Vote No on ZBA25-2025 OPA5-2025, 7013 Walkers Drive

May 15th, 2026

To: His Worship the Mayor and Members of Council, Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc

Re: Vote No on ZBA25-2025 OPA5-2025, 7013 Walkers Drive

Dear Mayor and Councillors,

The National Farmers Union-Ontario (NFU-O) is an accredited farm organization representing sustainable farmers in Ontario and has advocated for farmers across Ontario since 1969. Members work together to achieve agricultural policies that ensure dignity and income security for farmers, while protecting and enhancing rural environments for current and future generations.

It has come to our attention that the municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc is considering a Zoning By-law Amendment and Official Plan Amendment application at 7013 Walkers Drive that would redesignate and rezone part of an approximately 40 hectare agricultural parcel to support a hospice development. While NFU-O recognizes the importance of development to support the aging population, we advocate for holistic development solutions that protect Ontario’s prime agricultural land and the conservation activities on these lands, stewarded by farmers, Indigenous communities, and local conservationists. We are writing to request that council members vote no on ZBA25-2025 OPA5-2025, 7013 Walkers Drive. Advancing this proposal in its current form threatens the protection of prime agricultural land, and is inconsistent with the Provincial Planning Statement (PPS), 2024.

Prime Agricultural Land Protection

Development on lands that are part of a larger, actively farmed prime agricultural parcel would not only permanently remove prime agricultural land from production, but would fragment the entire active farm unit. Prime farmland development sets a precedent for future fragmentation and urban sprawl, systematically removing prime agricultural acreage from production at an astonishing rate. At a provincial scale, 319 acres of farmland are lost every single day to urban development, sprawl, and infrastructure expansion. 

Prime agricultural soil takes thousands of years to form and is highly productive, having less limitations for crop production than non-prime soil. Instead of choosing to pave over an essential non-renewable resource, NFU-O advocates that the municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc work to realize complete communities in existing built up areas to ensure it is accounting for long-term best practice land use planning. 

Failure to Meet PPS Requirements

The PPS provides a framework to support municipalities in selecting development sites that ensure prime farmland is protected. For example, PPS Section 4.3.5 requires that planning authorities only permit non-agricultural uses in prime agricultural areas for limited non-residential uses, provided that all of the following are demonstrated: 

1. the land does not comprise a specialty crop area; 
2. the proposed use complies with the minimum distance separation formulae; 
3. there is an identified need within the planning horizon identified in the official plan as provided for in policy 2.1.3 for additional land to accommodate the proposed use; and 
4. alternative locations have been evaluated, and 
5. there are no reasonable alternative locations which avoid prime agricultural areas; and 
6. there are no reasonable alternative locations in prime agricultural areas with lower priority agricultural lands. 

The proponent’s site analysis identifies multiple locations that would support the realization of complete communities in areas that are already built up. However, 7013 Walkers Drive is ultimately chosen as a result of a multi-criteria scoring matrix that inserts subjective criteria like donor appeal, serenity, or short travel times, and is not consistent with PPS thresholds mentioned above. The PPS thresholds are pre-conditions, and are not to be considered with the same weight as other project-specific factors. By selecting a site through a weighted matrix that does not eliminate or significantly discount a site for being on prime farmland, the proponent has failed to meet PPS site selection criteria. Moving forward with an approval would override best practice land use planning and compromise a piece of Ontario’s finite prime farmland.

Conclusion

NFU-O is opposed to any development on prime agricultural land, as it is a critical non-renewable resource that we have a collective responsibility to protect for future generations. We urge the council to keep its decision consistent with the PPS to uphold best practice land use planning methodologies, and ensure this proposal is not approved in its current form. We reiterate that we recognize the need for institutions like hospices to serve the aging population, and advocate that the proponent is encouraged to revise their submission and integrate a site selection criteria that satisfies requirements under the PPS, working to advance responsible and sustainable development for current and future residents in the municipality.

Respectfully,

Josh Suppan

NFU-O President

president@nfuontario.ca

(705) 738-3993 – #2

Jesse James Barbosa

NFU-O Local 312 President

local312@nfuontario.ca