The BC Government doesn’t appear to be concerned with how we will feed our province in the next 50 years. Bill 24 aims to dismantle protection of almost 90 per cent of our agricultural lands; it clearly states it will now consider much more than growing food on these scarce soils, less than five per cent of the province. Economic, social and cultural uses as well as regional planning will now be considered when making land use decisions. It’s not really an Agricultural Land Reserve any more then, is it, when everything from oil and gas to rodeos to subdivisions could be appropriate uses under those rules.
This bill is a bad idea on so many levels. If the ALR needs to be updated, it should be done with full consultation from farmers and other stakeholders and it must keep agriculture as the only priority of the Agricultural Land Reserve. It’s time to scrap Bill 24. I can already smell it going bad from 800 km away.
Theresa Negreiff