buy local fruit and support the farmers who grow the fruit!. Also, send your local MPP a letter showing that many Ontarians care about the rare and endangered land and farmers. Together we just might make a difference.

Val O’Donnell

2005 /06 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Joan Ashcroft Brenda Blunt Dorothy Daley Liisa Harju Gracia Janes

Val O'Donnell Ranjeet Sidhu Doug Woodard Barbara Woronowicz

PRESIDENT’S LETTER FALL 2007

Dear PALS Supporter,

I’m pleased to report, that with the help of our long-time supporter MPP Jim Bradley we have finally made some considerable progress towards our ultimate goal of protecting the unique Niagara fruit lands permanently.

You may recall that in the early summer of 1995, just after a Provincial election, the government of the day cancelled the Niagara Tender Fruit Land Program. As all parties of the Legislature had supported the program when it was announced in 1994, this was an unexpected decision. It meant that six years of intensive work by PALS, to attain a program that would see the Government purchase conservation easements/restrictive covenants from fruit farmers, was lost - as was the potential to protect Niagara fruit lands “in perpetuity” for future generations of farmers and the public.

Since then PALS has spent the intervening years keeping the spirit of the Tender Fruit Land Program alive - the last four seeing our Treasurer Gracia Janes, as a member of the Regional Niagara Chair’s Agricultural Task Force, gain the support of that committee’s many farm sectors, for a recommendation to the Government “that an inter-ministerial task force be set up to explore the possibility of using restrictive covenants to protect fruit lands.”

After a February PALS Board meeting with Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, many subsequent communications to her and to the Minister of Municipal Affairs ( see Spring 2007 newsletter), and, with the support of Tourism Minister Jim Bradley, Minister Dombrowsky finally acceded to our request . In a letter of August 7^th she stated, “ Therefore I am prepared to create an interministerial-led study that considers the role of conservation easements for protecting Niagara fruit lands.” and commended PALS “ for its dedication and critical work to protect Niagara tender fruit and grape lands.”

There is much hard work yet to be undertaken, and we sincerely hope that our view will prevail, that Niagara is a very special farming area- producing, as fruit land expert, the late Ralph Krueger, often stated, the best tender fruit in North America. Both the fruit lands and the farmers who farm them deserve to be protected from urban pressures and the ever-constant uncertainties of government changes in policies and direction, for the long term.

We will keep you posted in the critical months ahead.

Val O’Donnell

President's Letter Winter 2007/2008

Dear PALS Supporter,

Our comments, which will be included in Dr. Caldwell’s report to Minister Leona Dombrowski, stressed such important facts and benefits as, the unique nature of the fruit lands, and their strategic importance close to large urban markets; the potential for a weakening of the Greenbelt restrictions by future governments in response to stresses on the lands as farmers struggle to make a go of it; the continued farmer support for a fruit land easement program; the complimentary nature of easements to the regulations of the Greenbelt, the Provincial Policy Statement, and local planning, and their potential to stabilize farm land values over the long term; the already successful use of easements as a second layer of protection for the Pickering Land Reserve, and the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust; the ability of the Ontario Farmland Trust to hold the easements and manage a Niagara Tender Fruit Land Program; and, the affordability of easements over a 20 to 30 year period.

We were also able to point out the support of easements by a leading American land use planner Tom Daniels Planning Director Lancaster County, Pennsylvania as well as the continuing success of easement use in Lancaster County (see quotables), and we backed up our views with extensive research materials. Our track record on this issue and wealth of knowledge were recognized by Dr. Caldwell as we concluded the meeting. As a student of fruit land expert Ralph Krueger - one of PALS earliest and strongest supporters - and planning colleague of former Huron County Planner Gary Davidson (who helped us achieve the 1994 Tender Fruitland Program) Dr. Caldwell has a unique grasp fruitland issues and we are very hopeful of a supportive report.

We await the Provincial response to Dr. Caldwell’s report with some concern tho, as the current tough economic situation world-wide makes for a very different Provincial outlook than has existed over the past several years. We feel however that these are the very times that require investments in the long term interest of the farmers, the Niagara and Ontario farm economy and the preservation of the essential land base for fruit farming.

We will keep you posted, Val O’Donnell

Val O’Donnell

QUOTABLE S

“Experience of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Shows Need For Agricultural Easements.”

“In 1996, the American Farmland Trust recognized Lancaster County’s farmland protection efforts with a national achievement award. According to Bob Wagner of the American Farmland Trust, Lancaster County is setting the pace for farmland preservation in the United States.” Like Niagara is within Canada, Lancaster County is one of the most productive farming regions in the United States. Daniel notes that, “It is the leading agricultural county not only in Pennsylvania but in the entire Northeast, with over $680 million a year in farm goods sold. It is also the nation’s number one non- irrigated farming country.”

“Another similarity between Lancaster County and Niagara, whose populations are almost identical , is that its excellent farmland is under intense development pressure from sprawl since it lies only sixty miles west of Philadelphia, which is the fourth largest city in the United States. Every year, Daniel warns, its “suburbs creep closer.”

“In the past, Lancaster county appeared to be doomed to the bulldozer. This is a situation described in the book, Garden Spot, by David J. Walbert, where he notes that, “In the early 1990s Lancaster County seemed to be hopelessly divided. On the one side businessmen and progressives insisted on the necessity and indeed the inevitably of growth...As Tom Daniels later recalled when he arrived in Lancaster in 1989, every acre seemed for sale....and yet, after 1990, the road to farmland preservation grew markedly easier...Farmers who had thought preservation a nice idea but impractical... including Larry Weaver, who had told the New Era in 1968 that farming was on the way out”, had a different attitude.” Walbert asks, “What made the difference?”

“The answer is simple - conservation easements! These are now so desirable that there is a seven year waiting list to sell them to either the Lancaster County Preserve Board, or the Lancaster Farmland Trust, both largely funded through the State of Pennsylvania. The program Daniels stresses, “has softened opposition to agricultural zoning.”

As in Niagara and its Greenbelt’s permanent boundaries, in Lancaster County, easements are purchased “within the contiguous agriculture security zones to maintain a critical mass of farmland that would enable farm support businesses to thrive.” Such strategic locations serve “as keystones to keep agricultural infrastructure viable.”

Also, like the points system of the doomed 1994-95 Niagara Tender Fruit Lands Program, the Lancaster Farmland Trust , as its website notes, “has made preserving farms that are adjacent to or within one mile of an urban growth area a priority. By doing so, the Trust can assure that development is contained within these urban growth areas”

The Amish farm in the movie “Witness” is one of the preserved farms in Lancaster County protected under its easement program. When you view this drama, full of heroic efforts to overcome development pressures, you may appreciate some of the struggle PALS has been going through in the past several years to obtain a conservation easement program for Niagara.”