Burlington Agricultural & Rural Affairs Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:
Date:
Time:
-
Location:
Virtual

1.
Members Present:
 

Glenn Portch (Chair), Norm Richardson, Vanessa Warren, Jamie Fisher, Maura Romanelli, Larry Campbell, Vincent Sowa, Michiel Barnard, Simon O'Keefe (alternate) and Peter Starcevic (alternate)

2.
Regrets:
 

John Timmis and Sarah Pralet

3.
Others Present:
 

Councillor Angelo Bentivegna, Kelly Cook (Planner) and Jo-Anne Rudy (Clerk)

4.
Declarations of Interest:
 

None

5.
Approval of Minutes:
 

6.
Delegation(s):
 

None

7.
Regular Items:
 

7.1
Burlington Climate Adaptation Plan 
 

  • Kelly advised that a request has been received from Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services staff for a member from BARAAC to sit on a community stakeholder team to develop Burlington's climate adaptation plan. The goal of the climate adaptation plan is to have one plan that speaks to both city operations and the community. As such, a cross functional staff team has already been struck and has met a total of three times so far in March and April. Staff are now working on developing a parallel community stakeholder team. The anticipated commitment will be two-hour monthly daytime meetings along with the potential for two of those meetings being longer to conduct workshops. The first meeting is scheduled for June 1st from 1 to 3 p.m. via Zoom.
  • Kelly stated the importance for the committee to participate on this team; however, understood the challenges for members to commit to regular daytime meetings during the growing season. It was suggested that perhaps a team approach could be taken where there is flexibility for 2 members to participate as co-leads, and sub in if one is unable to make a meeting. An additional 2 committee members offered to provide support as well. Committee agreed with this suggestion and Kelly noted she would take it back to staff to ensure this approach is agreeable. Thanks to Glenn, Vanessa, Maura and Norm for volunteering.

7.2
Burlington Housing Strategy
 

  • Kelly provided an introduction of the Housing Strategy and advised that the Housing Strategy Project Team is reaching out to all advisory committees to share and seek feedback on the draft Engagement Plan and would welcome the opportunity to attend an upcoming meeting to provide an overview and discuss how BARAAC could be involved.
  • Members agreed that they would like to start by learning more about the project, with a focus on potential rural area connections (initial topics of interest include secondary/additional residential units, housing for farm labour/retiring farmers, and rural residential estates in prime agricultural areas). Action - Kelly will ask staff to attend a future meeting.

7.3
Update from Region's Agricultural Working Group
 

  • Vanessa shared that she is disappointed with the process and lack of results considering there are only two meetings left. She stated that the Region is putting a model together for the group to look at for the next meeting scheduled for May 20.
  • Jamie advised that there has been some movement but expectations were higher. He stated that the Region needs to provide reasons outlining their decisions with back-up of policy. He is hopeful that some answers will be received at the May 20 meeting.

7.4
Key Policy Issues related to the Region's Official Plan Review 
 

  • Kelly stated that unfortunately the Agricultural Working Group discussions are  occurring prior to staff engagement on draft policy directions, so she is not able to share detailed staff comments for BARAAC’s review at this time. However, to provide BARAAC with an overview of what City staff will be focusing on when broader engagement on agricultural policies commences later this year, she highlighted some of the pinch points she has observed:
    • definition of commercial farm
      • concept of farm “viability” and criteria for establishing/verifying viability (including minimum farm parcel size)
    • policies for on-farm diversified uses and criteria for establishing/verifying that they are secondary
      • event permitting process (what belongs in OP vs. local by-laws)
    • concept of taking agricultural land “out of production”
    • definition of existing use (particularly in relation to fallow fields or rotational uses)
    • concept of farm building cluster

7.5
2021 Government Advocacy Priorities
 

  • Due to time constraints, this item will be discussed at the next meeting.

8.
Other Business:
 

None

9.
Adjournment: 9:00 p.m.
 

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