Alberta MLA hopes his private member’s bill will start a conversation in the province over institutionalized investment
Concerns over pension plan acquisitions of agricultural land have sparked more calls for tracking and limiting purchases of farms by investment managers.
Alberta’s private member’s Bill 206 is an attempt to put the issue on the minds of MLAs in that province before it’s too late to adequately slow down such purchases, according to the legislation’s sponsor, Glenn van Dijken.
The grain farmer and MLA representing Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock admits the likelihood of the bill dying on the order paper is high because Alberta is likely to begin a new session of the legislature in the fall.
Read Also
Alberta crop diversification centres receive funding
$5.2 million of provincial funding pumped into crop diversity research centres
“We don’t know that for sure but I believe it will,” said van Dijken. “My goal when I introduced it this spring, I was trying to get it into a position to have it where the legislature would send it for consultation into Alberta.”
Saskatchewan tightened up its regulations for pension plan purchases of farmland in 2015 following changes to legislation in the early 2000s that allowed residents outside the province and industry to acquire agricultural operations.
That move saw hundreds of thousands of acres purchased by interests from outside Saskatchewan, culminating in a 2013 $128 million purchase by the Canada Pension Plan of 115,000 acres held by Assiniboia Farmland LP.
Van Dijken said he hoped his private member’s bill would have spurred an Alberta-wide provincial consultation on the topic like that which led to Saskatchewan tightening up its regulations.
As for doing something similar this year in Alberta, van Dijken said the clock ran out on the province’s spring legislative agenda after getting through first reading and the private member’s bill committee.
“But the conversation has started,” he said.
Van Dijken said the issue of how institutionalized investment in farmland could impact the sustainability of the agricultural sector and rural communities is a growing concern of his constituents.
In Alberta, though, it’s unclear how much agricultural land is owned by such institutionalized investors because it’s not formally tracked.
In Saskatchewan, the Farmland Security Board tracks purchases while it administers and enforces provincial regulations governing agricultural land acquisitions.
That’s something van Dijken said he’d like to see established in Alberta.
It’s a tricky balance to try to add government regulations to protect ownership of farmland that could potentially curtail private investment in a free-market economy, but such a move might be necessary to protect the viability of the sector, van Dijken said.
“We have to recognize that there are threats to the social well-being of our communities that may not be anticipated through the free market economy,” he said.
That could include the agricultural sector being in a vulnerable financial situation following a drought that might prohibit farmers from investing in land while outside interests are able to take advantage of such a situation.
Van Dijken said the opposition NDP MLAs support the bill’s intent, though there are questions about implementation.
“But they are supportive of the direction,” he said.
While van Dijken said there is a need for legislation in Alberta governing institutionalized investment, it might not be at a critical point. However, it requires attention to prevent it from getting to that point.
“I’m not so concerned whether this bill gets passed in my name or not or gets passed in its current form. I am advocating for it to continue to be a conversation within the legislature and in the province of Alberta,” said van Dijken. “I would look forward to an opportunity to present it within an election platform.”
In a statement, the National Farmers Union welcomed Bill 206 along with Quebec’s similar Bill 991 as an effort to stem what it cites as the global control of agricultural lands by pension funds with an estimated worth of $56 trillion.
