8 FALLING through the cracks
something he doesn’t have. “I submitted a very fulsome application with a business plan that has the full support of the regional district and the mayor. The panel did not even visit my property,” he said. “I want to hear that the government cares about us and is really supporting farming,” he says. “Are we a forgotten area? Do we fall through the cracks?”
Too little, too late The same question surfaced in
Kamloops, where more than 100 people gathered for the final public engagement session on November 14. Producers support the Agricultural
Land Commission and appreciate the opportunity to provide input on the legislative and regulatory changes but said the current meetings are too little, too late. BC Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon said his organization has the ear of the ALC but regular farmers aren’t given a sense of the impacts of the conversations taking place in government. This results in a sense of being ignored. “And, the next time we have a change in government there will be another request to change the ALC,” he added. “Governments like to make their mark to say they’re doing something in agriculture.” Kamloops rancher Lucille Dempsey told the panel that all levels of government need to be listening and be part of the solutions that support
agriculture. “Agricultural advisory committees should be a mandatory part of all local governments,” she said. “If you want to protect farmland and support farmers, local government needs to be on side at all times.” Housing, soil health,
support for organic farmers, improved weed control and mapping, and the desire for fewer regulations and more incentives for agriculture were other issues raised at the meeting. “If we can make farming profitable, the land and water will take care of itself,” Boon said, to the crowd’s applause. “We have to get it back to where we can get more for our product than it costs to produce it.”
Worthwhile Mack says the town hall meetings
were worthwhile and productive. “I think it was definitely high-value to do it. It was amazing to see the similarities and differences across BC,” he told Country Life in BC after the meeting. However, he says the province needs to do more to communicate with farmers and landowners. “We need a more disciplined,
organized way to communicate. … We recognize we need to do a better job,” he said. “It’s definitely something
that’s a priority for us going forward.” Dyson says communication can be difficult across commodity sectors, and reaching small-lot farmers not connected to any particular
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2019 nfrom page 7
all going to come to pieces of an answer that can craft solutions better and together. That’s what this is about.”
“People put a lot of time into the process and so we want to prove to them it’s authentic and it’s going to result in changes.”
commodity is especially difficult. The use of social media as an
information source, particularly among new and young farmers, has also led to a glut of misinformation about recent changes to the ALR. “They’re getting their information
from social media and that’s an absolute disaster because it’s created a tremendous amount of concern and fear,” she said. While anger, fear and frustration
have been common themes throughout the town hall meetings, Dyson lauds the opportunity for relationship-building the consultation process provided. “We have a ministry right now that
is so receptive to finding an approach and they’re listening,” she said. “We are
ASSISTANT DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE
The online consultation process closed November 15 but stakeholder meetings with academia, the BC Agriculture Council, Union of BC Municipalities and farmers’ institutes continued throughout November. Mack expects feedback to continue rolling in through December.
JAMES MACK A summary of the consultation
process will be released in the new year and a discussion with the agriculture minister to develop a staged action plan will follow soon after. “The direction is to move quickly
on this,” said Mack. “People put a lot of time into the process and so we want to prove to them it’s authentic and it’s going to result in changes.” Changes are just what Faye Street
asked the panel to deliver at the Cranbrook meeting. “My kids are good ranchers but they look at what my husband and I are going through and they say that there is not a chance in hell that they will take over the farm,” she said. “You have an opportunity to change that.”
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