Claiming residents are not being heard by Chatham-Kent officials, the Kent Federation of Agriculture (KFA) has started a petition to urge further public consultation on the municipality’s temporary ban on clear-cutting.
The KFA has argued that Chatham-Kent’s temporary tree-cutting bylaw negatively impacts the property rights of all rural landowners in the municipality. The bylaw, which was set to expire before the end of 2021, was extended by council in November to remain in effect until April 30, 2022.
“To date, there has been no indication that this body will ensure a formal consultation process will take place, so the KFA is collecting the signatures of Chatham-Kent residents to show to this committee of council there is support for this type of consultation,” the KFA said in a statement.
However, Chatham-Kent CAO Don Shropshire said the topic of public consultation on the bylaw has already been addressed to the Natural Heritage Advisory Committee of the Whole. He added that options for proceeding with public consultation will be brought to council on March 22.
“There have been many opportunities and there will continue to be opportunities for the farming community to shape what this policy is going to look like,” said Shropshire.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff has agreed that an open forum would be beneficial to ensure all voices are heard.
“I’m fully expecting that to happen over the next several weeks [now that] we’ve opened up and can actually get together in person,” he said. “I believe there’s an option out there that creates a win-win scenario for the people who want to see trees and farmers”
Over this past summer, the municipality conducted an online survey in an effort to garner public input on how to manage woodlots in Chatham-Kent. Approximately 1,500 residents took part.
The KFA has acknowledged that the survey took place, but called its accuracy “questionable.”
“It is the view of many in Chatham-Kent that this questionnaire was very biased in its wording and the results therefore unacceptable,” the agriculture group said.
Shropshire confirmed that there were anomalies in the results of the survey, however, those issues were addressed by the third-party independent survey group and identified to CK Council.
“We had a number of people making comments on the survey that were not Chatham-Kent residents and there was a concern [about] that bias,” said Shropshire. “We went back to the [survey] company and they were able to factor out all the people who did not have Chatham-Kent addresses.”
The KFA said it will be presenting the results of its petition at the CK Council on March 22, and will ask councillors to commit to a new consultation process that is “both effective and applicable towards a real-world solution to this issue.”
