I would like to wish everyone a very ‘Merry Christmas’ from the Ontario Landowners Association and hope that this special season finds you and yours, healthy and in good spirits.
This year has been an extremely busy year for the OLA as governments of all levels continue to infringe on the private property rights of the citizens that they serve. As usual our local governments effect our daily life the most as they try to create Official Plans that control what property owners do on their property. The fact that their authority is restricted to public property or property that they have made agreements on, with the owner, doesn’t seem to cross their minds. The local governments, in concert with the area conservation authorities soldier on to take more and more control of private property. In his presentation at a council meeting to the Wainfleet Council down in Niagara in November, the CAO of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority stated that at present they own 7500 acres and their goal for the next few years is to add another 25000 acres to that.
The province is now adding to this attack on private property with an Omnibus bill 139 that makes many changes of unknown consequences, but for sure, the bill will give the conservation authorities more powers of entry. Even when this government knows very well that they have no authority to enter private property without the consent of the owner or with a warrant. Our constitutional rights cannot legally be overridden by a provincial government with an amendment to an act.
Of course on the Federal front the multimillionaire Finance Minister Morneau brought in a bill that would have rewarded people who sold their farms to strangers rather than family members. What kind of thought pattern would try to destroy the continuity of the family farm, or small business? These people are the backbone of this nation and many are descendants of the people who cut this country out of the bush to give us this great place to live and raise our families.
In the year ahead, join with us, the OLA to hold all levels of government to do their duty as servants of the citizens of Canada. Remind them at every opportunity that the laws of this land were created to protect individuals against the mob, and remind them that we believe in the law and we believe that government must not only uphold it, they too must respect and obey it, just like the rest of the citizens are expected to do.