APRIL 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


29 Sunshine Coast fights for brewers to locate on farmland


by PETER MITHAM GIBSONS – The fight for the right to


brew beer on protected farmland so long as local ingredients are used is gaining ground, with the Sunshine Coast Regional District backing a call for changes to Agricultural Land Commission regulations. A meeting of regional district


board members on February 16 approved asking the annual meeting of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) to consider a resolution that would urge the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) to allow breweries, distilleries and meaderies to contract “with another BC grower to meet the 50% farm product requirement” currently in place for these operations. A similar provision is in places for wineries and cideries (which are licensed as wineries). The meeting takes place in April 7-9 in Campbell River. The motion stems from the ALC’s


saying no for some reason. They can’t give us an answer for why they decided that. The only thing that comes to mind, in my mind, is that there’s big breweries in the back rooms,” regional district chair Garry Nohr told the district’s planning committee on February 16. Nohr and other representatives of the district did not respond to Country Life in BC’s requests for comment.


Popular support The bid to force a change in ALC


Rebecca Kneen of Crannóg Ales. CRANNOG ALES PHOTO


rejection in December of an application by Persephone Brewing Co. Inc. that would have legitimated its operation on 11.4 acres of ALR land in Gibsons. Persephone co-founders Brian Smith and social entrepreneur Mark Brand opened the brewery in 2013 and have since developed the brewery into a community hub. Its ownership group includes the Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living, which also owns Persephone Farms Ltd. and operates a one-acre hopyard on the property. An additional four acres were planted last year, but failed; a second attempt to expand the hopyard is in progress. The brewery has been a non-compliant use under ALC regulations from the


start. Its contravention of local zoning bylaws was what thrust it into the spotlight. The regional district shares its social vision, however, and would like to see it accommodated. “Here’s an example of promoting farming on small properties but they’re


regulations has won popular support. An online petition targeting BC agriculture minister Norm Letnick as well as premier Christy Clark and Coralee Oakes, Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, launched March 1 and garnered close to 1,600 signatures at deadline. Letnick considered just such a change in 2014, however. The second question considered in the agriculture ministry’s Summary of


Stakeholder Input on Proposed Amendments to the Agricultural Land Reserve Use, Subdivision and Procedure Regulation issued in September 2014 asked, “Should breweries, distilleries and meaderies be allowed on ALR land on the same or similar terms as wineries and cideries are currently allowed?” “Responses were mixed, but a majority of stakeholders from each region


supported the proposal that breweries, distilleries and meaderies be allowed on ALR land, without an application to the ALC, on the same basis as wineries and cideries,” the ministry reported, noting that particularly strong support came from local governments in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan. A sticking point was whether it was feasible for breweries to meet the


See BREWERIES on next page o


HELPING FARMERS


MANAGE FINANCIAL STRESS THE FARM DEBT MEDIATION SERVICE


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