Changes coming to farm dwelling regulations

LEAMINGTON — Despite concerns from local greenhouse growers, Leamington Council made the decision to impose heavier regulations on farm worker dwellings within the municipality.

At a special meeting of Council on Thursday April 29, delegations were heard from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers and lawyers representing growers in the region.

Council was meeting to vote on recommendations from administration on on-site and off-site farm worker dwellings.

In January of 2018, through concerns expressed by local fire inspectors, new requirements were added to the program to ensure the safety of the temporary foreign workers in Leamington. Prior to that, government inspections were done, but inspectors rarely looked at fire hazards.

Since 2019, the fire inspectors have coordinated inspections with the health unit to ensure that each residence meets all fire code requirements.

Leamington Fire Chief Andrew Baird presented council with photos taken within the last year, that showed some less-than-safe situations depicting blocked escape routes, multiple plugs in one outlet and other fire issues.

In his presentation, Chief Baird stressed that they are working together with health officials and building officials to create a safer environment for the workers. He said he’s had cooperation from the growers and they have fixed any problems that have been brought to their attention.

After public consultation in March of this year, through Dillon and Associates, it was suggested that amendments to the Official Plan and zoning by-laws were needed in order to get a better handle on worker housing.

Each year, Leamington’s agricultural industry employs thousands of temporary foreign workers through the federal government’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program or theAgricultural Stream. Each of these streams have housing requirements for the workers, which include adequate, suitable and affordable housing as defined by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The housing can be onsite or off-site and the employer must make sure that the occupancy does not exceed the amount of people permitted. In addition, there are a certain number of foreign workers who are undocumented and living in cramped conditions in residential areas. Many of those workers are not part of the government programs, making it hard to regulate.

Joe Sbrocchi, General Manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, said he couldn’t speak for anyone that was not part of his membership, but reminded council that the 117 farms under the OGVG umbrella provided employment as well as millions of tax dollars coming into the community.

He sees the changes as a real challenge to local growers and the workers.

“I think this will cause a strain on an already strained housing market,” he said. “We continue to advocate for our temporary foreign workers to feel at home.”

While council noted that the vast majority of greenhouse operators are not causing these issues, they felt that regulations needed to be put in place to weed out the bad ones.

Lawyers for the greenhouse industry, Frank Ricci and Simon Yared, said the regulations are too restrictive.

“The situation is very unique to Leamington,” said Yared.

The Dillon report for the Official Plan amendment was based on the March public input results and included limiting small off-site dwellings in the urban settlement area to six people in low-density residential zones. Large dwellings in the urban settlement area with seven people or more would only be permitted in medium-to-high density residential zones.

On-site dwellings located in the agricultural area would remain unchanged under the new plan, provided they met health and fire regulations.

Off-site farm help dwellings in the agricultural area would be required to exist within 800 metres of the farm operation, including a pedestrian pathway connecting the farm and dwelling.

“We’d like to see that distance extended to 2000 metres,” said Yared. “Why tie us to the 800 metres?”

Yared suggested that the pathway and easement would have a lot of repercussions. He also asked for the six-person limit to be increased to seven.

Many valid points were brought up by both sides, but council eventually went with options submitted by Dillon.

There were options that called for immediate changes, and options calling for revisions to the recommendations.

With a unanimous vote, council chose to accept the option that will allow existing off-site farm worker dwellings to continue to exist, as is, until December 31, 2022, provided they continue to pass fire and building inspections.

After that date, farm operators must bring existing off-site dwellings into compliance under the Official Plan amendment.

The move may displace a certain amount of workers who currently live under more crowded conditions, but with delaying it until 2022, it appears that council is hoping that they’ve been given plenty of advanced notice to make other arrangements.

Any newly built dwellings will have to fall under the amended Official Plan and Zoning By-Laws going forward.

Council also voted to allow boarding houses to continue to exist, however, the owners of the dwellings must apply for a business license and be subject to certain restrictions under the boarding house section of the by-law.