Agriculture Business Community Chapters: Perth East, Perth South, Wilmot West.

Agricultural Business Community of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot C/o 3649 Road 107 RR#2 Tavistock, Ontario N0B 2R0 May 13, 2011 Honorable Kathleen O. Wynne Ministry of Transportation 3rd Floor, Ferguson Block 77 Wellesley Street West Toronto, Ontario M7A 1Z8 Dear Minister Wynne: This letter is sent to you on behalf of the Agricultural Business Community (ABC) of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot West. Thank you for your letter of May 5th regarding the Highway 7&8 Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment (EA) study. The volunteer executive of the Agricultural Business Community of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot West (ABC) met on May 9th. We remain opposed to the loss of farmland resulting from the proposed route tabled by the MTO consultants in their January 2011 draft report. ABC members have expressed some interest in your offer to work further with the project team. However due to a late spring and cold weather we are experiencing problems identifying times to meet to further consider this offer. This is a critical time in our business cycle and producers will be committed to preparing the land and seeding this years crops. If the weather cooperates we can assume planting season will be over by the end of June and we could then come together to discuss future directions in July. We will relay this information to the project manager Charles Organ. Thank you again for your attention and assistance. Paula Neice (Tel: (519) 662-4847) per Agriculture business Community of Perth East, Perth South, Wilmot West Website: www.hwy7and8.blogspot.com Cc The Honourable John Wilkinson, MPP Perth-Wellington Charles Organ, MTO Project Manager

C/O 3649 ROAD 107, R.R. # 2 TAVISTOCK, ON N0B 2R0 PHONE: 519-655-2613 EMAIL HWY7AND8@GMAIL.COM