The NDP government91裸聊视频檚 overhaul of the Agricultural Land Commission is causing grief for B.C. families who are trying to keep family farms going with new restrictions on secondary homes.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham91裸聊视频檚 drive to protect farmland is based on a couple of long-standing NDP assumptions. One is that there is massive property speculation, with buyers applying to have farmland released from the Agricultural Land Reserve to cash in on its increased value. Actual statistics from the commission didn91裸聊视频檛 show that, but Popham pushed through legislation that prevents property owners from applying directly for exclusion by declaring that owners are not 91裸聊视频減ersons.91裸聊视频�
The second assumption is that additional residences are a form of creeping development that has to be reined in. This was accomplished with legislation that passed last November and took effect in February, giving the commission the final say on secondary residences.
These changes are filtering through to local governments, and there have been some alarming results. The Langley Advance Times reported on one last week, where retirees Cathy and Brian Fichter planned to move their daughter, her husband and six children to an extended family farm as they deal with Brian91裸聊视频檚 diagnosis of Parkinson91裸聊视频檚 disease.
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The family91裸聊视频檚 purchase took effect Feb. 26, four days after the new rules took effect. Previously, secondary residences could be justified by the extra work needed to raise livestock. But now local governments have to approve it, and then the commission can overrule them. As of last week the Fichters were still waiting for a final decision.
Dave Strachan of Nakusp has a similar situation. His wife has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, and his daughter and her husband decided to move with them to a small farm to help out. He describes the land as marginal for farm production, as is much of the ALR outside the key food production regions of the Lower Mainland, Okanagan and Southern Vancouver Island.
Both families went to substantial effort and expense of buying modular homes and arranging servicing to meet the temporary residence rules of the ALR. They didn91裸聊视频檛 know the rules were changing, and it91裸聊视频檚 likely their local governments didn91裸聊视频檛 either. They await their fate under the new centralized commission that runs the whole province from Burnaby.
When this change was debated last November, Popham acknowledged that the commission would have a veto.
91裸聊视频淲e are transferring that approval process to the Agricultural Land Commission because we feel that they are better suited to analyze whether or not an additional dwelling would be required for agricultural activities,91裸聊视频� she said.
It would be easy to say that the above examples are merely 91裸聊视频渉obby farms,91裸聊视频� a few acres with some horses and goats. What else could be done with a remote five-acre parcel, since there is no chance the new regime will allow it to be removed?
For larger farms, the residence restriction creates problems even if a second house is allowed.
91裸聊视频淔or instance, if you91裸聊视频檙e a dairy farm in my area of east Delta, and you have two or three kids who say, 91裸聊视频業 want to continue farming,91裸聊视频� they say, 91裸聊视频榃ell, you can91裸聊视频檛 live on this farm,91裸聊视频� B.C. Liberal agriculture critic Ian Paton told the legislature. 91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檝e only got one extra house. You91裸聊视频檙e going to have to rent a house up in North Delta or Richmond or something.91裸聊视频�
Agriculture ministry staff tell me they are looking at these kinds of cases and considering changes. That91裸聊视频檚 good.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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