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Life was good for Rachel Brooks and her family on their 40-hectare farm, about 130 kilometers north of Toronto, until the expected letter from the Department of National Defense (DND) arrived.
“It immediately impacted my sense of security in my home – I have a place to live – and my safety in the sense that I could have something that I have taken away from me,” Brooks told CBC News. “[That] what we have worked so hard for the last 45 years could be taken away from us.”
Over the summer, DND sent letters to Brooks and dozens of other farmers in the area asking if they would consider selling their property to make way for a large-scale radar project. CBC reviewed a number of these letters.
Brooks says he has no plans to sell his property and move his family.
“I remember opening the letter and thinking: is this a joke? What's going on here? said Brooks, who helped lead local opposition to the project.
The town of Clearview, located near Stayner, Ontario, is home to acres of lush farmland. This is where the government wants to build a vast radar site covering more than 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres).
In southern Ontario, two sites have been identified – one in Clearview and the other in the Kawartha Lakes region – to house two massive transmitting and receiving stations with rows of antennas surrounded by a six-metre-high barbed wire fence.
Arctic over-the-horizon radar (A-OTHR) is part of a $38 billion investment to enhance Canada's contribution to NORAD.
The proposed project has caused a wave of concern and fear in the community. An initial meeting was held between affected community members and DND, but there was little response, Brooks said. Residents want assurances that the government will not expropriate their land if they decide not to sell. DND will have the right to provide “due compensation” for the farmland if they decide to proceed with the project and a deal cannot be reached.
Farmers want to get out of uncertainty
A few miles from the Brooks home is the sprawling Hutchinson family farm.
“My family has been on this property since 1879 and I am the fifth generation to take over and my son will hopefully be the sixth generation,” Matt Hutchison said. “It’s hard to come to terms with the knowledge that we could lose everything.”
Hutchison and his wife say uncertainty about the future has paralyzed their ability to plan ahead, a key component of running a successful farm.
“We are at an impasse. We don't know what to do. Are we moving forward with the plans we had for the future?” Jennifer Hutchinson said. “We are just sitting here in limbo, but the farmers are not in limbo. Do we plan to move forward and continue to work hard? You just wonder why.”
Of course, the looming question is what happens if the Hutchinsons and others refuse to sell? DND has already acquired about 280 hectares of land in the area, but needs to acquire hundreds of additional hectares to make the project viable.
“DND is committed to acquiring any property in a mutually beneficial manner, including fair compensation and a smooth transaction process,” DND said in a statement to CBC News.
“While DND is exploring land acquisition strategies to meet A-OTHR needs, DND is not currently working to expropriate land plans.”
Questions for the government
Residents say they are not convinced. The same applies to the region's MP Terry Dowdell, who has represented the riding since 2019 and was previously the region's long-serving mayor.
Other than the initial community meeting, there was little information about what direction this project might take. Dowdell says he has been putting pressure on the government and officials in Ottawa about the project and, in particular, how it will proceed if people decide they don't want to sell. (According to Dowdell, only one person has agreed to sell so far.)
“The government is investing a lot of money in this facility without receiving any commitment. And will they continue? And I still don’t have a 100 percent answer,” Dowdell said. “And that’s part of the concern for the locals. Will they expropriate or will they not expropriate?”
Dowdell and many others also question why the area was chosen in the first place. DND says the choice was driven by a “set of complex and inflexible requirements,” including latitude, flat land and suitable distance from sources of radio noise.
Dowdell says the fast-growing area doesn't meet many of the criteria listed. The bigger problem, as many in the area point out, is that it will destroy valuable farmland and change the area's established way of life.
“We don't really know who's making the decisions when it comes to why they targeted our community,” Clearview Township Mayor Doug Meurs said. “Right now [we] We will do everything we can to demonstrate that it is better for us to preserve agricultural land that benefits Canadians than to take that land out of production.”
“Retiring 4,000 acres of land will definitely have a ripple effect throughout our community,” Meurs said. “The farmer will buy goods from local suppliers, in stores. But all those jobs will eventually suffer as you cut back on the number of farmers.”
Everyone in the community says they will continue to push for answers and try, amid great uncertainty, to imagine a future in an area that many have farmed for generations.
“We have no idea because they're not giving us answers,” Jennifer Hutchison said through tears. “We're waiting for another envelope to show up in the mailbox.”
