June 2020
After ramming through Bill 52 and Bill 15, aimed at supposedly curving speculation on farmland, the government has introduced an intention paper that would give considerable flexibility for second dwellings on farm parcels located on ALR lands. Even though BC Agriculture Council (BCAC) had endorsed the Bills, and later realized their political faux pas, most of the agriculture community was ardently opposed.
The government responded by going back to the agriculture stakeholders for further consultation in the fall of 2019. In its public engagement, https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/impact/supporting-b-c-farmers-results/, the government held 8 in-person sessions across the province in addition to online surveys and other submissions. The findings are available at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/121/2020/01/Final-Draft-Jan-23.pdf.
There is no doubt that the NDP government has negatively impacted the competitiveness of agriculture as it has pursued its policies, and has put the non-supply sectors under severe strains to the point where many growers are looking at ways of exiting the industry. Generational farming families who solely rely on their agricultural business for sustenance are willing to think the unthinkable. With speculators ready to pay record-high prices for land, the farmers who are having difficulty hanging on are tempted to sell out.
One of the pillars of keeping speculators off farmland is to keep agriculture strong. Viable and profitable farm operations keep farmland in the hands of the farming families and off the market. This part of the formula has to be a pre-requisite for the preservation of farmland, rather than after-the-fact bandaid remedies as the current government has pursued.
Yet the NDP government has shown some pragmatism when responding to public pressure to its policies. The ALR policy intention paper is one example where the government has shown that it can pivot. It has also pursued minor initiatives to promote locally grown products through the Buy BC Program and Government Procurement initiatives. Recently, changes were made to the Agristability program to enhance accessibility and payout. Furthermore, it has shown willingness to work with individual commodity groups to address specific issues.
On the surface, the present government appears to be sympathetic to the Agriculture industry, but its pro-agriculture initiatives are minor relative to its unfavorable policies in the area of labor, environment, and other portfolios. The ground reality is that BC agriculture is competing in the global market place. If government policy is creating competitive disadvantages for Producers, then any government that believes in lofty principles such as local food production, food security, and preservation of farmland has to develop a macro-economic solution for agriculture that has the ability to offset the impact of its ideology based core political agenda.
The next election is around the corner. You can feel it in the air. The current government has shown itself to be pragmatic and politically astute. The coalition was never supposed to last this long, but it did. The NDP wants to be in power for another 4 years, and this time on their own. The ruling NDP is more nuanced and polished than the old NDP that we once knew. However, this has been the face of NDP as a coalition government with a tenuous hold on power. If the NDP comes back on better footing, we might be dealing with a totally different animal, one that might have a blatantly ideological approach. This will neither serve the long-term interest of the Province nor that of the NDP party.
The initiative has to be taken by BC agriculture to lead the conversation and to engage political parties so they can develop a genuine agriculture platform that could see this industry become globally competitive into the future. The opposition Liberals have traditionally have had the support of the agriculture sector on account of their pro-business policies. It may be true next time around as well. Yet they too lack any strong commitment nor have they expressed a real vision for the industry in a way that will arrest industry demise and propel it to the next level. It is yet to be seen whether the Liberals can unveil a platform that agricultural communities around the province can rally around. It is up really up to to the agriculture industry itself, however, to start the conversation and elevate the debate that leads to the development of policies that promote a dynamic and competitive agriculture sector.