The Kent Federation of Agriculture (KFA) is weighing in on the permanent woodlot preservation bylaw being pushed to the next council.
Ron Faubert is the chair of the KFA committee handling the woodlot issue, and he told CK News Today that he is disappointed that a third-party facilitator couldn't be found to conduct more consultation on the tree-cutting bylaw and gather information. He said seven companies were approached, but none could do it.
Faubert said the municipal request for proposals (RFP) asked for something that couldn't be delivered by asking for a multi-tasking facilitator/arbitrator/mediator. He said that's a requirement that couldn't be met because they are different functions and most companies don't have the qualified staff to do all of them.
Faubert also said woodlot preservation is a difficult issue to deal with because it pits farming against the environment and very few consultants want to touch it because it's very controversial.
"We could see why nobody wanted to bid on it, because they [the municipality] made it so complex that nobody wanted to touch it with a 10 foot pole," said Faubert. "We talked to some of the firms and that's what they relayed to us. The companies looked at this and said they want us to bring ourselves up to speed on something that's been going on for two years already and it would take a long period of time to get familiar with what's taken place and they wanted a plan put together for council on how to do this. It just didn't make sense because they were asking way too much."
Some councillors are also wondering where that RFP came from because that's not what they asked for, according to Faubert.
He said the bylaw hesitancy is causing uncertainty for farmers because they have obligations to meet with banks and purchases.
The KFA has been asking for more consultation because, as landowners, it felt farmers were left out of the consultation process done in 2013, adding the last consultation process lacked actual science.
Faubert feels the public has been misguided because, contrary to the narrative by some critics, Ontario has 66 per cent tree cover, double what's required by the federal government. Faubert is also asking that windbreaks and shelter belts on farms be counted as tree cover, something that's not currently counted.
"They spent tons of money through environmental programs working with the conservation authority to make that happen because they are concerned about erosion, they are concerned about the environment, they plant cover crops, yet nobody seems to care about that," he said.
Faubert also said the KFA is working to get agriculture-friendly council candidates involved in the fall municipal election and the work to do that continues.
Local environmental and activist groups have already said the woodlot preservation bylaw will be an election issue in October.
Some farmers in East Kent were investigated earlier this year and last year for possibly contravening the temporary bylaw by cutting down trees on their land.