BradfordToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response to a previous letter published on Jan. 31 from Munawar Chudary.
I would like to thank the five councillors who stood up and voted in support of a new proposed bylaw amendment to prevent large scale mega events from being held on agricultural land more than once every 10 years at the Jan. 21 Bradford West Gwillimbury (BWG) council meeting. The four councillors who voted against the amendment all agreed in the council meeting that BWG council should be protecting farmland. They then voted against the amendment despite their concerns regarding town properties and large-scale events that were addressed in the amendment. Thank you to those who voted to protect farmland and create rules that are fair to all.
I am puzzled why in Munawar Chudary's letter in BradfordToday he stated, “the decision on Feb. 4 is more than a matter of policy; it is a test of Bradford’s identity as a town that champions fairness, diversity and collaboration."
Chudary appears to be confused, as policies/bylaws regarding land use are not about inclusivity, fairness, diversity and collaboration — bylaws are about the laws/guidelines governing the town and they create fairness for all that live here. They do not favour one group over another. The amendment is about zoning and protecting agriculturally zoned land — plain and simple. The amendment allows large-scale events to be held in the 400-employment industrial zoned areas. AMJ bought farm land; perhaps they should have bought Industrial land instead.
The AMJ land is clearly not being used for agricultural practices. You can not trample all over a hay crop in June and July during the main timeframe of Ontario's growing season and then expect it to miraculously come back and thrive. We are fifth-generation farmers that live in the area and our main crop is hay. Chudary states that AMJ will re-establish a hay crop after the event. He is obviously not a farmer!
In mid May, a farmer sows hay seed and then you hope (depending on weather) to get a first cut/crop in August. The following year, you will get two hay cuts, one in June and one in August. Crops have difficulty growing in severely compacted soil. If you use the land for an event with tents, flooring and as a parking lot from June to July, or about seven weeks, you will not have any hay crop to harvest!
In my opinion, the AMJ group is being very narrow-minded and looking only at their own event. They appear to be trying to bully their way to get approval and not looking at the bigger picture and the implications of large-scale events (up to 25,000 people) on 100-acre farms in BWG, and the possibility of these events being held every weekend throughout the town on farmland. It would change our agricultural community greatly. Most townships in the surrounding area have similar large-scale-event bylaws in place to protect their agricultural land.
During the council meeting, one councillor mentioned he had recently been approached about having a rave (large dance party) on farmland. Chudary said that the new proposed amendment could unfairly target some groups. I disagree. I believe the new proposed amendment creates fair guidelines for all residents and taxpayers to follow. In fact, I would like to see the special events number lowered from 2,000 people to less than 1,000 per event.
In my opinion, in his letter Chudary also insults councillors by stating "recent actions by five councillors — including three newly elected ones."
Is he insinuating that the "new" councillors do not know how to make a good decision with the best interest of BWG in mind because they are “new” to council? "New," meaning they have only been a councillor for over two years! This is an interesting comment considering that the BWG mayor, deputy mayor and councillor Scott appear to have all received campaign donations in the 2022 election from persons affiliated with the AMJ group. Those same three councillors all voted against the amendment to protect farmland.
In my opinion, the proposed amendment that will be voted on Feb. 4 correctly protects agriculturally zoned land from large-scale mega events. The proposed amendment will create fairness to all that live and pay taxes in BWG. It is up to every councillor of BWG to do the right thing for all of BWG and vote in support of protecting agricultural land.
Linda Roberts and family
Gilford
