Margaret Appleby

The applicant sought a determination from the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board that a municipal site alteration by-law restricted his proposed normal farm practice.

The applicant planned to import approximately 87,000 cubic metres of fill to improve the topography of his land for an apple orchard, addressing water and air drainage issues.

The Board found that the applicant had standing and demonstrable plans, and that the importation of fill for land improvement constituted a normal farm practice using innovative technology.

The Board ruled that the municipal by-law restricted this practice and ordered that the practice be permitted subject to strict compliance with a Fill Management Plan and provincial best management practices.

The applicants applied to the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board complaining of noise disturbances from propane-fired noise cannons used by the respondents to protect their grape crops from birds.

The Board found that while the noise constituted a disturbance under the Farming and Food Production Protection Act, 1998, the respondents' use of the cannons was a normal farm practice.

The Board ordered specific operational restrictions, including limiting the hours of operation and the frequency of blasts, based on best practices evidence.