The area is in high demand due to its proximity to the Highway 401 corridor and growing industrial hubs such as the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Greater Toronto Area and there are lessons to learn as Ontario urban areas continue to grow into farmland.

WHY IT MATTERS: Significant pressure to grow housing and industrial areas comes into conflict with the need to maintain high-quality farmland.

In February 2024, the County of Wellington launched an urban boundary expansion review and received settlement area boundary expansion requests totalling more than 973 hectares.

One of the most affected municipalities within the county is Centre Wellington, home to the communities of Fergus, Elora, Belwood and Salem.

According to Township of Centre Wellington data, the municipality is expected to grow to a population of 58,200 by 2051, with total employment reaching 25,100. The majority of this growth will take place in the Fergus and Elora–Salem urban centres.

Under the More Homes Built Faster Act, the government of Ontario has mandated a residential construction acceleration of 1.5 million new homes in 10 years across the province.

The province has stated that, to accommodate the land needs assessment for this area, a settlement area boundary expansion of 398 hectares of residential and employment lands will be required in Centre Wellington.

In a community with a strong history of opposing rural development, farmers and politicians are making their concerns known to the province. A social media campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the risks of expanding into prime agricultural lands.

Land on the brink of development

Janet Harrop owns Harrcroft Acres with her husband, Ian, and their family just north of Fergus. She is also the past president of the Wellington Federation of Agriculture.

Harrop was among the participants in videos shared on Facebook. She believes that once land is rezoned for future development, investment in that land declines significantly.

“When farmers are unsure how long they will be able to rent land, they are less likely to invest in drainage or other improvements that would increase the land’s agronomic value,” she said.

She is concerned that land around the edge of Centre Wellington already approved for inclusion within the urban boundary, along with several parcels developers are seeking to include through the Ontario Land Tribunal, consists largely of prime agricultural land.

Harrop notes that only 0.5 per cent of Canada’s total land base comprises Class 1 soil, the highest quality classification. She adds that Wellington County accounts for three per cent of Ontario’s prime agricultural land.

She fears the expansion will affect more than access to farmland, driving up both land costs and rental prices.

“If farmers have a long-term lease with certainty, they are more willing to pay more for the land. Parcels next to the urban boundary will be viewed by the development community as long-term investments for future development and will inflate farmland values,” she said, adding that municipalities must plan a “buffer” when expanding urban boundaries.

Harrop believes the plan will not only fragment farmland but also introduce non-farming residences through surplus farm dwelling severances or additional severances on secondary agricultural land. She said this can disrupt farm equipment movement, limit future expansion due to minimum distance separation (MDS) requirements and increase conflicts with non-farm neighbours.

Also, she says, this type of expansion places strain on communities that lack infrastructure to support large-scale development.

The value of Wellington County’s soil must be recognized to keep farmers in the area, she says, noting the loss of quality farmland will drive up prices and threaten generational farming.

Harrop said growth can instead be managed through intensification.

“For example, a four-storey apartment building with 40 units versus 40 homes built on 0.5-acre lots would save 20 acres of farmland,” she said. “There also needs to be weighting based on the type of farmland being developed. Prime agricultural land should not be used to grow homes; it should be used to grow food.”

Protecting land a “societal responsibility”

Bronwynne Wilton is the Ward 5 councillor in Centre Wellington and a rural-urban planning consultant. Her ward includes one of the largest areas of farmland in the township.

She says protecting farmland should be a societal responsibility, noting residents in mixed urban-rural communities may not fully understand the impact of expansion.

Wilton acknowledges farmers face moral and financial pressure from developers.

“To ask a farmer to turn down a fairly lucrative offer is difficult,” she said, noting much farm equity is tied to land rather than the operating business. “I think a lot of farmers struggle with it, but on the other hand, that’s probably their retirement income — something passed down to their children and grandchildren.”

Wilton notes municipalities’ hands are often tied because urban boundary expansion guidelines are set by the province, including farmland classification systems that may not align with local priorities.

In a community known for civic engagement, Wilton believes awareness of farmland risks is strong.

“I think people are recognizing that we do have really good farmland, and many feel a connection to the farm community in one way or another,” she said. “People are realizing that we can’t just keep paving over farmland.”

Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, has been closely monitoring expansion plans in Wellington County. He has lived in Guelph for many years and says municipalities are pushing back against what he calls “the Ford government’s sprawl agenda” because of costs and farmland loss.

He argues the province has increasingly intervened to force boundary expansions that benefit developers.

“Wellington County is one of the Ford government’s targets despite strong local pushback,” he said. “I’ve spoken with planners, farmers and residents who want to see farms and the agricultural sector protected from expensive sprawl.”

Schreiner added that amid global trade instability, protecting rural economies is essential to safeguarding jobs and food security.

“As I developed the Protect Our Food Act, experts, planners and farmers all agreed that loss of farmland is more than just loss of land. It threatens food sovereignty, jobs, prosperity and access to fresh local food,” he said. “We need to build more affordable homes in the communities people love — and it is more affordable to do so without paving over farmland.”

He noted previous rules required comprehensive reviews before settlement boundaries could be expanded, but said the provincial government has weakened those safeguards and overridden local decisions.

“To protect Ontario’s precious farmland, this government needs to reintroduce stronger checks and balances, make it easier to build within existing urban boundaries and allow public servants to do their jobs without ministerial interference,” he said.

Schreiner added that his bill has already received support from the Township of Centre Wellington, which he says demonstrates municipalities “do not want to see their farmland paved over for expensive, low-density sprawl.”

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Why it matters: Increasingly, operators of farms and farm-related businesses are identifying housing availability for employees as a significant financial stumbling block.

The Greenbelt Foundation, an independent not-for-profit agency that’s provincially-funded, recently released a report delving into what it calls “the pressing issue of housing shortages for farm families, on-farm workers and agri-business employees in Ontario’s rural areas.”

In an email, officials from the organization said the group’s vision includes a thriving agricultural sector. “Against the backdrop of Ontario’s broader housing pressures and recent economic challenges, this research sought to understand housing needs in rural communities,” wrote Shelley Petrie, Greenbelt Foundation program director, and project consultant Dr. Wayne Caldwell, when contacted by Farmtario.

The new report groups its recommendations into five categories:

• housing and farm worker accommodation;
• municipal capacity and planning processes;
• infrastructure and servicing for rural and agricultural areas;
• land and environmental protection for agricultural sustainability; and
• economic and community development in rural areas.

Broadly, the foundation summarized the main recommendations as:

• Maintain existing additional residential unit (ARU) policies under the Greenbelt Plans and Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) 2024 and consider expanding these policies to agri-businesses.
• Collaborate to promote innovative housing solutions for farm workers and agri-food businesses.
• Integrate agricultural housing needs into municipal housing and agricultural strategies.
• Develop rural infrastructure strategies to support agricultural and housing needs.
• Plan for sustainable housing development and complete communities while protecting farmland.

Complexity

Key to the report was the need for diverse solutions to this complex problem, in which solutions are bound by the Provincial Planning Statement.

“The PPS is the primary document for land use planning policy in Ontario, working together with policies in the Greenbelt Plans,” notes a historical background section of the report. An updated PPS, came into effect in October 2024.

It revised the definition of agricultural uses to include housing for farm workers, which provides more flexibility to provide housing for farm owners and labourers working in seasonal or part time roles.

During public consultation, a proposed change to the PPS that would have allowed up to three additional residential units per parcel in prime agricultural areas was pared back. Under the new rules it allows two, but at least one of those must be “within or attached to” the farm’s principal dwelling.

Local issues

Perspectives on multiple ARUs appear to vary depending on how much urban pressure exists on farmland.

“First considered by county in 2019, ARUs have become increasingly accepted as a means of providing additional housing in both rural and urban settings,” states the section of the report featuring a case study of Huron County.

A farm owner is quoted in the section: “We have a couple friends – one a dairy farmer, another a pork farmer and they were renting multiple homes in the local villages to house their staff, and now that they are allowed to build these secondary residences that house staff at the farm where they’re needed, that opens up those residences in the villages, in the communities, for people other than our employees.”

ARUs, though, appear to spur some concern among planning specialists in the Niagara and Durham Region case studies — both of which have significant urbanization pressures and at least some of their territory within the Greenbelt.

“While the opportunity to establish ARUs has been pursued elsewhere in Ontario, it remains a point of debate for many municipalities within the Niagara Region and the Greenbelt more broadly,” offers the report.

A Niagara-on-the-Lake planner expressed reluctance to support the idea “unless there are additional criteria related to the need to cluster those buildings closer together, to have some sort of consideration for not taking additional lands out of agricultural production.”

Local solutions

Responding to Farmtario, Petrie and Caldwell highlighted some of the region-specific strategies that have emerged in recent years in the three jurisdictions.

“Huron County has supported innovative housing solutions including ‘shouse’ and ‘barndominium’ structures on farms, and apartment-style housing that is available for farm workers within settlement areas,” they explained.

Niagara Region, meanwhile, aims to respond to specialty-crop producers who “require solutions to house large workforces with fluctuating numbers year-round. Modular and prefabricated homes are an emerging opportunity, aligning with the need to avoid permanent structures.”

And in Durham Region, “Agriculture Advisory Committees at both the regional level and within the Town of Clarington have proven effective in fostering collaboration on cross-cutting issues such as housing,” they said. “These committees promote awareness of agriculture housing needs and provide education on the potential impacts of residential housing policies, contributing to more coordinated and responsive planning.”

In a narrow 4-3 vote on June 6, Stouffville Town Council approved a recommendation to ask the province to bring the Greenbelt in line with the PPS 2024 and allow up to two ARUs on all rural properties even within protected areas. The Greenbelt Foundation sent Council a letter opposing the move.

Arguments in favour included enhancing the ability of rural businesses to continue profitably, while arguments against included the prospect of losing additional protected lands to residential buildings that ultimately end up being operated as short-term rentals.

In depth

The creation of the new report was overseen by a broad advisory committee of local governments, a provincial representative from the Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness ministry, and representatives from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the National Farmers Union-Ontario and the Rural Ontario Institute.

It began with a review of planning documents of relevant municipalities, and then incorporated more in-depth case studies of Huron County, Durham Region and Niagara Region.

Work leading up to writing the report culminated in a Sept. 13, 2024 workshop where participants worked through various potential solutions.

Petrie and Caldwell said some cross-province similarities were evident through the team’s interactions in the three case study jurisdictions. “

“Housing policies that direct residential housing within existing settlement areas — through increased intensification and densification — support agriculture,” they told Farmtario.

They also noted a need for innovation to support housing solutions and changes that have occurred in agriculture over time.

“Supports are needed that strengthen municipal capacity to respond to local needs including greater collaboration with the province to provide education, training and other resources,” they wrote.

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