Regulatory heat turns tropical at Huron County fruit farm

by SUSAN MANN

A Huron County-area banana and tropical fruit farm with plans to dramatically expand its specialty production must first scale a wall of opposition from local municipalities and a conservation authority that blocks its current operations.

Canada Banana Farms, owned by Laurie Macpherson, faces charges from two local municipalities and the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority, mostly to do with land-clearing activities and the farm’s hoop houses.

In November, the farm’s operators will appear in Provincial Offences Court in Goderich to face one charge of violating a Conservation Authorities Act regulation by altering a wetland.

Maitland Valley Conservation Authority general manager Phil Beard says the authority laid the charge after the farm’s operators failed to obtain a permit for clearing a portion of wooded swamp on the farm’s property that is under the authority’s jurisdiction. The activity, he says, “is considered development under our legislation and therefore he (the farm’s administrator) wasn’t in compliance with our regulation for development in a wooded swamp.”

Development in an area under the conservation authority’s jurisdiction includes building a house or other structures, grading or draining. People wanting to do the development “would need to get a permit under our legislation and be able to show it’s not going to cause flooding or erosion upstream or downstream or cause pollution to the watercourse that’s there,” Beard says.

The charge includes a stop work order which means the business cannot sell produce.

Claims have not been proven in court.

Huron County has also issued a stop work order, asserting that the farm’s tree-cutting activity contravenes a tree cutting bylaw. It’s the latest 90-day order in a string of more than six issued for the same reason by the county over the past few years.

The  farm’s operators have asked the Normal Farm Practices Board to look into the matter, and Ontario agriculture ministry spokesperson Susin Micallef says by email the case is on hold because an order of the board was appealed to divisional court. The court’s decision hasn’t been released yet.

The board hears complaints about farm practices and rules on whether they are normal. It also hears cases involving conflicts between farm practices and municipal bylaws.

Micallef did not say who made the appeal.

Scott Tousaw, Huron County director of planning, development and IT, says he can’t discuss the Canada Bananas Farms situation specifically “because it’s before the courts.”

As for the stop work orders, Tousaw says, they’re normally issued “when there is an alleged contravention” of the bylaw “so that the matter can be reviewed by the (Provincial Offences) Court.”

The farm also faces a Township of North Huron cease and desist order that calls for the removal of two hoop houses because no building permits were obtained. The houses are made from galvanized steel hoops that are covered with plastic sheeting and are considered by the township to be permanent structures.

Township officials could not be reached for comment.

Terry Brake, the farm’s administrator, says township officials “didn’t have the right” to order the hoop houses’ removal.

In a telephone interview, Brake claims the township’s former building official looked at the first hoop house they installed and determined the structure wasn’t permanent. However, the building official’s replacement ordered the hoop houses to be removed because he said they were permanent structures, Brake asserts.

If the hoop houses are considered to be non-permanent structures, the farm doesn’t have to pay commercial taxes on them or get building permits to erect them, Brake explains. “We’re just taxed on our farm land.”

He claims the township wants the farm to pay commercial taxes on the hoop houses and asserts “we have a letter from their own people saying it’s not commercial so we can’t be charged commercial tax.”

Brake asserts the farm follows normal farm practices and Huron County’s tree cutting bylaws.

He claims they asked the county for permission to clear some trees “that we were having problems with on our hydro wires” and were given the go ahead from Tousaw. “As soon as we did (cut the trees), we got charged with clearcutting.”

They also cut about 2.5 acres of trees damaged by a tornado, he says.

Brake claims the bylaw states people are allowed to cut wood “for their own personal use and you don’t need a permit.”

The hoop houses and the farmhouse are heated with wood, Brake says.   

In an Oct. 9 post on Canada Banana Farms Facebook page, Macpherson asserts that the Maitland Conservation Authority charge had to do with a “plugged drain. We had to fix it as it was plugged solid.”

They dug out the old drain and added a new length of plastic pipe, Macpherson writes.

She asserts the Drainage Act allows farmers to fix and maintain drains and tile on their property without needing permission from the local conservation authority.

Brake says the 100-acre farm near Blyth has been operating for five years and grows tropical fruit year round, such as mangos, oranges, limes, lemons, pineapples and papayas, in two hoop houses. Its main crop is bananas. There are plans to expand to 102 hoop houses on a total of six acres.

There is also three acres of outdoor vegetable crops. The produce was being sold at area farmers’ markets and through customers’ orders at the farm. BF