Ontario to limit foreign ownership of farmland, aligning with other provinces

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-ontario-farmland-foreign-ownership-northern-ontario-clay-belt/

13 Comments

  1. Mysterious_Past6277 on

    Doesn’t matter when the processing centers are foreign or private equity owned demanding numbers go up at all times. 

  2. PopeSaintHilarius on

    So according to the article, Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and now Ontario restrict foreign ownership of farmland (above 10 or 20 acres).

    BC, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland do not have restrictions.

    And Manitoba and PEI are just not mentioned at all… though from a quick search, PEI restricts foreigners from buying any large plots of land, regardless of whether it’s agricultural or not.

  3. CanadianLabourParty on

    While I appreciate the progress, knowing Doug Ford, there HAS to be a gotcha.

    There’s a vig here somewhere that I’m unaware of. DoFo doesn’t make these types of decisions without making a packet.

  4. Reasonable-MessRedux on

    Overdue. Now maybe BC can reclaim all the farmland ignorant people paved over.

  5. Mysterious_Resort610 on

    Okay so the foreign owner just establishes a company with a Canadian citizen figurehead. Kinda like all the government contracts that went to “indigenous” companies that had 1 indigenous guy on the board of directors for optics so it would’ve qualified as indigenous.

  6. This is interesting. I absolutely believe we need to protect every acre of farmland – for food production – for our needs now and well into the future but isnt this the same provincial government/ premier that got caught trying to hand out the same valuable farmland to developers ? Or do they just not want to compete with foreign developers ?

  7. PoliteCanadian on

    Honestly this is such a silly reflexive action and speaks really poorly of the intellects of everyone involved.

    Of all the things to restrict foreign ownership of, farmland is the *least* important. You can’t export land. If you’re worried about foreign ownership in general, you should be worried about foreign ownership of IP heavy businesses.

    If you’re worried about foreign ownership of land you’re just silly. Land is always subject to the laws of the state which it resides within.If we ever get into a significant conflict with another country, they’re not going to have their businesses pack up a thousand acres of land onto an airplane in the middle of the night and sneak it out of the country.

    And if you’re unhappy with how the foreign entities are using the land, then pass laws regulating the usage.

    “It’s bad when a foreign company owns land and sells agricultural products to China, but it’s when a numbered Canadian corporation owns land and sells agricultural products to China that’s perfectly fine.” It’s just nonsense thinking. Use matters, not ownership.

  8. Wait till you find out how much private equity is getting into farmland, and of course the Ontario Teacher’s pension plan has their fingers in it too.

  9. Ok-Challenge3087 on

    Now let’s limit all foreign ownership of all land in Canada. All housing, all places of business, every bit of real estate, 100% Canadian owned.

    It’s the least we can do to be considered sane.