- Ms Kaye is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Mary Carlisle is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Prem Gill is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Nancy Flight is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Justin Everett is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- John Westover is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Nora Etches is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Edward Henderson is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Bharadwaj Chandramouli is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Dean Chatterson is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Marius Scurtescu is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Robert Parkes is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- James Murton is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Susan Doyle is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Vincent Strgar is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Helen Spiegelman is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Subir Guin is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Kimball Finigan is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- Joanne Manley is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
- David Leach is a Tyee Builder. You can be, too.
Is BC Down on the Farm?
In the East Kootenays, critics see more proof the Agricultural Land Reserve isn't working.
ALC's Carmen Purdy.
Dave Zehnder is a rancher with a problem. And it's not just his two vegetarian daughters. The Invermere-area resident figures he's lost 30 percent of his grazing land in the last decade to exclusions from the Agricultural Land Reserve.
"We've built our operation based on the belief that we'd have access to these lands for the long term," said the normally soft-spoken Zehnder. "We feel we've had the legs kicked out from under us."
The exclusion that concerns him most right now came last June when 267 hectares of land in Southeastern B.C.'s Windermere Valley was removed from the reserve, which protects the province's limited base of farmland for current and future use. The three-member regional Agricultural Land Commission panel, which oversees the reserve, stated the property has "no significant agricultural value." Given that the property has, in Zehnder's estimation, served as rangeland for a century, that rationale came as a bit of a surprise.
It wasn't the only surprise. Another was that even though his family had, by agreement with the property owner, grazed cattle on the land for 30 years, there was no requirement that he be notified or heard during an exclusion application involving the property. The land is now part of the proposed Grizzly Ridge real-estate development, with 880 units of residential and recreational property planned for its first phase.
Yet another surprise was that one of the three commissioners who made the decision, Carmen Purdy, has played key roles in two conservation groups -- he's on the board of the Nature Trust of British Columbia and is the founding president of the Kootenay Wildlife Heritage Fund -- that began discussions with the Calgary-based developer to acquire land and protect wildlife in the year the decision was made.
Concern that this relationship could have prejudiced Purdy's view of the exclusion prompted two farmers associations -- the Kootenay Livestock Association and the Windermere District Farmers' Institute and Livestock Association -- to call last month for Purdy to be replaced when his commission term ended on April 28.
Hot words
Intimations of possible malfeasance, and demonstrably rampant patronage, have dominated news coverage and political debate regarding exclusions from the ALR, and are generating controversy across the province.
On May 17, an exchange in the Legislature between NDP agriculture critic Bruce Ralston and Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell prompted Purdy and Calgary developer Mark Himmelspach to talk of marshalling lawyers to defend their good names.
Ralston named Purdy as one of a long string of B.C. Liberal insiders benefiting from patronage. He also said Purdy himself "allegedly" negotiated with the developer on behalf of a conservation group. When contacted by The Tyee, however, Ralston could offer no evidence to support the latter charge.
While the Invermere story doesn't have the high profile of some other recent ALR dust-ups, it exemplifies the underlying problem – the Agricultural Land Commission's process for excluding land is often murky.
The result is a number of questionable decisions, a lot of bad blood, and all the attendant rhetoric about hidden agendas and political payback.
Where the ALR is concerned, few political hands are clean. When Ralston raised the issue of patronage on May 17, Bell responded by naming five of the 10 members of the Agricultural Land Commission during the NDP's last year in office, and stated that the five were supporters of the NDP.
Political parties like to reward their friends and subtly exercise power through them. That's a disappointment, but it's hardly a surprise. The B.C. Liberals argue they've introduced some improvements to the appointment process, but given the long list of Liberal friends appointed to the commission, those changes are mainly political theatre.
Is Purdy a supporter of the B.C. Liberals? "I can hardly say the word Liberal, let alone be one," he declared, when reached by The Tyee at his Cranbrook home. Then he paused and added: "I am a member." In fact, he allows, he's a friend of East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett, and has raised money for him. He said he's raised money for a lot of causes and political parties, and sees that as good citizenship. He said he's even been approached to run for the NDP.
Conflict issue complicated
So we move from patronage to conflict of interest. Purdy said he had absolutely nothing to do with the conservation groups' discussions with the developer. "That would be so silly." He also notes that all three members of the ALC panel supported the exclusion.
Himmelspach, who bought the property in December 2004 and won the exclusion just six months later, told The Tyee his discussions with the conservation groups began after the original decision.
However, Zehnder asked the commission to reconsider the decision, and the discussions were underway before Purdy's regional panel voted to stand by its original position.
The provincial government's "general conduct principles for public appointees" states that appointees such as Purdy "must avoid any conflict of interest that might impair or impugn the independence, integrity or impartiality of their agency, board or commission. There must be no apprehension of bias, based on what a reasonable person might perceive. Appointees who are in any doubt must disclose their circumstances and consult with their chair or registrar."
However, the guidelines also state that in practical terms they must simply keep their duties as board, tribunal or commission members separate from their activities as private citizens.
Before the issue was raised in the legislature, The Tyee asked Agricultural Land Commission Chair Erik Karlsen if he was aware of the ranchers' concern about Purdy's potential conflict. "I haven't heard that one specifically," Karlsen said. "I have heard that not everybody likes the guy, or likes what he says."
For the ranchers The Tyee spoke to, however, the issue isn't who knew what when. It's that conservation and ranching sometimes conflict. They believe that some conservationists, particularly those who are also hunters, see ranching in the East Kootenays as an impediment to their goals. They don't trust Purdy, an enthusiastic hunter, and they want people who are more knowledgeable about and clearly supportive of agriculture on the commission.
Complaints about checks and balances
It's not just rhetoric, patronage and real or imagined conflicts of interest that are undermining the integrity of the Agricultural Land Commission, however. It's the belief of ALC critics in communities across the province that questionable exclusions are being made based on vague and even contradictory criteria, without balanced public input, by people who often lack the appropriate background. Critics also feel developers and municipalities are lining up to take advantage of the vagueness, and of the new three-member regional panels that have replaced one seven-member provincial commission.
Zehnder believes the process that results in exclusions is neither fair nor clear, and that it's undermining the reserve. Patronage, potential conflicts of interest and the commissioners' expertise are just a few of his concerns.
He told The Tyee that after he learned about the exclusion application in the local paper, he phoned the Agricultural Land Commission office because he wanted to provide input. Zehnder said he was told there was no meeting scheduled, and wrongly presumed he should wait for one. Soon after, the panel and a commission staff member met privately with the applicant on the property to discuss the removal, and a perfunctory approval decision was released.
While the Regional District of East Kootenay's elected representatives supported the removal, there was virtually no public input prior to its decision. "Area F," where the property is located, has neither an official community plan, which usually provides guidance on agricultural needs, nor an agricultural advisory committee.
The area's advisory planning commission said a planning effort should be completed before the application to remove the land should be considered. The ALC's mandate is to encourage such planning. And yet the land was removed without a plan in place.
At every stage, the viability of farming in the area seemed an afterthought. "The way things went here wasn't right," said Zehnder.
Purdy said he wouldn't discuss the Invermere decision specifically. "I don't want to discuss any application. It's not professional."
However, when asked if Zehnder's concerns about the commission's process in general have any legitimacy, Purdy interjected, saying Zehnder should be asked why he opposed the removal. "Because it doesn't suit his needs," Purdy stated. Then he added: "Don't quote me on that."
Purdy eventually said the Agricultural Land Commission's process is better than it used to be. "I think the procedure as it stands gives everybody a fair hearing."
'A lot of land' for development
When Zehnder asked that the commission reconsider the decision, the panel did hear him out. It said it was "sympathetic to the difficulty being experienced by ranchers on the western side of Lake Windermere in securing adequate grazing leases." But it stood by its original position, declaring that the land has limited capacity (a simple fact where rangeland is concerned) and that the exclusion would take development pressure off of other agricultural land.
Ironically, the adjoining Castle Rock development, on land removed from the ALR less than a decade ago, is far from built out.
Even the Regional District of East Kootenay's manager of planning and development services, Andrew McLeod, told The Tyee there are other areas where such development can take place. "There is a lot of land zoned for development already in the municipal and in the rural areas." McLeod said he was unaware the exclusion was controversial.
The attraction for developers such as Himmelspach is that agricultural land, if you can buy it and get it out of the reserve, is much, much cheaper than the alternatives. The attraction for local governments is the economic activity such development brings. But combine sophisticated, wealthy developers, rural communities without well developed plans, and a vague Agricultural Land Commission process, and the result can be lethal for farmers. Not only are they losing the land they need, they're seeing speculation drive the price of what remains beyond their reach.
"At every opportunity," said Zehnder, "we purchased more land, even if it didn't make economic sense. We had to secure our grazing lands."
'Don't starve us out'
For small-scale ranchers such as those in the East Kootenays, who struggled even before the BSE crisis dealt many of them a fatal blow, the problem is particularly acute.
Klara Trescher is the only member of the Regional District of East Kootenay board who voted against the exclusion. Trescher is the board's only farmer. She and her husband sold their cattle just before the BSE crisis hit, but they still sell hay. "Nobody wants to farm. The commodity prices are so low."
Still, she wants to see those who remain given a chance to succeed, and didn't see any reason for the Grizzly Ridge land to be removed. "A lot of property was taken out of the ALR already," said Trescher. "Those properties, nothing is built there."
Out toward Fernie, rancher Faye Street fairly bristles at the general lack of regard for ranching interests. "This industry is getting the shit kicked out of it." Street is one of the most vocal opponents of the Grizzly Ridge exclusion. She told The Tyee that if the government can't treat ranchers fairly, they should just abolish the ALR and let all the ranchers cash out. "Don't starve us out one ranch at a time."
Before the ALR came into being, she said, ranchers could sell a small piece of land to get by in tough times.
Street noted that when the reserve was created, government acknowledged ranchers' needs by introducing a four-point support program that included income guarantees and low-interest loans. "They chained us to the backstop, and they gave us four keys," Street said. "Then they took away the keys and said 'Go ahead, boys, run the bases.' "
Street wants people knowledgeable about agriculture on the commission. She feels that's needed to ensure the increasingly urban perspective of new area residents doesn't prevail.
One commissioner's repentance
Ironically, the commission's Kootenay panel just lost one of those voices. Cheryle Huscroft and her husband were ranchers near Creston until high interest rates put them out of business in the 1980s. Now they lease land to a dairy farm and have a horse operation near Lister, along the Canada-U.S. border.
Huscroft, who twice voted to support the Grizzly Ridge decision, now says it was a mistake that reflects key weaknesses in the commission's process.
Her change of heart may be part of the reason she lost her job at the end of April. It isn't the first time she appears to have paid a price for speaking out on farmland protection.
In the 1990s, she was a member of the commission when the NDP government pressured it to release the Six Mile Ranch for development. She said she told the NDP agriculture minister of the day, Corky Evans, that she had no respect for the government's attempt to interfere in the commission's work. "And I was out of there."
Huscroft said the panel was not aware of all the facts and implications when it made the Invermere decision. "We had no idea," she told The Tyee. "We didn't have anyone with [agricultural] expertise from the Invermere area."
She also said the panel was concerned about the legal implications of reversing its original position.
Huscroft generally defends the panel and its work. "The panel I was on made some really good decisions. It made some really tough decisions." But the Grizzly Ridge decision, she said, is not one of them. "I should have done some things differently," she said, adding that it was partly incumbent on her to learn more about local needs.
"You can't ask [ranchers] in Invermere to put their life savings into the cattle industry and then turn around and erode the very thing they've invested in," Huscroft said, noting that ranchers she's spoken to since the decision was made are very angry. "They said 'The very system that encouraged us and protected our farmland has done exactly the opposite.' "
In the evening shadow of the Purcell Mountains, Dave Zehnder couldn't agree more.
Tonight [Tuesday, May 30] representatives of the Agricultural Land Commission will meet in Cranbrook with members of the Kootenay Livestock Association.
Charles Campbell is a Tyee contributing editor. He also is author of the David Suzuki Foundation report Forever Farmland: Reshaping the Agricultural Land Reserve for the 21st Century. In a future Tyee piece he will look at how the system can be reformed. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- 'A Gut Feeling'
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
- Does BC Stand for Ban Clotheslines?
- BC biotech company seeks approval for GM apple
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- Death in Remand: Stacked Deck
- Does BC Stand for Ban Clotheslines?
- 'Moonrise Kingdom'
- Tyee Builders Tally: Amazing!
- From Financial Advisor to Occupier
- 'Storage Wars'
- How Our Immune Systems Exaggerate Fear
- Does Simon Fraser University Need a Men's Centre?
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
30
Login or register to post comments
Gloomy
5 years ago
Comments on "Is BC Down on the Farm?"
Are you surprised?
Remember Gordo's stint as Major of Vancouver? that should give you a clue!
Fiat lux
5 years ago
The family farm is the most efficient and sustainable form of food production.
There are areas around the world that have been producing food for the locals for thousand of years, now all destroyed. There are also millions of square km. of once good, fertile farmland that has also been destroyed by Green Revolution chemicalized corporate and state capitalist, kolkhoz monocropping.
As one so called economist by the name of Lang said once on CBCTV "We must subsidize farmers to get them off the land". And this is the policy of all governments, dictated by crazy and crooked economists.
When we bought our present land in 1975 it was marked "Not suitable for agricultural purposes" and not in the ALR, so we requested and received inclusion.
We never made and money, or profits, but over the years we have shown that valuable vegetables can be organically grown even in this harsh climate, with self built and created topsoil. We're too old to do any market gardening now, but are producing most of our own needs, eggs for a number of friends and a small herd of beef cattle, at very low monetary and physical inputs. So, why destroy land when it can produce good, healthy foods?
The world needs food, and we can grow it.
About 10 years ago I was involved in a fight against a proposed mobile home park development here, partially on ALR land.
We had nothing against the homes, or the people, but the whole scheme was a fraud. From figures obtained from the school board, RCMP, highways, ICBC, and BC Lands itself, we calculated that the development would cost the BC taxpayer up to $400,000 per year in increased public costs, not to mention the potentially millions of increased accident costs in 50 km of needless communting to jobs.
When we received the papers, obtained under the FOI Act. we vere astonished, and schocked, over the degree of crass corruption, lies and distortions used by what then was called BC Lands, to push the development through and put the tax burden on society.
So when people complain about taxes, they should first think about and ask why and where those taxes go, who are the beneficiaries, in this case the developer who'd reaped huge benefits, and all of a sudden, ALR land becomes a good "investment" with cattle grazing.
Just last night I was talking to an old friend in St.Louis, Mo. on the phone. He said that when he moved to the area 50 years ago, there were all kinds of farms all around with crops and animals, now they're all gone into subdivisions,or just left barren, growing weeds. They're now "uneconomical", while people are paying through the nose for poisonous, corporate farmed, chemical laced junkfoods in the supermarkets.
Ed Deak, Big Lake.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
So nice to see that Mr Purdy is trying seriously to do a good job, and be, as he puts it 'professional'.
However, the reader might be a little less pleased with something else this recipient of a patronage appointment from the 'Liberal' Government is also quoted above as saying:
That would be a 'member' of the BC Liberal Party - some 'professional'.
Time once was that appointments of this nature at least had the good sense and character to cancel their political memberships while they pretended to be impartial public servants. No more. Now there's not even a pretense. What unbelievable arrogance. What contempt for the public. In my view.
One wonders what creatures will emerge from under the rocks when they are rolled over in the Sooke/ ALR / disgraced political appointee case - if it ever actually comes to trial.
Nostro
5 years ago
The BC Land Commission is a joke and should be disbanded and the ALR legislation rescinded. This Government is using the reserves as reserves for future development and not the preservation of good farmland, as it was intended. There are many examples of recent decisions by the Commission, especially in high real estate market regions of this Province. The demand for more developable land is paramount, especially when one or more of the members of the Commission panel are also linked to the owners/developers. Property values increase tenfold or more, when ALR land is miraculously removed and rezoned to higher densities.
Environmental concerns are also meaningless if the individuals involved are politically influential. Wildlife habitat is knowingly being destroyed, even when these sensitivities are detailed in the appropriate reports.
It is shameful of the hypocrisy that is being foisted on the mostly uncaring urban dwellers of this Province.
Ranbir
5 years ago
I noticed at the end of the article there was a mention of a time and place for meeting with the agricultural land commission. These types of meetings are a chance for citizens to vent however it will probably not impact on the final decision. These open-house type forums have degenerated into a public relations exercise for political-parties (in a single-member plurality or a proportional electoral-systems) to give the appearance of listening to citizens but ignoring citizens and science when final decisions are made. I feel bad for the government staffers that are sometimes sent in to chair these meetings where there are many angry citizens. During one such meeting a biologist exclaimed, “Please do not be mad at me it is not my decision complain to your local politician.â€
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Its a disgrace and yet gordo and his developer toadies just keep getting away with it!
When is someone going to do something about it?
(Don't count on the corporate media)
BC Dude
5 years ago
These so called elected officials were at one time there for the people but greed has taken over all of our farms, houses, jobs, & like Basi, Boneman and the rest of these vermin.
There should be a trial date now not in Dec cancell all summer hollidays for the polititions and get this evil out in the open Provincialy & Federaly & put them all in that new prison they're building.
Why did gordo bribe all of the unions?
Where is this once proud Country going, why are we in Afganistan fighting Bush's dirty war? (24 women & children murdered by USMC)
We should be in Darfur as peace keepers
I'm so disgusted with this lot of dictators gordo, harpo, sambo, Laymton, Carol Taylor, who to vote for?
BC Mary
5 years ago
BC Dude: You sound sufficiently cheesed that -- if you live in or near Victoria -- you might like to volunteer to attend some of the BC Provincial Court sessions starting June 29 to take notes when Dave Basi (with developers Duncan & Young) go on trial for influencing the removal of land from the ALR for a 650-house subdivision in Sooke.
If you'd like to be part of the solution to some of these problems, here are the blogspots in need of Roving Reporters:
BC Mary's is: http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
For rkewen's, google "House of Infamy."
Getting the true story out in the open, might be as good as voting, eh?
Trial date is June 29 unless ... of course, it's postponed again.
bun
5 years ago
don't throw the baby out with the bath water
naturally, "business", to whom we are told to entrust our everyday lives, is working yet again to circumvent a policy designed to help the general population. big surprise.
the concept of the ALR has worked, and worked brilliantly in some respects, and we should not rush to call for its destruction because business is working to destroy it. "Then the terrorists will have won". we should be advocating strengthening the ALR decision panels with more and broader local representation. 3 people ? trivial to buy off.
the ALR has been credited rightly from saving Vancouver from the horror of unhindered sprawl that has befallen so many US cities, like Seattle. If not for the ALR, there would be no high density city zones anywhere in the Lower Mainland, only bungalows spreading across the delta as far as the eye can see. imagine what that would have done to traffic and pollution. it is bad enough now.
the ALR is a [B]very good idea[\B]. Recently, it's implementation sucks. let's not throw the baby out with the bath water: agitate to get it fixed, not thrown away
chilled
5 years ago
In Richmond one has to be a millionaire to buy a tiny lot to build a house yet down the road protected land, worth millions, is used to grow a few hundred dollars worth of pumpkins per year. Same situation on the Sannich Peninsula on the island / Victoria.
Think of what would happen to housing prices in Vancouver or Victoria if this artifical way of inflating land value by simulateously deflating land value use was eliminated?
I don't want to live in a concrete jungle either, but by slowly chipping away at reserved lands and placing in the open market, it's obvious the entire system is designed to protect property values, developers and government whose vested interests are to keep land values as high as possible.
If I'm wrong, then NOTHING should EVER come out of the ALR.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
chilled.
Unfortunately, I think you're wrong. There just isn't enough non-vertical land in this province that we can afford to turn agricultural land into city; farms into back yards. It is a fatal illusion to think we can.
The city infrastructure needs to be rebuilt in a much more intensive way so that people don't have to travel for hours to get to and from work each day. Real estate speculation is one of the main reasons young people can't find affordable homes.
If the amount of tax free capital gains realizable on real estate transactions were limited there would be less incentive for prices to inflate and people would be more willing to build infill housing in already urbanized areas. Just ending the practice of selling real property on commission would be an important first step.
If most of inflationary gain was taxed away, there would be less insane speculation by gonzo speculators and more tax revenue to begin the kinds of social housing mix that would also help provide decent housing for people who actually need it.
You'd be surprised how much economic value those fields of pumpkins actually represent, by the way.
Tax Cutter 99
5 years ago
Hey Ed Deak...I got a planting question for you. How far apart do you plant your corn rows? I undeerstand they have to be in a box formation for cross-pollination. I've heard eevrything from 12 feet to 3 feet.
Thanks
Alcibiades
5 years ago
cutter
4 feet works for me. Problem is always keeping the racoons out though, not growing the corn.
chilled
5 years ago
Alcibiades, what is it I'm wrong about? I neither support the ALR concept or discredit it, I just don't think a demographic group of people should be excluded from owning their own home because of policies that cause land values to be artificially inflated.
Actually, you stating that there isn't enough land that we can turn agricultural land into city is wrong. Have you ever been in the Peace region of this province? There is plenty of land to grow everything we need with an even longer and more fertile growing season.
It's not about cities OR starvation, it's about Joni Mitchell saying poetically how we "paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
But unfortunately no one has the will to connect our growing population, immigration, demographics, etc to the fact that people need to live somewhere and people with exceptional incomes are being excluded from the real estate pie simply because they where born at the worng time.
And yes, I agree with you views on the realty industry, it is a big part of the problem. This is a hugely complicated issue that I certainly have opionions on but not the real answer.
kootowl
5 years ago
TC99 and Alci,
I put the rows 3 feet apart, but have only a very small corn plot in the garden. Viny things with large leaves like squash (pumpkins?) and pole beans bug raccoons, too, so these are good things to plant with the corn. Louise Riotte recommends sprinkling black or cayenne peppers on the corn silks to further discourage the corn-eating critters. :-)
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Thanks kootowl.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
chilled.
Maybe I wasn't clear, this is what I was responding to:
I think that nothing should ever come out of the ALR. ok. For the reasons already stated.
As to the Peace River country. I have friends who farm there and it is not uncommon for them to lose a whole season's crop of grain because of the 'short' growing season. Not too many years back they were still trying to scrape up swaths in the snow.
I can't recall off the top of my head how much of the total BC land base is suitable for agriculture but I believe it is significantly less than 10%. I have no problem with making some types of agriculture more intensive although the interface between rural and urban is always a problem.
What we need more than anything, in my opinion, is a reformed tax system. There are huge, absolutely huge sections of corporate earnings and capital gains that pay little or no taxes at all. These are the people who are getting the free ride at the expense of the workers and the middle class. The gap between rich and poor is widening because of these tax holidays and it has to stop. Somehow or other the majority of the people have to take back control of this country from the greedy corporate and family elites that have stolen it away since the 1970s.
Chris H
5 years ago
"Purdy eventually said the Agricultural Land Commission's process is better than it used to be. 'I think the procedure as it stands gives everybody a fair hearing.'"
Does it give future generations a fair hearing? When the ALR was first established, it was with the intention that no viable argricultural land would be developed. Once you throw a housing development onto that land, that is it. No more farming there ever ... period.
The BC Liberals have made this process more political than ever. The article is proof positive of that. Land that has for the last 30 years, and is still, being used for agriculture is not viable? What kind of decision is that? A political one to be sure. One that will financially benefit someone despite the need to keep as much farmland around for the future.
Gloomy
5 years ago
Yes, land is scarce and it behooves us to examine how it is used!
Between golf courses and cemetaries we use enough land to feed an army.
But they are of course "sacred cows", right?
There has to be new solutions found!
China has one solution by allowing only one child per family!
Oh another "sacred cow" eh?
Fiat lux
5 years ago
Sorry tax cutter, in this area, 3000' high, we don't grow corn, or any cereals. Too cold and no topsoil. We can grow a lot of garden foods, berries and animals, but the climate and soil are no good for a lot of things. We only have cattle now, thriving and improving the soil.
By the way, have you ever thought about how much of your taxes end up in the pockets of so called "developers". Wealth creating, good capitalists, or course.
When we were calculating the costs of the proposed mobile home park, the BC Lands figures showed (I still have them on file), that they were going to give the land to the guy, a good friend of the officials, for practically nothing, while he would have ended up with a yearly $100,000 from the sale of the trailers and the rent of the sites. This was their estimated income forecast, not ours.
At the same time the BC taxpayer would have had to fork out up to $400,000 extra per year, over and above the taxes received from the site, putting money into the developer's pocket. Most of these taxes going into schooling, school buses etc. Thsee were our own figures, obtained from the authorities.
Plus the estimated accident figures and costs of about 150 cars commuting a 100 km return trip, daily, in all kinds of Cariboo weather. There are pretty good statistic forecasts on these scenarios.
Does anybody, especially government, and our "development minded society", like our "tax cutters" ever think of these things?
As far "growing a few hundred dollars worth of pumpkins" on protected land is concerned, it is not dollars that grow on that land, but food, which can not be expressed in artificial monetary values.
Uo to 25 million people, most of them children, starve to death every year around the globe. Does anybody on this blog realize what this means?
Food didn't mean much to me when I was a kid and my school nickname was "Boney". But only people who have gone through long periods of starvation can understand what it means. When you can not think of anything else, but food and openly cry over meals you left behind.
We used to get a loaf of bread for 3-4 and up to 8 people. The guy who cut and divided the bread got the last piece. I have seen once burly farmboys, and even university professors, with knife in their hands, measuring the loaf of bread, with the others creaming at him, sometimes for an hour, before cutting it.
I was 5'11 when WW2 ended, weighing 103 lbs. 61 years later, I still treasure food more than gold and especially worthless dollars. Bless Dave Barrett for the ALR and ICBC.
Ed Deak.
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Speaking of greedy developers and attacks on the alr etc. you should see whats happening in Squamish!!!
Unfettered greed and speculation,
carpet baggin', gentrification.
When will all this madness end?
Not til they've lined their pockets, friend!
Gloomy
5 years ago
Greed is never ending!
Your solution is to vote for the right party!
BC Dude
5 years ago
Thank-You BC Mary but alas I'm in Vancouver and would give anything to be there in person!
As your letter to Basi, Verk to plea bargain and nail the Big (sucker) Fish in this putrid rotting tank called Victoria Parliament Buildings.
Organized Crime, just look at how the city of Vernon was terrorized by the Greeks & for how long & how many other towns & villages are being terrorized now?
That is a wake up call to the peace loving people of Canada.
We need a real paper media for real news as
I'd pay $20. a month or more, no ads no political interference, just a thought.
And yes Dave Barrett was a real man for the people!
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Hey speak of the devil!!
Check out the shameless Squamish realestate pimping in the vancouver sun westcoast section today.
A WHOLE SEPERATE SECTION!!!
That taxpayer funded highway never had a f'in thing to do with the crummy olympics.
To add to the already surreal/obscene hypocrisy they try to sell Squamish as the "green" alternative but conveniently fail to mention that:
1) it's large scale, multi-billion dollar, gentrification is predicated upon the new, billion dollar sea-to-sky highway which intrinsically endorses thousands of new long-distance commuters and
2)said highway's needless intrusion through Eagleridge Bluffs constitutes a cynical and egregious attack on the legitimacy of any stated green motivation in the first place.
This whole charade has been planned out for years and simply involves a bunch of greedy developers, sleazy real estate hacks and the politicians who they hold in their pockets like so many nickels and dimes creating an instant source of massive profiteering.
Maybe this is also revenge for the fact that the Squamish strategic vote in the last federal election cost the sleazy conservatives this riding!
To afford the places they're flogging up here now you'd have to be a con$ervative to even consider moving here!! i.e. member of the corporate elite or white-collar crook -oops thats redundant.
Fiat lux
5 years ago
Isn't it interesting that when the money from BC taxpayers' pockets disappears in the pockets of developers, big and multinational business and taken out of BC and the country, our heroic "tax cutters", "capitalists" etc. are silent like church mice.
But when badly needed, and useful hospital staff gets a two bit raise, they're screaming their heads off about "union bosses and blackmail".
Ed Deak.
Tax Cutter 99
5 years ago
Ed. I agree with your points on the value of food. But ICBC? Sorry, way different animal.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
cutter
Not surprising you'd say that, given your bias for the private insurance industry.
How's the corn coming?
Fiat lux
5 years ago
I just got my tax notice for my farm truck, $670.
I have a perfect driving record, no claims, accidents, or tickets, but I'm 79, in perfect health, no medications, no booze, or smoke, and my truck, also in perfect condition is 26 years old. I only drive it about 3,000 km per year.
In some provinces I couldn't get any insurance, in others it would cost me $6 to 8,000.
If anybody dares to touch ICBC I'll pick up a gun. And I was a master marksman in the war!!!!!!!
Private insurance is the worst goodamn racketeering criminals I've ever known, but I've already written about this several times.
Their favourite expression is: "Sue us...!" with stacks of the cunningest mouthpieces on their payrolls.
One of our local friends had his house burned down when he was not home. It took him a year to get settlement. Meanwhile he had to live in his barn.
When my daughter's mobile home burned down 22 years ago and she was insured by a long sold branch of ICBC, she got her money within a week and so did we for furniture she stored for us while we were building.
All insurance execs should be arrested and charged with fraud, tomorrow.
Ed Deak.
RickW
5 years ago
My first auto mishap happened in Winnipeg (my fault) and my premiums went from $325/yr. to $625/yr. This was on a salary of about $5,000. Then public auto insurance kicked in, and my premiums went from $625 to $325! Gosh Bless Public auto insurance!
RickW
5 years ago
http://www.alc.gov.bc.ca/application_status/Barnston_Is/35256_main.htm
http://www.greenclub.bc.ca/Regions/Fraser_Estuary/Barnston/barnston.htm
http://www.thenownewspaper.com/issues04/023104/news/023104nn1.html