NOVEMBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Municipalities challenge ALC


over process Province says local governments are key partners


by PETER MITHAM


VANCOUVER – This year’s changes to regulations governing activities in the Agricultural Land Reserve and how applications proceed to the Agricultural Land Commission have put local government in the spotlight. “The commission can’t


really do anything without local government,” commission CEO Kim Grout told growers who met in Merville on September 19 to kick-off a seven-week consultation on how the province can better support farmers and farming in the ALR.


But many growers feel they


can’t do anything with local government, thanks to confusion as to how provincial regulations and policies should be implemented. Adding to the confusion are variations among municipalities that mean the regulations aren’t necessarily applied the same way across the province. Housing is a case in point, and has been a recurring issue at the public meetings. Producers who met with the land commission and agriculture ministry staff in Kelowna on October 10 complained that zoning bylaws in some municipalities prohibit housing beyond what the ALC allows. This prevents landowners from seeking permission to build on-farm housing for workers, even though the land commission is willing to consider several additional residences for farm help. “If they (local governments)


are saying they don’t want to see that much residential


development in that area, that is their decision,” assistant deputy agriculture minister James Mack told the Kelowna meeting. Grout explains that many


changes, particularly around decision-making and exclusion applications, are part of a shift towards “a broader, collaborative community planning focus” to reduce confusion. The ideal situation is when the local government leads the initiative and builds trust with local landowners. “When the commission tries to come in from outside and tries to lead a process, it’s not as successful,” she told a workshop of local government representatives at the Union of BC Municipalities conference in Vancouver on September 25. But the two need to work


together, as Leanne Salter, a director in the Regional District of Nanaimo, pointed out.


Salter described “rock


farmers” she knows who have spent years trying to remove a property from the ALR. They remain caught between the ALC and local government. Mack replied that local


governments can always approach the land commission and seek removal of properties. In fact, he said, it’s easier now than ever before.


Under Bill 15, passed this


spring, landowners were stripped of the right to make application to the land commission for the exclusion of their properties. That right was given to local government, which no longer requires the landowner’s consent.


3


No bad apples


A highlight of the annual UBC Apple Festival is the BC Fruit Testers Association display of dozens of varieties of apples, crabapples and medlars. All the fruit is grown in the southwestern BC. Visitors come to be amazed, and instructed in apple identification, pests and diseases of apples, and pollination. Held at UBC Botanical Garden, the event also gives people a chance to taste, discover and buy apples as well as trees so they can start growing their own. PETER MITHAM PHOTO


“A few years ago the law was changed to require owner consent to leave the ALR,” Mack told the meeting. “It did make it problematic. … [Bill 15] is undoing that.” Mack says the ministry is


working with the Union of BC Municipalities to better engage local governments around Bill 52 and proposed changes in Bill 15 expected this fall. Producers’ comments


at the public meetings this fall will feed into the work, he added.


UBCM delegates supported


the province’s ongoing efforts to overhaul the ALC and its regulations. A motion by Spallumcheen, endorsed by the Southern Interior Local Government Association, asked the province to halt development of any new ALC regulations,


“until such time as local governments understand the implications on their residents and have provided input in developing any new regulations.” The resolution was endorsed by the UBCM resolutions committee, but delegates opted to refer the motion to the UBCM executive. With files from Jackie Pearase


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