The B.C. Government's controversial Bill 24 (Land Commission Amendment Act) will gut the Agricultural Land Commission Act. This bill proposes to divide B.C. farmland into two zones.
In Zone One (Vancouver Island, Okanagan and South Coast) weak local panels will make critical decisions on permitting non-farm uses on farmland.
In Zone Two (Interior, Kootenays and North) local panels "must consider ... economic, cultural, and social values, regional and community planning objectives and other prescribed considerations" when making decisions on agricultural land use.
Richmond and Delta have the richest farmland and mildest climate in Canada. I became concerned about the loss of farmland and habitat when the City of Richmond rezoned half of its farmland to urban use in 1956. I was an agriculture student at UBC.
I helped Will Paulik save the Lulu Island Bog for the Richmond Nature Park in 1963, joined with Lois Carson-Boyce to form Canada's first environmental group, the Richmond Anti-Pollution Association in 1967, and organized B.C.'s first environmental demonstration at the Peace Arch against supertankers in 1968.
However, my passion has always been agriculture and food. As Richmond's MLA, I helped form the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in Dave Barrett's NDP government in 1973, and spent the next 40 years fighting to save farmland.
I spent the last 15 years as a director of the Groundfish Development Authority protecting the fishery, and recently helped organize Metro Vancouver's Food Security Strategy as chair of the Metro Agriculture Committee. Now I am really concerned for the future.
How Metro Vancouver (Greater Vancouver Regional District) votes on the "Southlands" rezoning in Delta will set the precedent, one way or the other, for loss of farmland to nonfarm uses in every regional district.
In 1980, the B.C. Cabinet over-ruled the Agricultural Land Commission and removed 537 acres of high quality farmland from the Delta Spetifore Farm, now called "Southlands," from the Agricultural Land Reserve for housing, with a requirement that an additional 230 acres of sandy soil be "dedicated" to the GVRD (Metro Vancouver) for the Boundary Bay Regional Park.
It sparked the longest public hearing in Canadian history. In 1981, Metro Vancouver rejected the plan in a 33 to 32 vote, choosing to buy the 230 acres and keep the rest of the Spetifore Farm in agriculture.
Vancouver alderman Harry Rankin said at the time, "Once this goes, every person can set their standards against this application ... if we want parkland, we've got to be prepared to buy parkland."
Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt predicted land would be worth more as farmland than as housing in the future.
In 1999, Metro Vancouver bought the 230 acres for Boundary Bay Regional Park for $7.5 million.
Now Delta has been offered "free" land for the rezoning of part of the remaining
"Southlands" farm that we thought we had already saved, but Metro doesn't get the $7.5 million back.
Richmond turned down similar proposals of "free" parkland in exchange for the rezoning of the 136-acre Garden City Lands and the 324 acres in the Gilmore Estates, south of Steveston Highway.
The Gilmore Estates is for sale for $55 million and will probably be back with another proposal if this passes.
Because of deals like Southlands, Terra Nova in Richmond and Six Mile Ranch near Kamloops, the ability of the Cabinet to remove farmland for so-called community benefit was discontinued. Now community benefit is back. The proposed Bill 24 requires the Agricultural Land Commission to consider community benefit.
As before, when Southlands was first turned down by Metro Vancouver, only local and regional governments stand in the way of wide-scale abuse of the ALR.
How Metro Vancouver deals with Southlands will determine the future of farmland and food security in B.C.
