Delta’s prime farmland being ‘torn apart’ by development
Third-generation farmer Rod Swenson is fed up with the destruction of prime farmland in south Delta and says it’s time B.C.’s NDP government saved the best of what’s left — more than 250 hectares of the Brunswick Point lands — before they, too, are lost forever.
“Delta is just getting hacked and torn apart by everything — roads, industry and the First Nations treaty,” Swenson said from his potato farm on River Road near Ladner. “It just makes me sick.”
He said four families farm much of the Brunswick Point lands — north of Deltaport and the coal port at Roberts Bank, at the mouth of Canoe Pass — through provincial Crown leases that expire this year.
Swenson is urging that the lands be officially designated for dual use — agriculture and wildlife habitat, especially migratory birds, including snow geese. Without that guarantee, he fears the lands could go to the Tsawwassen First Nation, which has first right of refusal, and be developed for industry — as has already occurred on TFN lands for shopping malls, housing and portrelated developments.
“Why not have it farmed the same way, but also a protected area, where you could never develop?” said Swenson, who suggested the Nature Trust of B.C. would be a logical candidate to manage the lands.
“It could remain farmland and habitat for wildlife forever. Let’s make it a reserve that could never be touched.”
Elsewhere in south Delta, farmlands are managed for agriculture and wildlife, including the 349-hectare Alaksen National Wildlife Area on the north end of Westham Island.
The Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust also promotes farmland and wildlife habitat in the Fraser delta through hedgerows, grassland setasides and winter cover crops.
“It’s a touchy issue — families, neighbouring farmers, all such different personalities,” Swenson said. “I believe I’m doing the right thing. It’s amazing — when you get grandchildren you start thinking about how the planet, (how) Delta is going to end up in their lifetime. It really changes your way of thinking.”
The B.C. government expropriated the Brunswick Point lands in the late 1960s for port development.
“I’m not against industry and housing, but there are certain spots for it,” Swenson said. “With the new (NDP) government, there’s a great opportunity, a great chance to get the land (preserved).”
The dike along the rim of Brunswick Point is a popular area with birders, the spring migration of hundreds of thousands of western sandpipers being a seasonal highlight.
Communications co-ordinator Lauren Hutchison provided Postmedia News with a written statement on behalf of the Tsawwassen First Nation that said a “very important element” of its negotiated treaty is first right of refusal to buy up to 278 hectares of Brunswick Point lands. These lands would continue to fall within the Agricultural Land Reserve even if bought by the First Nation, she said.
Swenson countered that the TFN isn’t interested in farming themselves, and stands the “best chance of getting it out of the ALR and we can’t stop them.”
Since 2009, the First Nation has purchased three properties along River Road at Brunswick Point, with a total area of about one hectare, which includes direct access to the Fraser River.
“The Tsawwassen people have harvested food from the rivers, ocean and their shores since time immemorial,” the statement read. “It was difficult not having a land base on the river since the area was formally colonized and the reserve was established about 150 years ago. Reconnecting with the river is just one of the ways we are strengthening cultural connections within our community.”
This past spring, the First Nation installed a dock on the most recently acquired property along River Road, which now supports access by the TFN to the Fraser River for food, social and ceremonial fishing.
The future of the Brunswick Point lands is further clouded by an Aboriginal title claim, currently before the courts, by the small Hwlitsum First Nation, whose members used to live there. The group isn’t recognized by the federal or provincial governments and has no reserve.
Vivian Thomas, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, said the case is scheduled to be heard next month by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The TFN says it has 231 hectares of farmland, accounting for 32 per cent of its total 724-hectare land base. Of that farmland, 155 hectares, or 67 per cent, are under 25year leases.
The First Nation has developed former farmlands, including for the indoor Tsawwassen Mills and outdoor Tsawwassen Commons shopping malls in lease agreements with Ivanhoe Cambridge and the Property Development Group, respectively.
Major developments of former farmlands now owned by the First Nation include a port container inspection facility under construction on a 4.5-hectare site with a 60year lease, as well as Delta iPort, a distribution and logistics centre on a 23-hectare site, also with a 60-year lease.
Despite these developments, the TFN argues it remains a regional leader in agriculture, having partnered with Kwantlen Polytechnic University to create a farm school.