Dear Editor,
Perhaps some are unaware of what is happening in Clearview Township, a small farming community northwest of Toronto. It was always called the Friendly Town of Stayner. Now it seems, on the face of it, the entire community has been blind-sided by the Minister and Department of National Defence (DND). Even the elected officials were unaware of what was coming.
In mid-September some residents received notification, from the Minister’s DND, that the federal government wanted to purchase their land. This was quite a shock. And it wasn’t just their land, the Minister wanted, but thousands of other acres of land, adding up to some 4,000+/- acres.
The reason for this purchase was so DND could put in “a Receive Site for National Defence’s Arctic Over-The-Horizon (A-OTHR) project.” This is to allow NORAD to receive radar communications from the high North. That’s as simple as one can make it.
This installation is demanding family farm after family farm give up their land, and yet there are other alternatives that the Minister hadn’t brought forward. Some have already heard the Minister’s excuses, but with a little research those excuses don’t really make any sense.
Most certainly the residents of Clearview want to do what they can for the defence of this nation. But with there being other options that would allow Canada to protect our national ability to feed ourselves, one has to ask why would the Minister, DND and the federal government make such demands.
The alternatives could be CFB Borden and the Meaford base. Considering DND is looking for land along 44° degrees latitude, and not the 46th degree stated on the DND web-site.
These other options are at the 44° degree needed and perhaps that is why they are already there? Who would know?
CFB Borden has approx. 15,000 acres and Meaford has approx. 20,000 acres. Some have suggested that there are unexploded ordnances on these bases. Borden will have a minimum small ammo left and if DND looked to Meaford, as long as they stay south of the training impact zone, there isn’t much there, either. Does one hear – Metal detector 101 and explosive training. Perhaps DND should take another look and expedite the clearance, wouldn’t one think?
Some are of the thought that the Minister and DND didn’t do adequate investigation into this issue. Now they are meeting an entire community, head on. 4,000 acres of farmland is huge. The entire area of Stayner (Clearview’s urban centre) is approx. 1,193 acres. There will be job losses; extreme economic harm; and the division this will cause amongst Canadians.
If Minister, DND and the federal government are going to strip families of their livelihoods in Clearview for questionable reasons, why would you think you are exempt?
In light of this perhaps every farmer in Ontario and Canada should be contacting their federal MP and tell them to use available “public land/property” and leave law-abiding citizens to live their lives making a good lawful living.
Elizabeth Marshall, Town of the Blue Mountains
