The Saskatchewan government is once again offering crown land for sale, this time with both a carrot and a stick.
Agriculture minister Lyle Stewart said Nov. 4 that the province wants to sell its remaining 600,000 acres of land with low ecological value, including land under cultivation or land that was previously cultivated.
Current leaseholders have the option to buy the land at a reduced rate over the next two years or pay increased rent after that time.
A program from 2008-14 saw 500,000 acres sold after a discount program was implemented.
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Stewart said the Saskatchewan Party government has always believed farmers should own the land because it has no public benefit. He said the province is probably the largest institutional owner of farmland, which doesn’t fit with the opinions expressed during the recent consultation on farmland ownership.
Opposition to the idea sprang up following his announcement, and he said he wasn’t surprised.
“There’s a philosophical difference,” he said.
“A lot of this land was purchased from farmers and ranchers by the NDP government of the 1970s because they thought the government should own the land. We’re going to sell it all.”
Stewart said no native prairie grassland is included in this program. Land with high ecological value under the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act is not eligible, and no discounts will be applied to land with moderate value.
Also, none of the land offers public benefits in terms of oil and gas or sand and gravel development.
The program offers a 15 percent discount from appraised value until March 31, which drops to 10 percent until Jan. 1, 2017, and then five percent until the end of that year.
The minister said the incentive will motivate lessees to buy while interest rates are low and financial institutions are interested in financing land purchases and before their leases expire. Some of the leases are for 30 or 33 years.
The flip side is the intention to hike lease rates over the rental formula by 15 percent in 2016 and 30 percent in 2017 for those who don’t buy the land.
“This is not all good news,” Stewart said. “I’m not going to try and put a happy face on the rental increases. They’re also designed to motivate producers to buy this land.”
NDP agriculture critic Cathy Sproule said she believed the program was a desperate move by a government strapped for cash.
She said the incentive coupled with the rent increase is a hammer to force producers to buy.
“Clearly they’re not interested in purchasing or they would have done that already,” she said.
She also said the land should be sold for full market value if it is going to be sold.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Ray Orb said the organization had no concerns about the program and was pleased lessees would get the first opportunity to buy.
