The Rural Voice, 1990-05, Page 37culture in the county, he adds, and
that farm tradition should not be sold
out. Officials say that much of the
county's land is of "minimal agricul-
tural value," Weinberg says, but
"that's not telling me anything" if they
are contravening the Foodland Guide-
lines or their own official plan.
"Either you have a love of the
land and feel a responsibility to be its
guardian for the future, or it's just
present expediency and opportunism."
He says he doesn't have any
"miracle cures" for the lack of profit
in farming, but says farmers aren't the
ones making the real profits. "The big
bucks are going to the developers. It's
who can sever the most lots in the
shortest period of time."
And, Weinberg says, it's unfair to
those who move into Grey County to
encourage them to live in areas where
they will find their well running dry or
their water polluted. "Every fair-
minded person would have to expect
that some development is necessary,"
he adds, but it shouldn't be put where
the land can't sustain it or where it
will interfere with farming.
Gerry Weinberg has been collect-
ing clippings and documents on the
land use issue in Grey County for the
past two years. He says he's optim-
istic that one or both of the provincial
ministries that have been involved in
the issue will come up with some
solid proposals. But Freeman Boyd,
another GABP director, is not so sure.
"On the one hand, it looks like it's
just a matter of cool heads and rational
thought prevailing," he says. "On the
other hand, if you look to the south
(the "Golden Horseshoe") ... solu-
tions have largely come after the horse
is already out of the gate."
He says the solution is "a matter
of political will more than anything
else," and while county politicians
have been invited to meet with GABP
members, "we get the cold shoulder."
Boyd, who runs a poultry and
market garden operation near Walter's
Falls, adds that the political will has to
come from the people as well. He
says he understands why people fear
provincial interference, and why
property rights advocates feel that
their rights have already been eroded.
But with more and more people
trying to share resources, some rules
must be agreed upon to prevent com-
munities from completely fouling
their own nest, he says.
And when the larger public inter-
est is at stake, local powers sometimes
don't offer sufficient protection. The
Niagara Escarpment, for example,
could only have been set up from a
provincial perspective, Boyd says.
And the polarization and simpli-
fication of the issue — pitting proper-
ty rights advocates against environ-
mentalists, for example — contribute
to misinformation about the policies
actually needed to promote the welfare
of communities, he adds. A "pet
peeve" is the commonly made claim
that the creation of residential estate
lots in rural areas brings more tax
money to a municipality. Several
studies, Boyd notes, show conclusive-
ly that any lot under 10 acres produces
a net loss in revenue to the municipal-
ity because of the services required.
If GABP is to be forced by those
advocating development and property
rights into doing "the political dirty
work" to bring about better planning,
Boyd says, then at least the debate
should be fair, and the other side
should at least disseminate accurate
information.
"I respect their position as well,"
he says. "It's a tough spot that we're
caught in." But consensus, Boyd
adds, is difficult to build in commu-
nities that have become diverse and
have fragmented into special interest
groups.
Added to this difficulty is the fact
that ideals such as property rights and
municipal autonomy are not easily
defined. Both entail a consideration of
the balance between individual rights
and community health.
As George Penfold of the Univer-
sity of Guelph comments, evaluating ,
the long-term impact of today's deci-
sions is complicated. As a society, he
says, we haven't agreed on a more
accurate way to assess environmental
and long-term values than the short-
term bottom dollar. How should we
be judging, for example, the value of
wetlands that can neither support
agriculture or rural residential devel-
opment, but which perform important
ecological functions?
Grey County, in fact, and the de-
bates among its people, could set some
precedents in terms of policy, Penfold
says. "Patterns of policy change
always start out with a lot of chaos."
"It's clear that the provincial min-
istries ... they're all directly or indir-
ectly scratching their heads, at least."
Alex Sim would agree that the
issues are tough ones. But at the sem-
inar sponsored by GABP, he told his
audience he had faith that community
co-operation could be revitalized,
despite diversity, despite the "credit-
card mentality," despite bureaucrat-
ization, despite what Peggy Hutchison
calls "the non-cooperative spirit."
The problem is that rural
communities have lost the ability to
look after their own local affairs, he
added. And, he noted, the rural
community is tied to the land. You
can't preserve one without the other.
Human beings buy and sell, Sim
said — they have always bought and
sold. And the land? "How patient the
land is," he remarked. "How patient
the land is, that it put up with all that
nonsense."OLise Gunby
GABP will be sponsoring a second
information meeting at the Owen
Sound Public Library on June 16 at
1:30 p.m. The topic will be rural land
use. GABP family memberships are
available for $20 by writing Peggy
Hutchison, Box B-13, Singhampton,
Ontario, NOC 1MO.
4 4 4
WHAT AM I BID?
When land is valued for social or
environmental reasons, but that land
may not provide much of an economic
return, how can a landowner be com-
pensated if he wants to sell?
That's one of the most difficult
questions raised when public interest
in preserving land comes into conflict
with individual property rights.
And Canada falls behind the U.S.
in finding innovative answers. But
Professor Stewart Hilts of the Univer-
sity of Guelph's Department of Land
Resource Science has been research-
ing some of the possibilities.
The two most common programs
available in Canada today don't offer
a great deal in terms of financial
compensation, says Tom Moull, who
(cont'd on following page)
MAY 1990 33