2


substantially. It notes the ALC has opened 191 compliance and enforcement files related to fill in the current fiscal year. This is up from approximately 78 last year and 71 in the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The province’s legislation comes in advance of the final report of a nine-member committee appointed to propose ways to revitalize the ALC and ALR. The committee delivered an interim report in July, and the final report is expected by the end of the year.


Jennifer Dyson, who led


the revitalization committee prior to succeeding Frank Leonard as ALC chair in May, said the new legislation flowed from the committee’s interim report. The legislation also


received applause from the BC Agriculture Council and member organizations which converged on Victoria the following day to meet with government ministers and MLAs as part of the Agriculture Day outreach event. “The proposed changes will continue to strengthen the Agricultural Land Reserve,” BCAC president Stan Vander Waal said in a statement the province distributed to media. “We are happy to see the return to one zone and trust that future administrative changes to the Agricultural Land Commission will continue to be reviewed with BC Agriculture Council, which understands the unique needs of farmers and ranchers in BC.”


ALR legislation addresses priority issues However, after last year’s


Ag Day meetings in Victoria, Vander Waal said government needs to focus on ensuring legitimate farms are using the properties, then assessing uses in that context. “We’re looking to increase land usefulness, but also to make sure that the benefits are not extended to non-ag uses of farmland,” he said. In the wake of this year’s meetings, he renewed calls for fresh tax policies and incentives to keep farmland in production, such as a greater revenue threshold for properties to obtain farm tax status. “We want to see an update


to the provincial farm and ranch taxation legislation to better target incentives to support active farmers and increase farmland productivity,” he said. While discussions are


taking place, Popham told Country Life in BC that the next round of changes to the ALC’s enabling legislation will focus on governance. Those are expected in the spring. “We started with the top


three that we heard in the consultation,” she said. “We also will be putting forward legislation in the spring that will be dealing with governance of the Agricultural Land Commission, but that hasn’t been landed on yet.” Pending changes to commission governance, Popham took steps make appointments that give the ALC a full complement of commissioners. It was down


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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2018 nfrom page 1


to just 11 commissioners last month, less than the 13 required by law. By the end of the month, six appointments restored the complement needed to fulfil its mandate. Popham says the appointments will ensure regional representation even if the six regional panels that currently exist are replaced with the single panel that existed prior to 2002. “You can still have regional


representation on a single provincial panel. We want to make sure we have everything covered off,” she said. “It’s very important for the northern part of the province to have very good representation because of course that’s the biggest percentage of ALR land. So we may not have a northern panel, but we will have full representation for the north on a provincial panel, if that’s the direction that we go. We’re still trying to work out the details.”


New land commissioners Six new appointments to the Agricultural Land


Commission in late October added several commissioners with practical farming experience. Agriculture minister Lana Popham made four of the appointments: • Andrew Adams of Hope Farm Organics in Willow River, who joins the northern BC regional panel for a two- year term.


• Susan Gimse is co-owner of Gimse Farm in Pemberton and a director of the BC Assessment Authority. She joins the South Coast panel for a two-year term. • BC Cattlemen’s Association contractor Rick Mumford, appointed vice-chair of the Interior regional panel for a two-year term. • Cranbrook rancher Jerry Thibeault, who returns to the commission for a two-year term with the Kootenay panel. Two other appointments were made via order-in- council: former Kelowna councillor Gerald Zimmerman, a veteran of both local water boards and the ALC, and Fraser Lake rancher Janice Tapp. Zimmerman and Tapp received two-year terms with the Okanagan and northern BC panels, respectively. In addition, an order-in-council appointed existing commissioner Ione Smith vice-chair of the South Coast panel.


—Peter Mitham WASTE regs will be phased in


start in 2021 for farmers above the Abbotsford/Sumas, Aldergrove, Fort Langley and Hoppington aquifers. They will start a year later in Chilliwack, Agassiz and Seabird Island. Starting in 2022, farmers will be prohibited from spreading manure in November, December and January and will have to do risk assessments if they want to spread in October, February or March. Schwalb said the risk assessments will be similar to those already required in Whatcom County. Farmers still using earthen


manure storage will have to do a leak assessment by 2021 and add a liner by 2029.


The new regulation also limits field storage of poultry manure to just seven months (nine months is currently permitted) and requires a setback of three metres from watercourses for above- ground manure spreading and 1.5 metres for injection systems.


Although the BC Ministry


of Agriculture will provide guidance and tools to help farmers meet the new requirements, the environment ministry will dedicate staff to enforce the new regulation.


Groundwater licences


Farmers can only hope implementation of the new


nfrom pg 1


waste control regulation will be smoother than implementation of groundwater licensing. The province required


To all of our customers & friends, Merry Christmas & best wishes for the New Year!


groundwater users to license their wells as of February 29, 2016. It has given them until March 1, 2019 to do so in order to recognize their “first- in-time, first-in-right” priority usage. This is an extension from the previous deadline of December 31, 2018. After one producer noted he had applied in November 2016 and had yet to receive his licence, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources Operations and Rural Development authorization specialist Tara Despault acknowledged the approval process is proving to be extremely slow. As of November 13, the


Dr. Patrick O,Brien DVM, CIM Vice President & Wealth Advisor


604.467.5321 1.877.272.2002 patrick.obrien@rbc.com www.patrick-obrien.ca References available.


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Best Wishes for a Wonderful


Christmas to all my agricultural clients and friends.


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province had received 2,644 licence applications from existing groundwater users but had only granted 278 licences, ministry communications director Vivian Thomas told Country Life in BC. However, Despault insisted this should not stop farmers from starting the process. “If you are an existing user,


file your application and keep using your water,” she said. New users, however, need a licence before digging a new well. Despault said those applications are getting priority attention. She says the ministry has a new-use turnaround time of 140 days but the facts seem to belie that.


Thomas notes the ministry


has received 366 licence applications for new groundwater use but has only granted 100 of those licences.


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