Wilmot residents are “devastated” by the possibility that their farms will be expropriated by Waterloo Region for a proposed industrial site.
Alfred Lowrick, the former head of KW Oktoberfest, made a passionate plea to Wilmot council on Monday night, asking the local council to help provide answers on the issue.
The region and township are looking to purchase 770 acres of mostly farmland in Wilmot in the area mostly surrounded by Wilmot Centre, Nafzinger Road, Highway 7-8 and Bleams Road.
Lowrick said residents were approached by an agent representing the region and given seven days to accept an offer for their land or have it expropriated.
“Many of these people are long-term farming families, located in the area due to the high quality of farmland and reassurances that lands like this, far from existing urban centres, would not face development pressures,” he said. “To say they were distraught and devastated is an understatement.
“What is worse is that this all came as a surprise to all of us — no formal notifications, meetings and consultations.”
He said the timeline “is absurd given the massive disruption to our lives and total unexpected situation creates with a goal to reach full land acquisition by August of this year.”
Lowrick said the landowners have been meeting on a daily basis to try and figure out what can be done.
“What is most upsetting is the lack of information these landowners and affected citizens received, particularly from regional council, where this presentation was made last week,” he said. “All were willing to listen, but we got no details, no answers to our questions.”
Lowrick spoke for 10 minutes on Monday night but made a much shorter presentation to regional council last Wednesday.
Regional Chair Karen Redman responded to his presentation that day by saying, “given the confidential nature of this subject, we are not in a position to comment or provide a response.”
On Monday night, Lowrick spoke of an non-disclosure agreement that he said councilors at both levels had signed with regards to the project.
“We fully understand the role of a non-disclosure agreement that you all signed on this project, but to have a week go by and hear nothing is frustrating,” he said. “The council and the regional government are entrusted to advocate for their constituents, and unfortunately, all have been noticeably silent as no one really had any answers.”
There has been mass speculation that the plot of land is being sought to put in an automotive manufacturing plant similar to what is now being put in place in St. Thomas, Ont.
“If other large industrial plants are any indication, it will set off a chain reaction of much additional surrounding farmland loss for additional and then similar uses,” he said, before pointing to the Honda plant in Alliston, which has seen factories spring up around it to support the plant.
It remains unclear what will happen to these lands once they are purchased by the region.
The region and township have said very little publicly on the matter but have issued the following joint statement.
“The Region of Waterloo and Wilmot Township are partnering on land readiness to create shovel-ready sites to attract economic investments and create jobs,” they said. “Land assembly is underway to create shovel-ready sites for large-scale economic investment to further support Waterloo Region’s economic vitality as it grows to one million residents by 2050.”