Metro Vancouver provides feedback to province on preserving farmland in our region

The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) was created by the Dave Barrett NDP government in the 1970s to protect farmland in our province. It was created in response to the rapid urbanization of our limit, high-quality farmland in the province. This urbanization was particularly prevalent in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Okanagan.

Farmland in Metro Vancouver. Source: Stephanie Vacher

While most people are aware that ALR exclusions permanently remove land from being farmed again, there are other things that happen within the ALR that also prevent land from being farmed. These non-farm uses can range from highways being built within the ALR, to illegal fill dumping, to people “farming” to take advantage of a lower tax rate for their mini-mansions and country estates.

The current provincial government has launched a review of the ALR with the following goals:

1. Preserve the productive capacity of land in the ALR.
2. Encourage farming of land in the ALR for uses related to agriculture and food production.
3. Strengthen the administration and governance of the ALR and ALC to both increase public confidence and to ensure that land use regulation and land use decisions are preserving agricultural land and encouraging farming and ranching in the ALR.

Farming in an important industry in Metro Vancouver. Our region has the highest gross farm receipts per hectare in Canada. Our region is also home to half the population of BC. This means that farmland is under constant threat of urbanization. The Metro Vancouver Regional District believes that the following key initiatives will help perverse farmland in our region.

• Strengthen the ALC legislative framework to prevent non‐farm activities in the ALR.
• Create financial disincentives for non‐farm uses in the ALR.
• Modernize requirements for the classification of farm for assessment purposes.
• Encourage more agriculture economic development and value‐added enterprises.
• Expand avenues to maintain ecological services on agricultural land.
• Implement policy reform specific to the Metro Vancouver region.

The provincial government will be seeking input from the public and other stakeholders until the end of April. Recommendations resulting from this review will be put forward during Winter 2018/19.