21 ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER NOVEMBER 2024 The Ford government has announced that municipalities can choose whether they want energy developments and, if they do, where those developments can go within their municipal jurisdiction. DEMAND MORE. From your data. Your productivity. Your farm. From field to finance and everything in between, AgExpert is the link between your data and decisions. If it’s there, you’ll find it—the right decisions, backed by the right data. Demand more. Get more. At AgExpert.ca 14755_AGEX_2024_DemandMore_OGF_4-687x6-062.indd 1 2024-08-23 12:03 PM trick now is ensuring impact assessments “have appropriate teeth” to protect farmland. He would also like to see Prime Agricultural Areas include Class 4 soils, whereas the province only considers Classes 1 to 3 under the designation. OTHER CONCERNS Transmission corridors must be addressed, too. “There’s lots of pressure for corridor infrastructure. We also need to ensure impacted farm operations are adequately compensation for the things they’re going to have to deal with today and in the future,” Spoelstra says, adding another benefit of more localized energy generation might be less need for need for large corridor projects. Max Hansgen, president of the National Farmers Union – Ontario, echoed many of Spoelstra’s comments. Hansgen says the requirement for consent from municipalities, impact assessments for developments proposed for good agricultural land, and other characteristics of the government’s position accommodate many of the concerns the Union and other farm organizations raised. However, an area of remaining concern is the potential for more stray voltage issues as energy production becomes more widespread in farm country. “How do we marry agrivoltaics and not adversely affect animals? The research has not been done to really know the answer on what the impacts of developments are,” he says. There is also concern about unlocking Crown land – specifically, whether the environmental benefits of green energy developments will make up for the biodiversity and carbon sequestrationcapacity lost in destroying natural features. “Are we actually coming out further ahead by cutting down Crown land?” says Hansgen.•
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