 |
| Osoyoos, BC - where significant farmland is preserved |
You can bet the farm they'll sell out
the Agricultural Land Reserve... again.
Bill Tieleman’s 24
Hours Vancouver / The Tyee
column
Tuesday
April 8, 2014
By Bill Tieleman
"It
functioned up until the election of this Liberal administration... politics has
interfered and land is being removed and that is a serious, serious
mistake." -- Former NDP premier Dave Barrett, Voice Of BC, June 29, 2005
Don't
believe the BC Liberal government will "protect
farmland" or "help farmers" -- its Bill 24 is all
about continuing its attack the Agricultural Land Reserve, which began shortly
after the party's 2001 election win.
Former
NDP premier Dave Barrett wasn't fooled back in 2005, and no one should be
fooled today by the nonsensical bafflegab spun by cabinet minister Bill
Bennett, who introduced legislation to carve up farmland for use by industry
and developers while undermining the Agricultural Land Commission's
independence from political interference.
Bill 24
would split B.C. into two zones with very different rules on removing farmland
protected by the ALR. The bill enables
government to use "economic, cultural and social values" and
"regional and community planning objectives" or "other
prescribed conditions" decided by cabinet to plough ahead with farmland
removal.
Bennett
is unlikely to stop at one radical change to the ALR, which currently applies
to Zone 2 of B.C. -- the Interior, the North and the Kootenays.
Just
wait for the other shoe to drop in Zone 1, including the South Coast, Okanagan
and Vancouver Island, where B.C.'s most productive land that creates 85 per
cent of farm receipts is under enormous pressure from developers and industry.
Ministers
of manure
Bennett
is the minister responsible for a "core review" of government and is
clearly driving his anti-ALR agenda, first made clear eight years ago.
There
has always been a defined process
for removing farmland from the ALR, which protects five per cent of B.C.
Thousands of hectares have been exempted since it was introduced in 1974,
mostly from areas with the most productive soil.
Before
the ALR's creation, B.C. lost about 6,000 hectares of farmland each year. But
it's not like the ALR stopped the loss of all farmland, particularly in
southern B.C.
Between
1974 and 2013, Metro Vancouver lost 5,910 hectares of farmland and the Fraser
Valley 5,083 hectares, according to ALC reports,
while overall land protected has shrunk by 94,795 hectares since 1974.
But
Bennett doesn't care, preferring to claim that the ALR is some bureaucratic
nightmare that preserves useless land simply to penalize its impoverished
owners. "There is some land within the Agricultural Land Reserve that
actually is useless to agriculture," Bennett said.
"That
land could be located in a region where there's six months of winter. In some
cases the land is covered by forest. I've seen land within the reserve that's
mountainous. It's steep. It's rocky. It's swampy. It has really poor-quality
soil and no feasible access to water."
Oh the
horror! Poverty-stricken farmers forced to plant crops on rocks and swampland
because of evil rules written in Victoria to keep them in serfdom!
What
horse manure from Bennett, who last year described
the opposition as "turds" on Twitter!
If
Bennett isn't bad enough, last year Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm was admonished
by the Agricultural Land Commission for attempting to "politically
influence" an attempt to removed protected farmland from the ALR to build
a rodeo and recreational vehicle campsite.
And
despite the commission rejecting the application, Arizona developer Terry
McLeod built
a race track, parking lot and seating for 3,000 people anyway, apparently
completely confident the BC Liberal government would do nothing to stop him.
Obviously, he was correct.
Bennett and
Pimm's legislation could soon pass, so support the protection of B.C. farmland
by letting your MLA know and signing a petition online here.
.
2 comments:
Bill Bennet in charge of "core review"=Larry Flynt in charge of moral rectitude. He's as open about it, too.
This has been going on in quieter ways. When farm gate sales of farmer-raised livestock and small abattoirs were eliminated or sharply curtailed on Vancouver Island, it introduced a new criterion into the definition of farm land, that of economic feasibility rather than soil productivity, as was the ALR's original purpose---meaning there's a definite acreage minimum for "making a living", somehow redefined itself. Not to say that every small farm lot, or "hobby farm" or intensive, permaculture organic farm ever realized a living wage but as part of a landowner's living, or simply a lifestyle, it lowered land tax assessment substantially and, purposefully, maintained the soil's productive potential. It seemed an equitable way to preserve farmable soil, even as yet forested. Making it impossible for small farmers to realize a living breaks that deal and adds pressure to convert to another type of land use. On SE Van Isle, that's residential and commercial real estate. It's easy to guess which side of the fence votes which way: all you need to know is who real estate developers are likely to vote for. The farmable-soil criterion is getting ploughed under a bunch of economic feasibility criteria and the pea is hopelessly lost among the shells.
there are all sorts of owners of acreages all over the lower mainland waiting for Bennett to get rid of the ALR. They have been purchasing the land to build very large homes, however, the taxes can be a tad on the high side. They can sell a lot of the land to developers and continue with their life style with 10K square foot homes. Where they think they'll get their food is another thing.
Post a Comment