News

Looking to the Future, While Protecting the Past

The Record has posted an article by Carolyn Thompson Goddard, January 15, Villager News.

Spokesperson Rhonda Bradley spoke to The Record on behalf of StandOurGround.

“Describing the township as being “a vibrant rural community for generations, with agriculture at its core”, she mentioned how there are concerns about the rise in taxes, traffic and the displacement of families by the development, noting the growth is exceeding the capacity of the TOR (Township of Russell) and how “Almost month by month, Russell has become a busier, nosier, less safe, more expensive place to live.”

Please go to the The Record’s website and read the full article.

Successful StandOurGround rally outside Russell Town Hall

A few of the StandOurGround group who gathered at Russell Town Hall on December 16, 2024, to express their concerns.

Grassroots group opposes loss of Russell farmland

By Tom Van Dusen
Ontario Farmer

Embrun - Inside the municipal hall Dec. 16, Russell Township council was thanking the local MPP for delivering $1.5 million for further expansion of the industrial park close to Highway 417.

Outside, the atmosphere wasn’t so cordial. A clutch of sign-bearing protestors, members of a fledgling grass-roots community group trying to curb that expansion, indicated they’re worried that the rural environment which attracted many of them to Russell, including prime farmland the main local economic generator, is rapidly disappearing.

“While accepting change, we want to preserve our basic rural way of life,” said Rhonda Bradley one of the leaders of StandOurGround. “If we don’t take action, we’ll lose the very things that make our township special.”

Either solo or with colleagues, Bradley has protested many aspects of the industrial park project over the past two years including the magnitude of it, it’s proximity to residences, it’s impact on the environment, and lack of consultation with ratepayers. Council has plowed ahead, motivated by additional tax revenues and new jobs among businesses establishing in the park.

Appointed by Russell council colleagues last May to replace Pierre Leroux who quit to become CAO of a neighbouring municipality, Mayor Mike Tarnowski thanked Conservative MPP Stephane Sarrazin for the windfall under the Eastern Ontario Development Fund.

Noting that the industrial park accommodates 82 businesses with 12 on a waiting list, Tarnowski said the investment will support continued growth by fostering creation of more local jobs, stimulating the economy and diversifying the tax base.

The provincial money will cover design, surveying, topography, and construction of two street extensions along with installation of essential services: “Investment-ready lands attract businesses on a global scale, enhance local competitiveness, and ensure a dynamic economic ecosystem.”

Bradley clarified that StandOurGround isn’t just opposed to industrial expansion but also to “headlong” residential growth of the type Russell has been experiencing. The group blames “irresponsible and unaccountable actions” of elected decision-makers in support of developers for a “calamity in the making.”

On behalf of the group, Bradley has asked Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence to investigate value-for money in reference to continued industrial expansion.

“We have serious concerns about the fiscal prudence of council’s management of the expansion as well as current and long-term return on investment to ratepayers,” she wrote to Spence Dec. 19.

The municipality continues to lose land every year to “sprawling, high density housing construction” and to projects such as industrial park expansion. Bradley and her group feel development should be much more controlled and orderly: “Loss of large tracts of rich farmland each year seriously threatens future food production.”

Another land-gobbling project the group questions is the sports complex under construction on the edge of Embrun where they feel costs are “out of line when the money should be spent on essential water and waste-water management.”

The group fears ratepayers will continue to be hit with “unprecedented” property tax increases; the township draft budget for 2025 includes a 10.6 tax increase, among the highest in Eastern Ontario.

StandOurGround wants council to pause development plans and “take a reality check;” it advocates “quality over quantity” and a focus on “thoughtful growth;” it wants strict protection of farmland and the environment; and it is calling for more support for agriculture as “a key part of our local economy.”

“Almost month by month, Russell has become a busier, noisier and less safe place to live, hundreds of new homes have been built here in the last several years. Unfortunately, new construction is blindly absorbing hundreds of acres of prime farmland, mature forests, and wetlands.”

The StandOurGround group were also interviewed by several other media representatives, including a CBC Radio interview with Rhonda Bradley and Mark Van Dusen. CBC Radio posted an article online. A partial transcript from the article below:

Des résidents mécontents
Des manifestants d'un groupe intitulé Stand Our Ground se sont rassemblés en marge de l’annonce pour dénoncer un manque de transparence de la part des gouvernements et faire part de leurs inquiétudes quant à la perte de terres agricoles.

« Chaque fois qu'ils peuvent être transparents, ils ont tendance à être opaques. Nous demandons plus de transparence, plus de responsabilité. Nous aimerions être inclus dans les prises de décision. » - Rhonda Bradley

En réponse à ces préoccupations, le maire de la Municipalité de Russell assure être à l’écoute de la population et dit souhaiter trouver un équilibre entre les projets de la Municipalité et les craintes de citoyens. « Tout ce qu'on fait en ce moment, c'est complètement transparent. »

M. Tarnowski a rappelé que les propriétés touchées par le développement du Parc industriel 417 appartiennent déjà à la Municipalité.

« On grossit à vue d'œil, on a beaucoup de résidents qui s'en viennent, on a de gros, beaux, gros projets, se réjouit le maire. »

New Ontario Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)

On October 20, 2024, Ontario’s new Provincial Planning Statement (PPS) officially came into effect. While the Government of Ontario is claiming it will simply streamline processes for development, the reality is alarming. These revisions significantly weaken environmental protections and put Ontario’s natural heritage, farmland and wetlands at serious risk, while incentivizing more urban sprawl.

The new PPS permits a planning authority (i.e. United Counties of Prescott and Russell) to identify a new settlement area or allow a settlement area boundary expansion at any time (i.e., outside of the Municipal Comprehensive Review process of 5-years). It also removes the current conditions required to be satisfied before settlement area additions or boundary expansions are permitted. The requirements now provides that in order to identify a new settlement area or allowing a settlement area boundary expansion, planning authorities “shall consider” the following:

  1. the need to designate and plan for additional land to accommodate an appropriate range and mix of land uses;
  2. if there is sufficient capacity in existing or planned infrastructure and public service facilities;
  3. whether the applicable lands comprise specialty crop areas;
  4. the evaluation of alternative locations which avoid prime agricultural areas and, where avoidance is not possible, consider reasonable alternatives on lower priority agricultural lands in prime agricultural areas;
  5. whether the new or expanded settlement area complies with the minimum distance separation formulae;
  6. whether impacts on the agricultural system are avoided, or where avoidance is not possible, minimized and mitigated to the extent feasible as determined through an agricultural impact assessment or equivalent analysis, based on provincial guidance; and
  7. the new or expanded settlement area provides for the phased progression of urban development.