My Barn, My Business by Elizabeth Marshall

Elizabeth Marshall

Elizabeth Marshall reacts to a call from Ontario Barn Preservation (OBP) (Ontario Barn Preservation – Preserving Ontario’s rural history one barn at a time!) for “policies to make it easier to preserve heritage barns” in Grey County. Recently, Westley Wilson (OBP) asked his municipal council to support the organization’s goals of saving some of the century-old structures which are disappearing from the landscape. Grey County director of planning suggested that official plan amendments scheduled for later in 2021 may be an opportunity to include such policies.

Elizabeth writes: “When are people going to start minding their own business?  If I want to keep my barn – I will.  If I want to sever it off when I sell my farm – I will and if anyone wants to tear down their old barn they can and replace it with a better barn…we DO NOT need government or anyone else telling us we cannot.

In this article notice Wilson says he doesn’t want it mandatory – BUT – when a home is severed from the farm – he wants the barn to have to go with it…what kind of idiotic is that!!!  No Comment on the Mayor’s comments but I don’t think any of them have thought this through to a final conclusion – if you have a barn, you might as well tear it down now because you won’t be able to in future…not matter how much you want/need to…

Haven’t Farmers suffered enough under regulation, legislation, and “snowflake” by-laws in Ontario…even a hint of this makes anything done a violation of some part of fluff…Heritage and conservation are going to be the ruination of agriculture in Ontario…

Common sense would tell anyone that this is merely another means to take rights and violate the sanctity of property/ land ownership!”