It’s time to take immediate action to stymie speculation on farmland
Following the recent decision of Richmond Council to continue the status quo and allow mega mansions on ALR is their municipality, the BC Green caucus released a media release (reproduced below) calling on government to protect our rapidly depleting farmland.
Media Release
B.C. Green Caucus calls on province to take immediate action to stymie speculation on farmland
For immediate release
May 15, 2018
VICTORIA, B.C. – The B.C. Green Party caucus is calling on the provincial government to take immediate action to stymie speculation on ALR land. The Caucus says the vote at Richmond council last night demonstrates why provincial action is needed.
“Mega mansions on ALR land are imperiling our food security, destroying agricultural land and driving up prices well beyond the reach of young farmers,” said Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party.
“The provincial government has a number of tools at its disposal that it should immediately use to address the issue of speculation on ALR land. These include restricting foreign ownership of ALR land, applying the speculation tax and foreign buyers tax to the ALR or creating legally binding house size limits. It should use at least one of these immediately to prevent the loss of any more farmland.”
Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and a former Saanich Councillor, added that local governments have been asking the province to take action for years.
“This decision at Richmond Council will drive the price of ALR in their community sky high, it will impact the rest of the province and demonstrates the need for action at the provincial level. When I was a Central Saanich Councillor, we knew 10 years ago we needed to take action on limiting house size and location on ALR land, we called on the government of the day to act. We were not alone and rather than take action the Province has buried this issue in consultation only further increasing pressure on the cost of farmland. The issue of speculation driving up land prices is well-documented and its solutions are clear. Delaying action only causes the issue to spiral further out of control: Last year, Richmond alone lost 50 farms due to the construction of mega-mansions on farmland. I urge the Minister in the strongest terms to recognize to take immediate action before any more farmland is lost.”
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Media contact
Jillian Oliver, Press Secretary
+1 778-650-0597 | jillian.oliver@leg.bc.ca
6 Comments
CENTRAL Saanich Councillor ;-)
Yes! Enact no foreign ownership of ALR land. Saskatchewan has had this for years. As a sidebar, Mexico has or had same problem with foreign owners. They bought up hugh tracts of land and then “banked it”. Peasants who had forever sustained their families on small tracts of land for centuries were displaced and forced into desperate poverty.
Act now before we loose our sustaining food production and have to import everything.
Also heard one of the councillors on radio today saying most of the land where these homes are being built have no water supply for farming. ??! One, do not believe that. I grew up in Saskatchewan and they sure don’t have running water for crops there. Second, if the soil on these acerages is unproductive as he claims, then perhaps they would be better used as greenhouses. This would perclude the digging up of good farmland areas to install greenhouses.
If you follow through on this and previous promises to try to address the issue of housing affordability in this city and province, I assure you that the Green Party will have my vote come next election.
This has been talked about for years and nothing has been done except to allow these disgusting mega-mansions to be built and now the council has allowed for these people to build a 2nd home on the farmland, what is wrong with this council.
Please Andrew Weaver jump in there and push proper regulations through to save our farmland as it’s disappearing very fast and this council doesn’t seem to care, get rid of the bastards.
Please do something asap. I attended last night’s meeting at Richmond City Hall, and I have attended several in the past. You get to see who the ones with vested interests are. The greed and entitlement are rampant.
Last night someone who wants to run for office in October brought a huge group of newcomer Chinese people to the meeting. Most did not seem to speak English, in fact the two who spoke to council spoke in Chinese and they had someone to translate. Most of what they said was bizarre and did not make sense, at the end of it they said the council should mind their own business and let the land owners do what they want. These two claimed to own a 9 acre vineyard upon which they make wine for export to China. All of these people wore stickers that said Protecting Farmers Rights. They were disruptive in the meeting with phones ringing, having mini meetings in the aisles, it was obvious they did not know how to behave. I am quite sure most of them had nothing to do with farming.
It is time for the province to take control of the ALR, clearly allowing municipalities to have control has been a dismal failure.
You have my full attention/undivided support on this one, Andrew Weaver.
BTW: beware of foreign “shell” companies here to snap up ALR farmlands and squat on them for speculative reasons. This is becoming prevalent in the BC (including but not limited to Greater Vancouver area, lower Fraser valley, Kelowna, Vancouver Isle, etc.