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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • AUGUST 2017 Ag council announces new executive members ABBOTSFORD – A new


roster of directors will oversee the BC Agriculture Council and its wholly owned subsidiary, the BC Agricultural Research & Development


Sharmain Bennie, Terry Brooks, Barry Follensbee and Fred Wein.


Jillian Robbins returns as ex officio director representing BC Young Farmers.


The board


Ag Briefs EDITED BY TAMARA LEIGH


Corp. (ARDCorp) through another year. The first board meeting of


BCAC’s new fiscal year saw Stan Vander Waal re-elected as chair and Ray Van Marrewyk continues as treasurer. Jared DeJong replaced Rhonda Driediger as vice-president; Driediger in turn is now director-at-large, replacing Ray Bredenhof. Allen James and Duncan Barnett will lead ARDCorp as chair and vice-chair, respectively. Directors of both BCAC and


ARDCorp are returning board members Lynda Atkinson, Duncan Barnett and Jen Gamble; new members include Sukhpaul Bal,


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has also elected


Driediger chair of the Western Agriculture Labour Initiative


(WALI). Between 2007 and 2009, WALI oversaw foreign agricultural worker programs in BC, providing administrative, issues management and policy development services as a committee of BCAC. In 2009, its functions were distributed among BCAC member organizations. This year, it was resurrected as a subsidiary of the BCAC.


Peter Mitham


Rollover claims farmer


ARMSTRONG – A tractor accident in Spallumcheen has claimed Reuben Reimer, a long-time Armstrong farmer and entrepreneur. Reimer, 64, was driving a swather between two properties on Gulch Road, a steep country road with a hairpin turn. According to reports, his tractor left the road at approximately 5:30 pm and rolled over a 25-foot embankment. Authorities pronounced him dead at the scene. Originally from Alberta, Reimer moved to Armstrong as a boy. He began raising pigs, veal calves and strawberries, as well as a


family, in Armstrong in 1983 after periods in Enderby and Yankee Flats. With his brother Byron, he also ran Reimer Bros., a trucking firm that evolved to specialize in refrigerated transport. The circumstances and cause of the accident remain under investigation. Recent notices from various agricultural organizations remind farmers that tractors must have roll- over protection systems (ROPS) engaged when operating on roads and drivers must wear seatbelts. Tractors, like any other vehicular traffic, should avoid soft shoulders to ensure safe operation.


Peter Mitham


Scholarship winner


announced KAMLOOPS – The BC


Angus Association has awarded its 2017 scholarship to Meaghan McGillivray of Kamloops. Meaghan grew up on Jocko Creek Ranch where her family raises purebred and commercial Angus cattle. She represents BC junior Angus members on the Canadian Junior Angus Association board and was also awarded the $1,000 Dick Turner Memorial Scholarship during the Canadian Angus convention in Manitoba in June.


She is currently attending


McGill University in Montreal, and plans to attend medical school after obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree. She also plans on remaining involved on the family ranch.


“Although my role on my


family’s ranch changed when I moved to Montreal to pursue my education in the fall of 2015, I have continued to stay involved by taking on a more administrative position and visiting home whenever I can. I love both ranching and my current studies at university,” she says. She has her own small Angus herd in which she maintains straight Canadian genetics. The BC Angus Association


awards its $500 scholarship annually. Deadline for applications is in May.


Cathy Glover


FCC steps up REGINA – Farm Credit


Canada (FCC) is donating $25,000 to help the Canadian Red Cross support people impacted by wildfires in British Columbia this summer. FCC’s donation is in


addition to another $25,000 donation the federal Crown corporation made to the Canadian Red Cross this spring for disaster preparedness, which includes acquiring emergency supplies, volunteer recruitment and training. “It’s not uncommon for rural communities to be impacted when natural disasters occur in Canada and we want to help – not only in the response to a natural disaster, but also in the year- round work that goes into preparing for a disaster,” says Don Anderson, FCC senior vice- president of Western operations. The Canadian Red Cross is continuing to provide support to thousands of British Columbians who have been displaced by wildfires this summer. Donations can be made online through its website [www.redcross.ca/ donate].


Tamara Leigh Protect farmland Editor: Re: Abbotsford seeks


exclusion to boost industrial land base, July 2017 A big concern of mine is the constant removal of land from the ALR by


Letters


municipalities for uses other than farming.


On July 17, Abbotsford held another public hearing


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www.JAYLOR.com | 800.809.8224 ALEXANDER KNIVES


about removing 355 acres of farmland from my community of Bradner and paving it over to become an industrial area. Another area near to Abbotsford Airport is also under consideration for removal.


Bradner is a viable


farming community yet we are being told that this particular


section has questionable soil. To me, that's just not valid when it's been farmed for over 100 years and is still being farmed. Bradner residents have


been very vocal against this proposal from the first public hearing, townhall meetings and information meetings over the last three years, and yet here we go again to another and apparently final public hearing. The proposal has already


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been turned down by the ALC once and returned to be included in the city's OCP. I strongly believe no land should be taken out of the ALR. I don't vote for any particular political party but in my opinion, the creation of the ALR was the best thing the NDP ever did. Climate change is real and


we are going to need every scrap of farmland we have. I enjoy reading your paper


and would like to see you do articles about the value of the ALR and how it's being ravaged one small piece at a time.


Cherry Groves Bradner


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