A loosening of the rules around how Agricultural Land Reserve property may be used could help the viability producers in the north, according to Regional District of Fraser-Fort George director Lara Beckett.
The provincial government introduced legislation Thursday that would allow more flexibility for how land in the north, interior and Kootenay regions could be used used. The government said the new rules will help agricultural producers get more value out of their land and make their operations more viable, but the opposition NDP believe the new law is ideologically based and could remove protection for agricultural land unnecessarily.
Beckett, who represents the Chilako River-Nechako electoral area at the regional district, said the concept of adding more flexibility is good, but she will also be paying close attention to how the regulations around the new legislation will be drafted.
"A lot of our farms up here have some land that isn't going to be great food-producing land, whereas parts of the farm are excellent food-producing land," she said. "I think if you're looking at what can help contribute to the viability of the farm and if you can use some of this space that isn't good for actual agriculture and use it for other related and associate business, I can see that as a benefit to the producers themselves."
Beckett said she's pleased that the Agricultural Land Commission will still hold the decision making power over how the land will be used. She described the new law as a "broadening of the lens" for how the commission can consider new applications.
"[The commission will be able to] look at some of the economic, social and cultural values and regional community planning objectives," she said. "Generally I think that could be of benefit to our area."
The legislation creates two zones in the province. In Zone 1, primarily the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, rules around how agricultural land can be used will remain unchanged.
Zone 2, which includes the north, will give the commission the discretion to allow for other uses of the land if it keeps in the spirit of protecting agricultural land. That could include non-agricultural home-based businesses if it doesn't take away from farm operations.
"What will be off the table is decisions that would negatively impact the core principles of preservation of agricultural land and decisions that would negatively impact farm operations on that land," Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson said during a conference call with reporters. "What will be discussed with the organizations and the groups is what kind of opportunities can we look for that would help support the farm operations and make sure they can keep their families on the land and provide income and support for those farm operations while maintaining the core principles."
NDP agriculture critic Nicholas Simons said the new policy is a way for the government to exert its control over how the land should be used and takes away from the 40-year history of the commission's work.
"Essentially they're saying that lands in the north don't need as much protection as lands in the south because the lands in the north have a shorter growing season," he said. "They don't mention the longer days or anything like that because they're not soil and climate scientists, they're not agrologists and they don't know enough about it, they should be leaving these decisions to the [agricultural land commission]."
The bill was introduced Thursday morning and Simons brought it up during question period, at one point calling the Liberals decision not to campaign on the policy changes "deceitful."
Speaker Linda Reid demanded Simons retract the statement because it was considered unparliamentary, and after a brief exchange he did.
Simons later said in an interview he was unaware he couldn't used the word "deceitful" in the legislature, but stood by his point that the Liberals should have campaigned on making changes to the commission's rules.
"I think an issue as important as this, it's something that public would have like to have known before the election," he said. "People would have ascertained whether they believed these changes were significant or not."
Simons said more public consultation should have taken place before the bill was introduced.
Beckett said the regional district wasn't consulted about the new law, but she expect they will be able to have input into how the regulations are drafted through the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
Beckett said it's important that the new rules still adhere to the overarching goal of protecting agricultural land.
"I think it's really important that any quality agricultural land still has that security that the reserve gives to it," she said. "It's a relatively small, but still stable part of our economy and looking into the future as population pressure will come to our region, making sure that we have a land base that's going to be able to feed people is pretty critical."
