Marking 20 years
of bold journalism,
reader supported.
News
Politics
Environment
Urban Planning + Architecture

BC Liberals Scramble to Save the Farm

NDP says budget bump too small after damning report on Agricultural Land Reserve languished for year.

Andrew MacLeod 21 Nov 2011TheTyee.ca

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.

image atom
B.C. Agriculture Minister Don McRae: 'Nothing in government moves as quickly as I'd like it to.'

In the wake of a damning report, the British Columbia government is making changes the agriculture minister says will better protect farmland. The New Democratic Party's critic says the changes are minor and much more needs to be done.

At the end of July 2010, then agriculture minister Steve Thomson asked the chair of the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) to look at the organization and report on whether it was meeting its mandate to protect farmland and to recommend ways to improve its decision making processes.

The ALC oversees the 4.7 million hectares of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in the province, where farming is given priority.

The chair, Richard Bullock, spent three months on the assignment. He travelled the province and met with more than 300 people. He compiled what he heard into a 117-page report and submitted it to the minister.

The minister's office held the report, dated Nov. 26, 2010, for nearly a year until it was released last week. The current agriculture minister, Don McRae, told The Tyee in June that the report had been on his desk since he took over the portfolio in March.

"Nothing in government moves as quickly as I'd like it to," McRae said after releasing the report. "Having a report out there with no actions attached was not something I wanted to have." Withholding it "was a decision made by me and government," he said.

ALC not meeting mandate

A read of the report reveals why McRae and the government may have been hesitant to share it with the public.

"Stakeholders were almost unanimous in expressing their concern regarding the inadequacy of the ALC's funding and lack of resources to carry out its existing work, never mind explore new opportunities," Bullock wrote.

"Over the last two fiscal years, the ALC has been forced to focus on processing applications with minimum or no attention being given to its other statutory obligations," he wrote.

"This has lead to stakeholders' dissatisfaction, particularly at the local government level, because the ALC is not available to discuss local and regional matters or to deal with emerging or ongoing issues such as the impact of oil and gas activities on agriculture in northeast B.C."

He identified problems with the governance structure and found new commissioners are given "very limited or no training and education" when they are appointed. They start performing their duties without training, creating a potential legal liability for the ALC, he said.

"Following my review, I can confirm that the ALC is extremely challenged to meet its mandate," Bullock wrote. "The foundation has suffered erosion to the land base and loss of support from bona fide farmers and ranchers."

The situation was, however, reparable, he said. With "adequate funding and resources," the ALC would be able to meet its challenges, he said.

Changes made

McRae released the report at the same time as announcing a budget increase for the ALC. The annual budget of $1.92 million got a boost of $600,000 this year, plus another $1 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

The government also introduced legislation that McRae said will help the commission do its job.

If an application to remove land from the ALR is denied, the applicant won't be able to ask again for five years. The ALC will be allowed to find ways to generate more revenue to fund its operations. Other government agencies will share resources with the ALC.

The chair of the ALC will have more oversight over regional panels and the agency will add a CEO. The mandate will include working more proactively with local governments instead of just reacting to applications.

"It's reiterating the government's support for the Agricultural Land Reserve," said McRae, noting these are the first substantive changes to be made in a decade to strengthen the ALC and protect the ALR.

"It's a substantial change," said Bullock. But there will still be challenges for the organization, he said. "Nothing can be done overnight."

Falls short: critic

The government will, however, make its changes with some speed. The legislation was introduced Nov. 14 and is expected to be passed by the scheduled end of the legislative session this week, among several other bills.

"There's a lot going on in the legislation from what I've seen so far and there are a lot of implications," said the NDP agriculture critic Lana Popham. "That's not something you want to ram through in the last couple days of a legislative session. It's not fair to agriculture."

People should also be given time to consider Bullock's report, she said, adding it's "insulting" that it was not released months ago. "It's just massive and I'm still sifting through it, though I was aware of most of the recommendations. This is a huge report," she said.

The changes do not appear to address the question of fill dumping, where material from construction sites is piled onto farm land, which has become a huge issue, she said. "That's a big problem. I've said in the house, it's out of control."

Nor did the government follow Bullock's recommendation to stop using three-person regional panels to assess whether land should be taken out of the ALR. There is only one point raised in favour of regional panels in the report, while there are several pages of reasons why they don't work, said Popham.

"It looks like they don't want to strengthen the ALC, because a stronger option would have been to go to a seven-person panel," she said. "(Minister McRae) needs to explain it. It's a serious flaw."

Also, she said, the $1.6 million of extra funding falls short of what's needed. "This doesn't even come close. I don't think it even replaces what's been cut from the ALC in recent years."

The ALC would need $2 million just to clear the backlog of things it's supposed to attend to, plus an annual budget of $3 million, she said.

Mixed message from committee

McRae didn't dispute the figures from Popham, but did say Bullock has told him he believes the ALC can get its work done with the amount of money the government is providing. "That $1.6 million is going to help their capacity in making decisions in a timely manner," he said.

The government kept the regional panels because they make decisions locally, he said. "B.C. is a massive province both geographically and agriculturally," he said. The Peace River, Okanagan and Comox Valley, for example, are all very different from each other, he said.

The ALC chair has been given more oversight of the panels and the ability to have more input into decisions, he said.

As for fill dumping, he said the government is expanding the ability of bylaw officers to enforce the applicable laws. "Between other government officials and municipalities, we have the ability I think for the ALC to really go forward and do better work with compliance and enforcement."

A clue to the real level of support for the ALC and the ALR within the Liberal ranks may be in another document released last week, Popham said. The budget consultation report made by the select standing committee on finance and government services had a couple recommendations contrary to the ALR's goals, she said.

A section on investing in northern development included this nugget: "Remove an appropriate amount of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve so that Fort Nelson can expand its residential land base to accommodate the growth pressure demands of developing the Horn River, Liard and Cordova shale gas basins."

The government holds a majority on the committee, which travelled the province to gather suggestions from the public on what should be in the budget.

"They are recommendations from the government side," said Popham. "Which is a priority? Is agriculture now at the bottom again? If we have a provincial commission that's supposed to be protecting agricultural land, and it's failing, how can the finance committee recommend more land be removed? It doesn't make sense."

It does show that a sizable part of the Liberal caucus sees the ALR as an inconvenience and that McRae needs to be a much stronger advocate for agriculture, she said.

[Tags: Environment, Urban Planning + Architecture, Politics.]  [Tyee]

  • Share:

Facts matter. Get The Tyee's in-depth journalism delivered to your inbox for free

Tyee Commenting Guidelines

Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion.
*Please note The Tyee is not a forum for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, denying its existence or minimizing its risk to public health.

Do:

  • Be thoughtful about how your words may affect the communities you are addressing. Language matters
  • Challenge arguments, not commenters
  • Flag trolls and guideline violations
  • Treat all with respect and curiosity, learn from differences of opinion
  • Verify facts, debunk rumours, point out logical fallacies
  • Add context and background
  • Note typos and reporting blind spots
  • Stay on topic

Do not:

  • Use sexist, classist, racist, homophobic or transphobic language
  • Ridicule, misgender, bully, threaten, name call, troll or wish harm on others
  • Personally attack authors or contributors
  • Spread misinformation or perpetuate conspiracies
  • Libel, defame or publish falsehoods
  • Attempt to guess other commenters’ real-life identities
  • Post links without providing context

LATEST STORIES

The Barometer

Do You Think Naheed Nenshi Will Win the Alberta NDP Leadership Race?

Take this week's poll