Tewin owners signed farming lease weeks after clear-cutting the area

A lease to farm lands owned by the partners developing the future Tewin suburb wasn't signed until March 3 — weeks after the controversial clear-cutting of the property — a city committee heard Tuesday.

For weeks, residents and some councillors have had questions about how the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) and Taggart Group cut down thousands of trees, including in the middle of the night, without a permit. More information came to the fore during a meeting of the environment and climate change committee on Tuesday, a month after a neighbour first captured drone images that showed the extent of the cutting.

The Tewin partners had said they did not need a permit to do the cutting because they were cleaning up a public hazard after trees fell during the derecho storm. They also said they were preparing to farm.

City staff eventually agreed the clear-cutting was allowed under an exemption in the tree protection bylaw that allows for removal as part of "a normal farm practice carried out as part of an agricultural operation by a farming business."

But a number of committee members and a dozen public delegations expressed deep cynicism about the clear-cutting.

"The Taggarts and Algonquins look bad, the city looks bad," said River ward Coun. Riley Brockington.

Brockington expressed disbelief that Taggart thought it was a good idea to cut down thousands of trees in the middle of the night without informing the community or local councillor, and simply explain its actions after the fact.

"This does not pass the smell test at all, Taggart, for a company as large as you are, with the experience that you have. No one is buying this."

Questions on timing, what constitutes farming

The city's planning and legal staff said the lease signed between the Tewin partners and a farmer could not be made public for commercial reasons, but city councillors could arrange to view it.

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine drilled into the timeline, pointing out no farming practice existed on the property when the clear-cutting happened in February. The lease was signed, and delivered to the city, on March 3, he said.

"Would staff not agree that having a lease in place between the landowner and a farming operator would be the minimum prerequisite for this being a farming business in the first place?" Devine asked staff.

Acting general manager of planning, Don Herweyer, said a signed lease was a "key component" in determining whether farming was going to occur on the land, but he also said the city was aware of discussions about possibly farming the land dating back to October 2022.

Before committee members grilled staff, a dozen public delegations with backgrounds in farming, forests, wildlife gave public deputations, along with concerned neighbours. No representative from Taggart Group or the Algonquins of Ontario appeared Tuesday.

Tree bylaw debate

Many of those who spoke at committee picked apart the wording of the city's tree bylaw, and disputed that the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Group were a farm business undertaking "normal farming practices" as the bylaw stipulates.

"It is not clear that the removal of a woodlot is normal farm practice of an agricultural operation," said Phil Mount, who has a personal and professional background in farming.

He told the committee tree removal is not listed among standard practices under Ontario's Farming and Food Production Protection Act.

Mount said he checked all past rulings of the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board, which determines what is or is not a normal farm practice, and could find not precedent that allowed for removal of a woodlot.

Others called on the city to better protect natural infrastructure that can guard against flooding, or offer incentives to woodlot owners to preserve forests because of their benefits.

Donna Debreuil of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre said winter was a particularly bad time to have destroyed habitat and would have killed animals.

"Clear-cutting requires heavy equipment that crushes hibernating animals that are underground in dens and burrows," she told the committee.

Broken trust

For residents who live near the site, who discovered the clear-cutting themselves, it came down to a loss of trust.

"This doesn't work if that's the way that the city protects our forests, that we all have to be on Facebook and have little drones running around telling you which trees are being cut," said resident Monica Brewer.

"There's got to be a better way, there's got to be permits."

The environment committee directed staff to look at potential changes to the tree-cutting bylaw that would require landowners to show proof before being exempted from the rules, and to communicate with neighbours.

Coun. David Brown, who represents the rural ward of Rideau-Jock and has long been involved in the agricultural community, agreed the cutting at Tewin may not be passing the "smell test," but he cautioned against making any new rules too stringent for operating farmers.