Farmers fear loss of land for water plant expansion

Some farmers in eastern Ontario are concerned their land willbe expropriatedto expand the Casselman Water Treatment Plant.

Until recently, they did not even belong to that municipality. Now,Casselman has annexed part of their land from The Nation.

"Since 1871 we have been paying our taxes entirely to La Nation," said Louis Racine, fifth generation owner of Ferme Racine, in a French interview.

"Now, for nothing, they decide to take away our land, give it to the municipality of Casselman and that might cause our death. We will die because we need all of our land to survive. That is shocking!"

'We might as well step away'

Between Ottawa and Quebec in eastern Ontario, The Nation municipality covers a swath ofthe rural land. Itsurrounds Casselman, a village along Highway 417.

Casselman's water treatment plant is struggling to meet demand, according to areport by the municipality in May. High levels of manganese have periodicallyturned the municipality's water brown for more than a decade.

The report offered several possible solutions. One was to expand the water treatment plant, which would require purchasing land from The Nation.

In September, Casselman submitted, and The Nation accepted a request to annex some of its land"to potentially allow for future expansion."

According to the The Nation's mayor, Francis Brire, just because Casselman has annexed the land doesn't mean expropriation is guaranteed.

He said that The Nation agreed to the trade because, if the expropriation is approved, it will go ahead regardless of which municipality it falls in.

"We might as well step away from this process and let Casselman have to deal with that, because it's to their benefit,"Brire said.

The Nation will also save$37,500 or more because of the deal, since Casselmanalso offered reduced rates on emergency services it provides to The Nation. Casselman would have refused toprovide them if The Nation had refused the annexation.

Briresaid the savings on emergency services werean incentive, but not the main factor in the decision.

'Unacceptable'

The situation has left farmers unsure about their future.

"I'm going to have to reduce my production" if land is expropriated,said Marc-Antoine Racine, Louis Racine's son. "I don't even know if I'm going to be able to pay my two million [dollar] mortgage. So at this point, we're frustrated."

Marc Denis and his partner Micheline Mongeon worry theycould lose half of their 14.6-hectare farm toa buffer zone around the treatment plant's lagoon.

"That's unacceptable, it would be too close to our facilities and then it would prevent us from continuing to operate with our horses," Denis said.

Brirehowever claimed the areaunder consideration for expropriation was about two hectares.

Guy Laflche, a spokesperson forFerme Algpieechoed Racine's concerns, saying Ferme Algpiecould lose more than a third of its land. He insisted that there are other solutions to the treatment plant's problem, andDenis and Mongeon, both of whom are former forestry technicians,agreed.

"There are different approaches that have been used for the lagoons in La Nation, for the municipality of Limoges where they make continuous discharges into the Castor River, which is still much smaller than the Nation River," Laflche said.

Brire said he hopes for an outcome that doesn't require expropriation, but that the farmers should take up their concerns with Casselman now, as The Nation "is pretty much done" with the situation, after signing the annexation paperwork.

Casselman's mayor, Genevive Lajoie, declined an interview request from Radio-Canada.