Paul Doner's family has farmed land in York Region for more than 200 years, but he is resigned now to being pushed out by development.
The longtime farmer owns a home farm in Richmond Hill but has rented land across the region for decades, including in Newmarket near Highway 404.
But he said landowners opting for development have forced him out, including in Newmarket, shrinking from 4,000 acres at peak to about 1,800 acres today.
York Region supported rezoning of some of Doner’s farmlands in the protected Oak Ridges-Moraine zone in Whitchurch-Stouffville as part of a slate of land-use planning decisions made last month, potentially opening it up for development.
It is a decision Doner said he supports even if it hurts his business, given the challenges he sees for York Region farming in the future. He believes it does not make sense to maintain agriculturally protected zoning with development creeping up next to it, increasing traffic and making it dangerous to move equipment.
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m wanted in the community when I’m driving the tractor in rush hour, and people are giving me the finger,” he said. “It’s all well and good to say ‘we need farms, we need farmers. We need to protect agriculture.’ Not in this area, we don’t need them. It doesn't make sense to have them in an urban area."
The protection of agriculture is one of the major concerns with York Region’s recent slate of planning decisions made as part of a municipal comprehensive review process. Regional council decided in October to allow for lands in the agricultural whitebelt, and some in the provincially protected greenbelt to be rezoned for future development.
Agricultural and environmental associations have pushed back on the policy direction to ensure prime agricultural land is protected.
But Doner has a different perspective. Today, few farmers own the land they use in York Region, with much of it rented from outside property owners, including speculators, according to Doner. Buying land is out of reach for many farmers, and he said the only way to be profitable is to rent a large amount of land.
“The ownership of the farmland is no longer in the hands of the farmers. It’s all rented lands,” Doner said. “As soon as the farmer is not the one owning it, there is no attachment to agriculture then by the owner. And they can easily just say, ‘we want to develop it.”
Several York Region municipalities are seeking to sprawl outward into protected lands. East Gwillimbury and Whitchucrch-Stouffvile want to use the lands to help their growth, while Markham and Richmond Hill want to use some greenbelt rezoning to create more parkland.
Doner agrees municipalities need more space to grow.
He also questions succession planning for farmers. The average age of farm operators in Canada was 56.2 in a 2017 Statistics Canada report. He said his own family has an uncertain farming future after his generation, though if succession does happen, he said it would probably occur outside of York Region.
“The community has changed to the point where we need to be forward-thinking and change away from agriculture as well,” he said. “We have got to plan for the transition, and it's short-sighted to say, 30 years from now, we’re going to have the same situation.”
But the York Region Federation of Agriculture is more optimistic about the prospects of agriculture here. Representing 650 farm businesses members, it has pushed back on the region’s recent planning decisions. It has argued local agriculture has proved important in the pandemic, mitigates climate change, and food sources need to be protected.
Federation director, secretary and treasurer Kim Empringham said the organization is disappointed in York’s decisions, and in the case of the greenbelt, said it goes against the intent of the provincial policy. She said the land rental model farmers use can still work if the lands are protected.
“I don’t think there is going to be any abundance of land that is available to be farmed that doesn’t have a farmer willing to farm it,” she said, adding there are seven colleges in Ontario with agricultural programs.
Empringham said agriculture associations will advocate on the issue, including at the provincial level, with the province having to vet some of the planning choices.
“In York Region, its prime agricultural land, and it needs to be protected."
Doner is skeptical that new farmers can overcome the barriers to entry in York Region.
“All the power to them, if they can enter the industry, that’s wonderful. The problem is the (land) value of the farms in this area are too great,” he said.
The future of the Doner family farm could be ending. He said farming can still happen in the foreseeable future in the outskirts of York Region, like King Township, but he does not see a way forward near the more urban centres.
"I would encourage my son to farm. I would say, 'if you want to farm, that would be great. But not in this community,'" he said, adding the traffic makes it increasingly dangerous. "I can't do it in this community because I don't want to go to his funeral."
He said he wants to eventually relocate to a more rural, agriculturally friendly community.
“You might as well accept the inevitable here. We are going to be pushed out.”
