WOODSTOCK, Ont. — An organized group of irate farmers plans to bring traffic to a halt tomorrow on parts of highway 401 from Woodstock, Ont. to Ottawa.

The Ontario Provincial Police are warning truckers and motorists of possible blockages and major delays on Dec. 14 in the Woodstock, Belleville, and Ottawa regions.

The Ontario Landowners Association — a hybrid of the Lanark Landowners’ Association, whose members hit the highway in a similar protest last January — is trying to bring public attention to what its leader says is an “attack on rural land and homeowners” in Ontario.

OLA President Randy Hillier, who represents 15,000 farmers and rural business owners, told TodaysTrucking.com he expects this “rural revolution” demonstration to be much larger than the last one, which saw convoys of farm tractors and trucks move at a snail’s pace on Hwy. 401 east and westbound in the Ingersoll, Ont. area.

The OLA hopes truckers weighted down by government
policy will sympathize with farmers’ concerns

In the morning, a convoy will travel up Hw. 401 near Sweaburg Rd and go up Hwy. 19 from Tillsonburg for a rally at the TA Travel Centre. Protestors from the Chatham area plan a parallel demonstration in Wallaceburg.

More tractors will converge on the 401 at Wallbridge Road near Belleville, en route to the Ten Acre Truck Stop for a rally; while two convoys will move along Hwy. 417 into Ottawa before parking at the Central Experimental Farm.

Hillier stressed this new “Stop the Destruction” protest is not meant to target motorists and truckers, but instead the provincial and federal Liberal governments for, what he says, are arbitrary confiscatory practices and regulatory burdens placed on deer and elk, tree, and tobacco farms; as well as sawmills, abattoirs, and cream industry businesses.

In fact, Hillier expects many truckers will sympathize with the farmers’ plight. “I would imagine some truckers — especially (one truck) operators — would share some of our concerns,” he told TodaysTrucking.com.

Hillier says about 1.8 million acres of private land has been devalued with no compensation under Ontario’s greenbelt preservation policy.

More recently, The City of Ottawa and the province designated 650 acres west of Stittsville as wetland. OLA says about 60 homes and farms were drastically devalued and frozen for development, without compensation.

“This is what happens when you don’t have property rights in (Canada),” Hillier says.

— with files from the London free Press