Details of the new point-of-sale carbon tax rebate for greenhouse growers were announced this week as the new scheme took effect. Originally announced in the February 28 provincial budget, the point-of-sale rebate means eligible greenhouse growers will pay just 20% of the carbon tax levied on natural gas and propane purchased to heat their greenhouses …
New business registry planned
The province will develop a new registry designed to deepen its tracking of business ownership and corporate investment. On March 29, the BC Ministry of Finance announced that it would “end hidden ownership” in private businesses through the creation of a public registry of beneficial owners. The move parallels a federal bid to create a …
Watershed strategy could hang ag out to dry
VICTORIA – The province’s proposed watershed security strategy is big on local governance but short on protections for agriculture, say critics of an intentions paper released March 6. “This is a very complex, high-level document,” says Elaine Stovin assistant general manager of the BC Cattlemen’s Association. “But it contains very little actual policy on how …
Crossroads ahead for BC farmland
DELTA – Jutting out into the Strait of Georgia, the rich soils of Brunswick Point are a gift of the Fraser River’s run south from its headwaters in the Fraser Pass of the Rockies. The longest river in BC, the deposits here encapsulate the wealth of the province – a wealth fundamental to the most …
Climate Change Adaptation Program winds down
The future of a dedicated program to help farmers adapt to a changing climate is unclear with the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC’s announcement that it will no longer deliver the long-running Climate Change Adaptation Program come April 1. The program was funded under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the five-year agricultural policy framework which ends …
Hopcotts take OYF title
Travis and Brad Hopcott of Hopcott Farms in Pitt Meadows were honoured March 28 as BC’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2023. “Really, what it boils down to is your farm progress, your farm history, your farm production,” judge Meeru Dhalwala told the finalists for this year’s award at the event in Abbotsford. “Your finances, your …