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The Rural Voice, 1996-04, Page 51News in Agriculture Carmen Hamill (centre) accepts the Tommy Cooper Award from Claudia Staines of CFOS and Dan Patterson of the Owen Sound Sun Times. Carmen Hamill wins Tommy Cooper Award in Grey -Bruce Carmen Hamill was recognized for his lifetime of work for agriculture and his community when he was presented with the Tommy Cooper Award, March 22 in Durham. In his 66 years of active farming, Hamill has been a member of the Federation of Agriculture since its inception and is a past president of the Holland Township Federation. He has lived in the home of his birth for his entire 82 years. He served on several boards and in church and community activities. Last fall Carmen and his wife Ruth were awarded the first Agricultural Heritage Award for Holland Township.0 Farm leaders, MPPs disagree on Planning Act changes Few voices were raised but it became evident that there is a difference of opinion on changes to the Planning Act between Grey - Bruce farmers and the MPPs they elected when the leaders presented 48 THE RURAL VOICE briefs to the members of parliament March 22 in Durham. Vicki Braeker, provincial board director to the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario from Grey/Bruce South and Bruce East raised the issue of the changing in wording in the Act from the former NDP government's requirement that zoning changes "must be consistent with" provincial policy statements to the new bill's "shall have regard to" the statements. Grey MPP Bill Murdoch, who said the amendments to the act will probably be passed by the legislature by the end of March, said the word "guidelines" will be removed from the bill because the Ontario Municipal Board tended to interpret these as rules, not guidelines. "There will still be guidelines but not in the Act," he said. But Bracker expressed concern that the changes will leave rural residents at the mercy of local politicians. If they disagreed with a decision, there is no funding to help them fight at the OMB level, she said. But Murdoch argued that it will be up to farmers to make sure the best people get elected to their local councils. (Jayne Dietrich of Mildmay pointed out to the MPPs that farmers now make up three per cent of the population so they have a limited control over who gels elected.) Barb Fisher, MPP for Bruce said there are still provisions for public meetings to be held before zoning changes are allowed. As someone who had been involved in community economic development before winning the Bruce seat in last June's provincial election, she supported the move to bring planning back to the local level. There has been a movement toward taking away property owners' rights in recent years, she said. She was disturbed to find out there were 42 areas designated as Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSIs) in her riding. "When someone can attach an ANSI to your property and you don't even know until you go to sell it, there's something wrong," she argued. Brian Milne, vice-president of the Grey Federation worried the government seemed more concerned about helping developers than in supporting agriculture. In Bill 20, he said, the government was demonstrating "a headlong rush to make it easy to pave over farmland" yet seemed to have no appreciation of the value of agriculture. "How do you think that's any service to the agricultural community?" "I don't think it's taking away the rights of the farming community," Murdoch answered. Don McCausland, warden of Grey County, reminded everyone present that the county is in the midst of rewriting its official plan and public hearings would be held this year for input from groups such as the Federation and commodity groups. "I think you will be pleased with the regulations on Class 1, 2 and 3 farmland," he said. Karl Braeker raised the issue of water -taking by companies that truck it out of the county. Asking MPPs if there was any chance of legislation that would force these companies to pay royalties, he said "The people taking this water have a licence to print money". Murdoch said there are two issues involved: should there be money for the municipalities and how much water should be allowed to be taken.