Region releases report on why corn was destroyed on purchased Wilmot land

What happened to all the corn and why was it removed in the first place? Many have been asking this question since the Region of Waterloo hired out-of-town farmers to chop down a crop from a piece of land acquired as part of the Wilmot 770-acre land acquisition project.

Now, a new report into the matter has been released and will be presented to regional council Wednesday.

Back in July, a plot of land had an immature crop of corn destroyed. It was an action that outraged local farmers.

“We’re just upset about it, and we’re concerned that if this happens with this crop, it could happen anywhere,” said ‘Fight for Farmland’ spokesperson, Alfred Lowrick.

“They chose the deadline; all they had to do was change their deadline,” said farmer and Vice President of Waterloo Federation of Agriculture, Mark Reeser. “That crop could have been harvested. We could have saved the region hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money if we waited a little longer.”

Fight For Farmland protest outside Wilmot Township's council meeting on Aug. 26, 2024. (Colton Wiens/CTV News)Now, regional staff are presenting to council a new report into the matter. According to that report, some of the reasoning behind the crop removal is as follows:

• In order to conduct an archeological assessment immature feed corn crop was required to be removed
• The crop was estimated to be 10-16 weeks from harvest.
• not possible to delay the removal.
• No viable use found for immature crops
• The Waterloo Federation of Agriculture says – the crops could have been harvested earlier than listed in the report

Though the region says it did speak with feed producers and a biofuel company.

“They could have used everything growing on that field. How long would that have taken, probably in the area of five to six weeks,” said Reeser.

MPP Catherine Fife is also weighing in on the issue, writing a letter to the Auditor General, looking for more transparency.

“We asked her to do a full investigation from an environmental perspective, but also for a value for money audit,

The land acquisition is about creating shovel ready land for potential future investment, but Fife says the crop removal created another level of distrust.

“It undermines trust. And this is the consequences of this farmland grab and the secrecy and the lack of transparency and this is not the way that we do things in Waterloo,” said Fife.

In its report, the region also says it’ll make every effort to avoid removing any crops prematurely in the future.