It’s been two years since the Wilmot residents learned of Waterloo Region’s plans to take control of 770 acres of prime farmland for a future mega-industrial site.
While the region has acquired much of the land, local activist Susanna Campton says the fight isn’t done just yet.
“It’s really not over. I know because it’s been quiet and because there have been some sales. It feels like the fight is done, and I think that it’s important to know that it’s not,” said Campton.
Her passion for protecting Ontario’s farmland has roots in her childhood, growing up on her parents’ cabbage farm in Wilmot. Her family’s farm was directly across the road from the land that the region was trying to acquire for the proposed industrial site.
For the first month after the plans became clear, her family feared their farm would be expropriated.
“We never received the threat of expropriation letter, whereas the farms within the 770 acres did,” said Campton, adding that since the proposed site is so close to the family farm, it is still a cause for concern for the farm’s future.
“It’s 19 steps from the cabbage farm property across the road to where this proposed land assembly is, and that’s downstream. And there’s just too many questions for the future of our little cabbage farm to not be involved in what’s going on.”
While Campton’s parents no longer own the cabbage farm, they still live there, renting out space from the current owner. They worry about the farm’s future.
Campton noted that the whole process was shocking, and dealing with a proposed sprawling industrial site was something she or her family never expected.
“I think I had figured at some point that the farm might become housing because that’s what a lot of the farmland in this area has had, and there’s such a push for housing these days. I never imagined that it would become some kind of mega-industrial site,” said Campton.
“It was really sad because my family took really good care of the farm; my dad spent his career building up the soil health and turning it into a better space than when he took over the farm. So, he farmed with the next generation in mind, and the idea that there wouldn’t really be much next generation or following generation farming was really heartbreaking and still is.”
Being so close to the farmers dealing with the threat of expropriation, Campton recalled hearing stories of them facing high pressure and bullying from the region to sell and enter the agreement.
“The threat of expropriation is a very powerful threat, and it was so shocking alongside just the news that they no longer wanted this to be farmland… it was just a huge situation for these farmers to be grappling with.”
To date, the region has acquired 550 acres of the desired 770; some people believe this is now enough to create an industrial site. However, what that site will be used for still remains a mystery.
“The current situation is a bit of a standstill, as far as I can tell. Some [farmers] have sold and some have not, and there’s a lot of NDAs surrounding it, so there’s no specificity,” said Campton of the non-disclosure agreements designed to keep the public in the dark.
Campton now lives in Waterloo, but her passion for protecting farmland continues through her work as a writer, organizer and grassroots advocate focused on preserving agricultural spaces. She has written long-form analytical pieces for agricultural publications like The Rural Voice and covered the fight to protect Wilmot’s farmland for the Waterloo Region Record.
She advocates for others to voice their concerns and protect Ontario’s farmland.
“We can still tell our governments what we believe is important for land protections, and we can tell them that food sovereignty should be a high priority, and that agricultural investment should be a high priority. Anything like an industrial site, I think, should take in environmental considerations, and using prime farmlands is not taking in good environmental considerations.”
By Meg Deak, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Aug 13, 2026 at 10:27
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