The province wants to turn this farmland into factories. The neighbours hate it.

A group of homeowners on the rim of St. Thomas, Ont., says they're upset after the Ontario government recently introduced legislation that would create new zoning for heavy industry next door to their rural homes, erasing hundreds of acres of farmland and forever altering their close-knit rural community. 

Bill 63, or the St. Thomas-Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act, was introduced to the legislature on Feb. 22 by Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark. 

The legislation would allow the City of St. Thomas to annex 1,500 acres of prime farmland bordered by Talbot Line and Yarmouth Centre Road from the Municipality of Central Elgin. Once passed, the legislation would create what the municipality calls "an investment-ready mega site." The news release, published earlier this week, said Central Elgin was "disappointed" in a boundary change made without consultation by the province. 

The rural municipality isn't alone in saying it never had a say in the matter. The people who own the homes in the area say they were never consulted by the provincial government either.

People 'left in the dark'

"The residents were all left in the dark," said Annette Weesjes, who recently learned of the change. "They're going to put up major industry."

"We've heard many rumours. Things like a battery plant, we've heard food processing, again, we're not told, but major industrial in my mind involves a lot of noise, a lot of industry, a lot of trucks, a lot of traffic — it involves a lot more than what we're seeing now. Right now, we're seeing wide open farmland." 

"It's farm fields, and some bush lots, some empty fields, some fence lines, that type of thing," St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston told Afternoon Drive host Allison Devereaux on Wednesday on CBC Radio One. 

Preston said "a number" of industries were interested in the land but wouldn't go into detail, saying the idea to annex the land came from Queen's Park because, he said, the potential investors were interested in dealing with one municipality rather than two. 

"It's safe to say the province decided that this industrial site would all be located in one municipality, and that's St Thomas," he said.

LISTEN | St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston talks about land annexation on CBC Afternoon Drive:

Residents getting cold shoulder from local MPP

When asked how much the land was worth, Preston replied, "priceless," noting there are few plots of industrial land as large as the one on the city's edge available anywhere in North America.  

Industrial land values in southwestern Ontario have been steadily rising for years, thanks to a shortage of available vacant land that is hovering around the one per cent mark, according to the latest report from commercial realty firm CBRE. 

Because of the shortage, the provincial government has been actively involved in creating new opportunities for industries looking to set up in Ontario, often by using a controversial power called a Ministerial Zoning Order, or MZO, which until the election of the Progressive Conservative government under Doug Ford, was rarely used. 

While the tactic has seen success in some communities, in others, such as Stratford, it resulted in the city's residents running a Chinese glass manufacturer out of town, along with its former mayor and most of its city council. 

In St. Thomas, the dozen or so people who own homes next to what is to become a sprawling site for heavy industry have been working the phones, trying their best to lobby local politicians, but they said no one would take their calls. 

"Haven't heard a word," Archie Ginson said of his attempts to reach his local Progressive Conservative MPP Rob Flack.

"The guy's a farmer. With being a farmer and the farmland and whatnot, you'd think he'd be interested in this," Ginson said of Flack. "Even if he doesn't have a say in this, you'd think he'd at least say something to us, that at least he's got our back, but we haven't heard a word from him." 

"We've been here for 45 years, and now all of a sudden, we're going to have a factory across the road from us. We're not happy with it at all." 

'There's no way to get a hold of him,' says politician's office

"We are excited at this opportunity to bring many reliable, good-paying jobs to this region," Flack said in an email Monday. 

A spokesperson for the office of Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedelli said the annexation of lands by St. Thomas from Central Elgin is necessary to make Ontario's economy more competitive on the world stage. 

"Our government recognizes the need to create more shovel-ready sites that will help Ontario remain competitive for major global investments. Ontario is continuing to attract new investments that will strengthen the economy and create more good-paying jobs in St. Thomas and across the province," Vanessa De Matteis wrote in an email to CBC News Thursday.  

It's cold comfort for Danielle Bernardo, who bought what she called her "forever home" about a decade ago and never imagined a sprawling industrial space would move in next door.

Bernardo said she and her husband just completed $300,000 worth of renovations on their home, and they worry about what kind of future their infant daughter will have growing up near a major factory. 

"We don't know what they're bringing in," she said. "We don't know what kind of pollution there will be or what kind of health factors the EV battery plant, let's say if that was one of the options."

"We don't know what that means for our families."

A request for comment from Andrew Sloan, the mayor of Central Elgin, was also not returned before publication time on Thursday.