Committee has broad mandate as it examines all aspects of Agricultural Land Reserve and Agricultural Land Commission
The British Columbia government has appointed an advisory committee to lead the province’s revitalization of the Agricultural Land Reserve and Agricultural Land Commission.
Jennifer Dyson, who served on the commission from 2008-17, has been appointed chair of the nine-member committee.
“We’ve got this amazing group of individuals from around the province. We’re not a commodity group, but we’re certainly knowledgeable about land and land use issues. There are also a number of us who are also farmers, like myself. I’m also a bit of a veteran on the commission,” she said.
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“Really, what we’re tasked to do is to look at measures to revitalize the Agricultural Land Commission and the Agricultural Land Reserve. Keep in mind, everything that we do is around the mandate of the commission, which is to preserve agricultural land and to encourage farming on agricultural land.”
Dyson said the committee has a broad mandate.
“We’re really looking at everything,” she said.
“We’re not contained in a small, little box. We’re looking at all aspects of what that means to revitalize and look at the commission and the Agricultural Land Reserve.”
She said the committee is developing a discussion paper that will set up an open ended discussion in the province.
“We don’t have established questions that we’re asking,” she said.
“We wanted it to be open.”
Dyson expects the committee will make its recommendations to Agriculture Minister Lana Popham by spring for the fall legislative session.
“We have some time but, obviously, when you are dealing with legislation, if there (are) any changes to the legislation, it needs to be before the minister by early spring,” said Dyson.
The committee will be speaking with key stakeholders throughout the province including local governments and the farming and ranching communities.
“If anybody is applying to the commission, it goes to local government first before it ever comes to the commission, so they are a key stakeholder in all of this,” she said.
“The interesting thing to all of this is in fact, many of us who farm and ranch this land are not those that are making applications to the Agricultural Land Commission. It’s simply owners of land. People buy it for speculative value. That’s no secret but we really want to talk about those of us who are making a living within the Agricultural Land Reserve.”
