Half of B.C.’s agricultural land in reserve lies unused: report

The B.C. government’s consultation on the future of the Agricultural Land Reserve will have more than opinions to weigh this spring, as Kwantlen University’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems has released a white paper detailing the forces that continue to chip away at the province’s farmland.

About 50 per cent of ALR land is lying unused, in part due to B.C. s failure to ensure the economic viability of the food sector, according to the authors of Protection is not Enough.

But that doesn’t mean it should be used for something else, said Richard Bullock, former chairman of the Agricultural Land Commission, which oversees the ALR.

Rather, “serious consideration should be given to eliminating the ability to exclude land from the ALR and to ensure that agricultural vitality of land within the ALR is maintained,” he writes.

The ALR was created in 1973 to protect 4.7 million hectares of farmland, because only five per cent of B.C.’s land area is considered suitable for agriculture. At that time, 6,000 hectares of farmland was being lost to development each year. That pace has slowed to 600 hectares a year.

The authors argue that development pressure fuelled by land exclusions for housing and other uses have driven farmland prices so high that farmers can’t buy it and expect to farm profitably.

Even though the chances of successfully excluding land from the ALR are small, the payoff is so huge that speculators and developers are buying and holding land that could be used for farming, the authors say.

B.C. should consider restrictions on ownership of farmland to people who have a demonstrated intention or ability to farm, the report suggests, a strategy already employed in other parts of Canada and in Europe.

The authors also suggest tax reforms that would put pressure on people using farmland for residential purposes to return it to agricultural uses.