Comber resident trying to keep greenhouses out of Lakeshore
Jill Miner, a fourth-generation grain farmer has started a petition to get more residents to speak out against the idea of greenhouse development.
“Have a voice and make sure that our municipality knows that the people living in it or surrounding it aren’t wanting this to happen,” Miner tells CTV News in an interview Tuesday.
“I realize we need it for our economy, but the destruction of the land they'll never be able to get that land back to its original state should the greenhouse industry decline,” says Miner.
Miner says she wouldn’t sell her land to a greenhouse company but she is worried her neighbours might, and then she’d be surrounded by greenhouses.
She started a petition, both paper form and online, to encourage residents to participate in one of the town hall meetings about the Lakeshore Greenhouse Study.
Miner admits she is against the industry as a whole because she fears it means the end of her way of life.
“We're going to be dealing with corporations. And a corporation basically is doing it to increase the bottom line. They're not concerned about the people living there,” says Miner.
She plans to attend both upcoming Town Hall meetings.
One is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 23, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Atlas Tube Centre.
A second one will be held Thursday Sept. 1 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Comber Community Centre.
“We're aware that there is a petition underway right now,” says corporate leader of growth and sustainability for the Municipality of Lakeshore Tammie Ryall. “Certainly we welcome their input.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Ryall tells CTV News the study is the next step in a process that started back in 2019, when council asked for information about the “nuisance effects of light pollution.”
Ryall says the study scope was broadened “to look at all the effects, or potential effects of greenhouse development in Lakeshore.”
“We're trying to be proactive through this study to be ready if we do have proposals come forward for large scale greenhouse operations.”
Storey Samways Planning of Chatham prepared the 41-page document, which deals with everything from light and odour pollution to the financial impact of the greenhouse industry.
The report does not, however, make a determination one way or the other, if Lakeshore should get into the greenhouse industry.
With so much land zoned agricultural, Ryall says it would be “difficult” to ban the industry outright.
“We are looking for different tools to regulate it,” says Ryall.
The study is now available for residents and stakeholders to read online.
The town will be accepting comments on it until Sept. 6 and then administration will present a final report to council at their meeting on Oct. 11.
Ryall says it’s up to council to decide how the municipality moves forward with regulating the greenhouse industry, if at all.
The clock is ticking however because the town’s interim control bylaw, prohibiting greenhouse development, expires in March 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spectacular aurora light show to be seen across Canada Friday night
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
BREAKING McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
U.S. says Israel's use of U.S. arms likely violated international law, but evidence is incomplete
The Biden administration said Friday that Israel's use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Mother assaulted by stranger while breastfeeding baby in her car: Vancouver police
A person was arrested in East Vancouver Thursday after allegedly entering a car while a mother was breastfeeding her four-month-old boy.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.