Casselman approves annexing land from resisting local farmer
Marc-Antoine Racine, on his Casselman-area farm, near the site of a potential municipal sewage lagoon expansion.
CASSELMAN — The potential expropriation of farmland to make way for a municipal sewage-lagoon expansion is raising alarm bells for a sixth-generation Casselman-area dairy farmer and some of his neighbours.
Marc-Antoine Racine’s farm is located in The Nation Township and abuts the town of Casselman. Decades ago, the town’s sewage lagoon was carved out of the Racine family farm on The Nation side of the municipal boundary. His grandfather sold the land to the town to accommodate the lagoon but “didn’t really have a choice” at the time, according to Racine.
All these years later, the other shoe is dropping. With the lagoon due to run out of capacity as early as 2026, the town is again casting a covetous eye at the family’s land in the neighbouring municipality. In a precursor move, Casselman’s boundary is being redrawn to bring the lagoon and 20 surrounding acres of the Racine farm under the town’s jurisdiction. The Nation approved Casselman’s annexation in September.
Racine fears that Casselman’s next step will be the forced purchase — or expropriation — of his land within the annexed area to potentially double the size of the lagoon. He says this would threaten the viability of his 130-head dairy farm by reducing available land to grow feed for his cows when the supply is already tight. He and his brother, Etienne, and their father, Louis, also have a $2-million mortgage to service after investing in improvements on the farm.
To add insult to injury, the jurisdictional swap means paying property taxes to the town that is inflicting uncertainty on the farm operation. “It’s really stupid, giving money to the one that’s going to kill you,” he told Farmers Forum.
The municipality’s commissioned engineers have put three options on the table to increase the town’s sewage-handling capacity. According to their report, only one of those options would increase the physical size of the lagoon, an idea Racine vehemently opposes. The engineers’ preferred option would actually leave the lagoon the same size but incorporate additional technology to increase flow-through into the South Nation River. A third option would eliminate the lagoon altogether and install a more costly wastewater treatment plant.
Racine said that Casselman should have ruled out physically expanding the lagoon before pushing ahead with the annexation.
Expropriation of farmland is a hot-button issue in Ontario, especially since a headline-making controversy that has embroiled Wilmot Township, near Kitchener, where the local municipality is threatening to expropriate 770 acres of land from 11 landowners, many of whom refuse to sell. Racine observed that farmers are too easily disrespected by politicians and the civilian population who are fed by farmers.
