Waterloo Regional councillors look for answers after crop destruction

Waterloo Regional councillors will be digging for answers after hundreds of thousands of dollars of corn was destroyed at a Wilmot farm.

The Fight for Farmland group gathered outside a Wilmot Township council meeting last month after a social media post, allegedly showing the corn crop being plowed under, was posted online.

The social media post garnered thousands of views and spiked the ire of community members across the region.

Vice-Chair of the Grand River Environmental Network Kevin Thomason told CTV News Kitchener the crop was only a few weeks away from harvest.

Now councillors want to know why it happened.

The crop destruction came as the Region of Waterloo is trying to acquire 770 acres of rural land. The corn crop was on land that is part of the plan to develop a “shovel-ready site” for future development.

A motion went before committee earlier this week, asking for a report within 4 weeks outlining what happened, including what actions were taken to mitigate the loss of crops. The motion states that report will be made public.

The motion also states the Region of Waterloo will “commit to ensuring, with respect to crops on any further farms purchased through the Land Assembly, that the first consideration will be assessing whether the crops can be harvested, and a suitable use found for the yield.”

The region has previously stated there is no investor currently interested in the land at this stage.

With reporting from Ashley Bacon