“Heartland or Heartbreak” is a three-part blog series by Reaching: Conversations on the environment, climate change, and politics in Alberta. Nearly 20 years after the inception of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland (AIH), we explore the long-term impacts on the environment and community. The Heartland is a 582 sq. km. industrial park situation near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, a partnership between that municipality and the counties of Strathcona, Lamont and Sturgeon. In the last of three podcasts we spoke with Sturgeon County farmer Wayne Groot via Zoom Conferencing.
Groot Farms location. Image from Google satellite.
Wayne Groot is a third-generation farmer whose family has farmed in the Northeast Edmonton area since the 1920s, until the city began encroaching on farmland. When Groot and his brother took over the farm in the 1980s, they bought the current farm near Gibbons, Alberta, which gave them the opportunity for expansion. They started out growing mostly fresh market potatoes, but have since switched to seed potatoes.
In one manner or another, Groot has been involved with citizen action groups, who were concerned by the development of heavy industry within the AIH area since 2000, with the formation of the Heartland Citizens’ Coalition and continuing when the name was changed to Citizens for Responsible Development. Until citizens got wind of the tri-county plan, there had been no public consultation by the county as industry quietly bought up land.
Groot’s concern at the time stemmed from the paving of high-quality agricultural land that would be forever lost. He says the county claimed to be supportive to farmers and farming activity, and recommendations stood for not allowing heavy industry on the best quality land, but council was presented with the opportunity to grow its tax base and provide employment, all that superseded its commitments to agriculture.
PetroCan bought 6,000 acres backing onto their fence-line, followed by Suncor’s bid to purchase 4,000 acres that included the Groot Farm, but they decided not to sell. As a result, they are essentially surrounded by 1,000 acres of industrial land, much of it undeveloped, but the potential is there, says Groot.
At one point in time the plans for the area were greater than what has actually transpired, ambitions that included seven upgraders. Groot says that even though there isn’t as much as what the AIH had hoped for, one of the impacts on his family is that they have no neighbours — folks sold out and got out.
During that time, the AIH has grown from 200 sq. km. to 586 sq. km., and Groot, who says he used to be a quiet farmer, has participated in four or five regulatory hearings, attended many community meetings and an endless stream of media interviews. Where he once would have been uncomfortable speaking to us, concerned that he might say, “Um,” too often, he’s now completely relaxed. He says, that might be the one positive that’s come out of his engagement.
He says they’re fortunate to be on the leeward side of the Westerlies, so they rarely have to deal with the stench of industry or its effects on soil, but on days when the wind shifts, they do smell pollution.
In 2020, Groot Farms borders on the Heartland and his evening view has morphed from night stars to flaring activity. He has no neighbours, because they all sold. When all is said and done, Groot says people do what people do, they adapt to it, and they get used to it. It’s not the pastoral scene his family bought into nearly 40 years ago, but they make do.
Listen in as Groot talks to us about what it’s been like to live with industry at the doorstep, and the effect and toll its had on his family and their neighbours. [Length: 19 min.]