Windsor may be best known for being the seat of Ontario’s auto sector. But not far from Canada’s own motor city, in the farms of Essex County, another major exporter has grown rapidly in the past decade: Ontario’s greenhouse vegetable growers. Making up the preponderance of Canada’s greenhouse sector overall — last year, Statistics Canada reported Ontario is home to more than 60 per cent of all greenhouse area in the country, though not all of that is in Windsor-Essex — the province’s greenhouse sector now boasts that the cluster of growers in the southwest is second only to the Netherlands in terms of total glassed-in area.
The greenhouse sector is also growing rapidly and expanded by more than 40 million square feet, or about 28 per cent, between 2016 and 2021.
“It’s very, very important for Windsor-Essex,” says Rakesh Naidu, president and CEO of the Windsor-Essex Region Chamber of Commerce. “But not just for Windsor-Essex — for North America as well. There’s no other region in North America that grows as much in greenhouses as we do, and 70 per cent of that is exported to the U.S.”
That rapid growth, however, is already straining the infrastructure in the region, and there’s more growth planned.
“We may have outgrown our infrastructure; maybe we’re a little bit late in our planning,” says Richard Lee, executive director of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, an association representing farms that grow cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. (Other major greenhouse crops in Ontario include flowers and, more recently, cannabis.)
When asked what infrastructure, specifically, the sector will require to continue growing — energy, water, roads? — Lee says simply, “All three. All four, actually,” adding the need for housing to accommodate the growing workforce.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the growing demands on provincial infrastructure can be seen in the electricity sector: the province’s electricity planner, the Independent Electricity System Operator, projects that demand in the “west of London” sector of the province’s grid will grow by 550 megawatts by 2035; the regulator is planning two new transmission lines to accommodate that growth. However, investments in energy efficiency may shrink the growth in demand overall.
This growth in electricity consumption comes at the same time as provincial investments in the auto sector — and in the burgeoning EV supply chain — are also facing electricity constraints. But, Naidu says, he doesn’t see the sectors as competing with each other for scarce hydro resources: “Further growth will require more investment in energy infrastructure, for sure. They’re not competing directly, but the energy requirements in the region overall have grown.”
The sector isn’t just bumping up against infrastructure constraints. The rapid growth — and many greenhouse operators’ adoption of nighttime lighting to supplement daylight outside the summer growing season — has also led to conflicts with some local residents.
In December 2020, after years of complaints from residents about light pollution, Leamington adopted a bylaw to limit the use of nighttime lighting by greenhouse operators. That bylaw was then challenged by greenhouse operators at a somewhat obscure provincial tribunal, the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board. (The NFPPB allows farms to challenge municipal bylaws that might interfere with agricultural operations.) Before the case could be decided by that tribunal, Leamington adopted a new, modified bylaw in 2022 that settled its disputes with most, but not all, of the greenhouse operators. (The NFPPB dismissed the remaining complaints, deeming them a waste of the tribunal’s time.) Operators now have until October of this year to install blackout curtains on the ceilings of their greenhouses to control light pollution.
Lee acknowledges that not every operator is pleased with the town’s new bylaw but suggests that the resolution could be a model for the spread of the greenhouse sector elsewhere in the province. “This is a perfect case study where, with shared values, you can accomplish a goal,” he says. “We want to be good neighbours.”
Even with infrastructure investments coming and a peace settlement with the local municipality, the sector is still experiencing stress. One farm, Lakeside Produce, declared bankruptcy late last month, and Lee warns that the entire sector is still reeling from the same inflationary and supply-chain woes that have hit many other sectors.
“The only unique thing about it is that it’s all come at once,” Lee says. “We’ve seen increases in costs to cardboard, labour, water, heat, and taxes from government. At the same time, we’re trying to maintain food security in North America.”
Lee says the industry could use some support from the federal government, though not necessarily in the form of tax dollars. He points to C-280, a private-member’s bill in the House of Commons, which would amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to guarantee revenue for produce farmers — including, but not exclusively, greenhouse operators — in cases where one of the customers for their crop has entered bankruptcy protection. C-280, sponsored by Tory MP Scot Davidson, has been introduced for first reading but has not yet proceeded any further in the Commons.
Lee is predictably bullish on the sector overall, notwithstanding the current challenges.
“Greenhouse growers have been pretty resilient,” Lee says. “To provide a local source of fresh, sustainable food supply year-round? I think that’s very important.”