Proposed changes to Ag Land Commission

Update, Fri March 28th at 12:15am -- Global BC looks at this topic below:



Original Blog Post: (Thursday, March 27th)

Today - the BC Government announced changes to the provincial Agriculture Land Commission (ALC) which will split the Commission's work into Two Zones - One for Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan and the Second for the remainder for BC.  Read the official government announcement here while you can read the actual legislation for yourself here

The BC Cattlemen's' Association and the Kootenay Livestock Association both applauded the changes today.  Read more from CBC: British Columbia here

The ALC's Zone 1 will still be required to enforce the need to maintain agriculture on ALR Land while Zone 2 of the ALC while still required to protect agriculture on ALR Land can now take the following into consideration:

(a) the purposes of the commission set out in section 6 (of the Agriculture Land Commission Act - need to preserve ALR land for agriculture);
(b) economic, cultural and social values;
(c) regional and community planning objectives;
(d) other prescribed considerations.


While this is good news for the Cariboo-Chilcotin region - I still have my personal doubts if the ALC is able to withstand developmental pressures in Metro Vancouver.  They haven't so far and I don't believe this change will change the mindset of pro-development on ALR Land especially within municipalities like Delta and the Township of Langley…

~SF