Saskatchewan Agriculture has unveiled a five-year program that will transfer agricultural crown land to producers.
“We are keeping our promise to create a plan for lasting and permanent economic growth,” said agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud.
“We will return the direction of the economy to the hands of the people.”
The province is making 1.6 million of its 7.2 million acres of agricultural crown land eligible for sale. It is a chunk of turf that rivals the size of Prince Edward Island.
Several million acres will remain in government ownership.
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“This includes land with conservation attributes, important subsurface minerals, located in proximity to major water bodies or having other public or economic values beyond agriculture,” said Bjornerud.
Lessees will be offered a sliding scale incentive beginning with a 10 percent discount on the sale price of the land in the first year. The incentive is reduced by two percent a year ending at two percent in the fifth and final year of the program.
Ed Bothner, president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, a group whose members lease a lot of government land, was taken aback by the announcement.
“We were unaware of this coming about,” he said.
His association has been lobbying for such a program for a long time. It found out about the Agricultural Crown Land Sale Program one day before it was announced.
“It caught us by surprise. It’s one of the fortunate things that has happened to the cow-calf industry,” said Bothner.
Having the option to buy land instead of leasing will give producers some much-desired certainty in their operations and will secure ranches for future generations.
But in a way, the land purchasing program couldn’t have come at a worse time. The cattle sector has been struggling since the 2003 discovery of BSE in the Canadian herd. The global financial meltdown hasn’t helped matters. Bothner wonders how those factors will affect the program.
“Because of the economic times I don’t think that (producers) are going to be jumping into it whole heartedly and putting themselves further in debt.”
Producers will have to carefully weigh which quarters of the 1.6 million acres of land would fit their operations.
But the program is much appreciated and shows a willingness on behalf of government to assist a sector of the agricultural economy that has been struggling.
“The goodwill is there. That’s as big a positive as anything,” said Bothner.
The first year of the program begins Nov. 15 and concludes Dec. 31, 2009.
Lessees have the option to finance their purchase by providing 50 percent of the sale price to the province along with a payment schedule guarantee for the balance from a recognized financial institution.
Purchasers are free to make other financial arrangements but in those cases the full amount must be paid to the province within 30 days of signing the sale agreement.
