NELSON B.C. - Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party, released the BC Green Party’s platform on agriculture today in Nelson, B.C. Weaver made the announcement alongside B.C. Greens Nelson-Creston candidate Kim Charlesworth following a meeting with the Nelson Chamber of Commerce.

VICTORIA B.C. – To address the rampant speculation of agricultural land in B.C., a trend that sees valuable farmland left unseeded or turned into sprawling mansions, today Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party, tabled the Property Law Amendment Act.  

“Since the introduction of the 15% foreign buyers tax on residential real estate in Metro Vancouver, speculators have targeted other areas of the Province and our agricultural land,” said Andrew Weaver, also the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

“If we want to do what the big polluters and their indentured servants in Ottawa or Washington DC want us to do, which is treat the planet as if it was a business in liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as possible, have a few years of pollution based prosperity and make a few people billionaires by impoverishing the rest of us, we generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy but our children are going to pay for our joy ride and they are going to pay for it with denuded landscapes and poor health and huge clean up costs that are going to amplify over time and they will never be able to pay.”

- Robert Kennedy Jr, GLOBE 2014 Conference, March 26, 2014

Hon. Bill Bennett continued his public assault on the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) Friday. This time he targeted his own colleague Hon. Norm Letnick, the Minister of Agriculture, and reaffirmed his personal commitment to Bill 24, the ALC (Agricultural Land Commission) Amendment Act.

I am assuming Les Leyne’s latest article Changes to ALR, parks long overdue (Times Colonist April 16, 2014) was attempting to add balance to what has been a very one-sided discussion. Until now the experts have agreed that the governments changes potentially to more harm than good.

For the past 40 years the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) has protected the agricultural value of the land in its boundaries. When British Columbians have been asked whether they support protecting those agricultural values and land for food security, 95% say yes.

The government of BC has introduced Bill 24, The Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) Amendment Act. Despite the lack of formal public consultation, we have an opportunity to make our voices heard before this Bill gets passed.

Changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) have been nervously anticipated since last July when Hon. Bill Bennett, the Minister responsible for the core review, braced British Columbians for change. Now the Bill is on the table we see the changes are substantive, and in my opinion are not in the interests of our food security.

On January 20, 2014, British Columbia Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm responded to my November 14, 2013 open letter to Premier Christy Clark regarding the core review and the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC). 

Would the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) exist today if the NDP hadn’t won the 1972 election? While food security was part of every campaign’s platform, it’s unlikely it would have been the ALR. As we now know, even the NDP didn’t plan the ALR.

After the 1972 election, Dave Stupich became BC’s Agriculture Minister, and under his leadership the ALR was established. The BCNDP deserve full credit for the legislation, but very few know the full story.

Victoria, BC - BC Green Party Interim-Leader, Adam Olsen sent an open letter to Premier Christy Clark today requesting the British Columbia government remove the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) from the current core review and reaffirm 
its support the modernization of the Commission that has been on-going for the past three years.