Dear Editor,
On November 11th I was somewhat distressed to read of Ms. Porter and her neighbour’s tribulations arising from the local Escarpment Biosphere Conservatory challenging their right to build homes on their properties even after they had gained full approval from the local Township and the County of Bruce. How can this be in a free and democratic society with respect for all? Indeed, later in the article I was starting to get irritated upon reading that I, as a taxpayer, was paying great sums for a Township and County retained lawyer and other staff to rebuff the Conservatory position of massive overreach.
In terms of Remembrance Day let’s remember that the reason our relatives died in WW part 2 was to preserve our rights and freedoms including the right to hold private property. Needless to say one of the main differences between the Allies of Britain and her colonies, France and the Scandinavian Countries as opposed to the Axis was that the former had private property engrained in their society and the later didn’t. As Walter Lippmann suggested in the 1950’s, “the people of the Allies were independent and resisted the absolute state because they had, as Aristotle said, “a modest and sufficient property.””
“Lest we forget?” – It appears that we have forgotten much over the intervening 76 years…
I’ve been involved in agriculture all my life and have witnessed the encroachment of “authorities” on my farmland without compensation, de facto expropriation without compensation. Theft if you will? From the imposition of Environmental Hazard designations, to Provincially Significant wetlands, to rulings of the NEC (which essentially duplicated the function of Provincial Planning) and so on.
Let’s also remember that many of the pioneers in this area left their homelands forever and toiled day and night in the rough bush so that they could own their own land and not merely work the land of the local Baron or Earl.
The question here could be made threefold,
Firstly, it is the question of balance. On our small narrow peninsula/Township how much of the land should be “conserved”, made into parkland and otherwise removed from the public domain? It is somewhat ingenuine of some entities to rail against the mystical “developers” when the actual buyers/builders are our children and our grandchildren. New Canadians who see cottage ownership as part of the fabric of Canadian life. We have our own personal cottages so everyone else can go jump in the lake – is that what we are saying?
Secondly, is it all representative of a bogus situation that needs to be closely examined? 10’s of thousands of houses are being built over prime corn land north of Toronto every year. Over the food supply of our grandchildren. Is this where real conservation will pay dividends?
And thirdly, Ms. Porter, I speak for many of my neighbours when I agree with you that this “Conservatory”, which receives significant Government funds, should stop this appeal immediately. Or at the very least totally reimburse the Township for all costs associated with this display of petulance and overreach.
On Remembrance Day let’s recall the old maxim, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. For those whose haven’t yet directly thought of the dangers of inroads into the security of private property, consider the great cost of the ill-conceived windmill program where laws/statutes were generated actually forbidding local refusals to locate windmills. Don’t forget the communal distress on being told (not asked) that 100 plus windmills were being built between Southampton and Ferndale. And they would have been built but for the intervention of economics.
So moderation in all things. Overcome the temptation to think that you know better than your neighbour. Resist the latent desire to force your will on other property owners even if hiding thru proxy organizations, like Conservatories and Conservation Authorities. Remember that it could be your child or grandchild that is next denied a building permit on their private land – if they can find any land they are allowed to buy.
Kevin Doyle,
Dorcas Bay
