The Agriculture Land Reserve was created 40 years ago to preserve farmland in B.C. from encroaching development. Without new policies, the Agriculture Land Commission will not be able to preserve these lands over the next 40 years.
By protecting farmland, the ALR has contributed to a vibrant agriculture sector, most notably in the Fraser Valley, which has the most productive farmland per hectare in North America. In addition to the economic benefit to B.C. of more than $2.4 billion a year in farm receipts, farming provides a net tax benefit to local governments and farmland provides a variety of social benefits to the community. It is not surprising that in several recent polls, 95 per cent of British Columbians support the ALR.
While the size of the ALR has remained the same over time, the composition has changed in a way that reduces the agriculture potential of the ALR as a whole. The ALR has lost 141,300 hectares of land in the highly productive southern part of the province while 183,600 hectares of less productive farmland have been added in the northern B.C. subdivision of ALR land, splitting one large parcel into two small ones, has reduced the agricultural potential of the land base and increased the overall cost of farmland.
Critics of the ALR fall into two camps: land owners who wish to use their farmland for other than farming and academics who suggest that restricting residential development on ALR land results in higher housing prices. When an owner of ALR land subdivides a property, for example a four-hectare lot into a pair of two-hectare lots, the owner nets about $500,000. As rationale for subdivision or exclusion, owners often claim poor soil conditions that make farming not profitable. The last time you saw a store close in a busy shopping mall, you probably didn’t blame it on the mall’s location but rather that the store owner chose the wrong product or service. Farmland is no different. The land is seldom the problem.
All land owners face regulations that restrict use and contribute to determining the market value of the land. Land for residential use has a different market value than land for industrial or commercial use.
The argument — that limiting residential use in the ALR is increasing housing prices — is hard to understand. To suggest that limiting residential development in the ALR increases housing prices is like suggesting that not permitting office towers in Stanley Park increases the cost of office space in Vancouver. Both suggestions ignore the social benefits provided to the community by Stanley Park and the ALR.
The ALR has kept the price of farmland at agriculture value, which is lower than the market value of nearby land zoned for residential, industrial or commercial use. This gap in market price is the driving force behind most of the challenges to and criticisms of the ALR.
The ALC’s role is to protect farmland against the continued pressure to develop the ALR for other uses. Over 40 years the ALC has lost some of its focus on preserving farmland. One clear shift was the addition of the phrase “in collaboration with other communities of interest” to their mandate. This phrase does not belong with an agency whose authority is limited to approving applications for subdivision, exclusion and non-farm use. The ALC can only meet “other interests” by developing the ALR.
An auditor general’s report, released in 2010, noted the ALC did not receive sufficient budget to properly evaluate the applications they receive. In practice the ALC must use the proponent’s information as the basis for a decision.
Richard Bullock, chair of the ALC, has recently shifted some of its available resources from processing applications to long-range planning and enforcement. While this is a start, it is not enough to resist the development pressures.
Three significant policy changes are needed to protect agricultural lands. First, limit the ALC’s mandate to preserving agricultural land. Nothing more. Second, the ALC must restrict or eliminate private land owner applications to subdivide or exclude land in the ALR. Third, local governments or large project proponents must provide a social benefit appraisal in their application and pay an application fee sufficient to cover the cost of a third-party review of the proposal.
British Columbians have said they value the ALR. Let’s get our policies in line with our values.
Hannah Cavendish-Palmer has a master’s degree in public policy from Simon Fraser University. Since graduating, she has owned and operated a small vegetable farm and worked at the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, most recently as a land use planner. Mark Robbins is a professional agrologist and operates K&M Farms, a direct market poultry operation that produces 5,000 chickens and 1,200 turkeys annually.