Richmond council will ask the provincial government to place a moratorium on growing pot on farmland and to allow each municipality to decide whether cannabis can be grown within its jurisdiction.
Richmond Coun. Harold Steves said banning cannabis cultivation in the ALR is “essential.” The topic of cannabis cultivation in the ALR is on the province’s radar and this letter from Richmond is meant to “augment” that discussion, Steves said. The province has a committee that is compiling recommendations to the Agricultural Land Commission to protect land in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Currently, only 43 per cent of leafy greens are locally grown, and that’s expected to go down to 21 per cent by 2030, Steves said.
“We’re in dire straits with climate change and we have to return 227,000 acres of alienated farmland to growing vegetables,” Steves said, adding this should include land currently used for horse farms, golf courses and nurseries. In addition, planting cannabis is “totally contrary” to protecting the ALR.
Because cannabis cultivation is done in greenhouses on large concrete slabs, if done in the ALR, it will cover large swaths of soil.
“The last thing we need is more greenhouses with concrete floors built on good food-producing land, which means it can never produce food again,” Steves said.
A Richmond city staff report from early December outlined concerns saying the legislation leaves ALR land “open to substantial risk of development” and could result in the loss of farmland by letting food-based crops be displaced by cannabis crops.
An interim report from the agricultural ministry, “Revitalizing the Agricultural Land Reserve and the Agricultural Land Commission,” cites “significant concerns” with growing cannabis in the ALR and further said it was a “common and urgent concern” the committee heard.
The city got its knuckles rapped last spring after halting the construction of a greenhouse in east Richmond because the city suspected it was being built for the cultivation of cannabis. The courts found Richmond’s 2003 zoning bylaw to forbid medical cannabis production in the ALR was inconsistent with provincial ALR rules that came into effect in 2015. It also found that the city was unlawful in withholding a permit based on a suspicion that the applicant may engage in illegal activity in the future.
The provincial law allows cannabis production outside in a field or in a building with a soil base, or in an existing building or one that is under construction that is meant for growing crops.
