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Originally published:

February 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 2

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Stories In This Edition

Joy Ride!

Critics urge licence delay

ALR committee files report

Cannabis drives drop in Delta farm assessments

Editorial: Party and province

Back Forty: You can’t get apps on that

Viewpoint: Annual assessments a chance to take stock

Staff reorganization targets leaner fruit co-op

Preliminary hearing in high-profile poultry abuse

Growers pin hopes on Columbia River update

Survey keeps national park reserve in spotlight

Political engagement headlines dairy meeting

World milk prices take blame for shifting returns

Patience is a virtue

Ag Briefs: Sasaki appointed new head of chicken board

Ag Briefs: Ottawa invests in dairy sector

AB: Piece rates, taxes increase

AB: AITC focuses on growth

Capital Region considers compensation cuts

Letters: Protect farmland from cannabis production

Letters: Dog owners need to accept responsibility

Letters: The beef about climate change

Cadillac’ of aviaries will reduce labour costs

Berry growers face new import requirements

Open house reveals secrets of diagnostics lab

Cannabis propagation industry sprouting in BC

Sidebar: Deep roots

FCC targets women with new business program

Agreement sets stage for fish farm phase-out

Grazing, forage and water top list at town hall

Ranchers reassured regarding bovine TB cases

Digging into soil nutrition at education day

Microgreen grower attracts far-flung following

Science of cannabis takes centre stage

Blueberry growers hone use of box liners

Ostrich industry takes flight with big plans

Tunnels boost fruit quality, add to berry season

Big bucks being spent to protect bee health

Sidebar: Province boosts funding

Mystery bee disease studied

Direct-marketing opportunities have potential

Research: Preventing soft scald in apples

Regional food system is the new focus of group’s efforts

Wannabe: Growers deserve our love

Woodshed: A performance Kenneth can’t afford to miss

Jude’s Kitchen: Happy new year, my sweet Valentine

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6 days ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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2 weeks ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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Critics urge licence delay

Province's retired water engineer weighs in

FILE PHOTO

January 29, 2019 //  by Cathy

KELOWNA – The deadline for registering wells and obtaining groundwater licences, an initiative aimed at establishing priority for water rights in BC, is fast approaching.

But a growing chorus is calling on the province to postpone the deadline yet again due to ongoing issues getting everyone on board, not to mention challenges enforcing a regime in which fewer than 2% of potential licences have been granted.

“We would prefer to see an extended deadline paired with a stronger outreach and education program, while streamlining the application process and response times to bring in more licensees as legal groundwater users,” wrote Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, in a November letter to Doug Donaldson and George Heyman, the two provincial cabinet members whose ministries are overseeing the registration and licensing process.

She followed it two days later with another letter, asking the province to consider extending the deadline as late as February 29, 2024.

“We suggest that the government work to a target level of 80% compliance, potentially adding three to five years to the transition period, with retention of priority dates and continuing the waiver of the application fee for that period,” she said in the second letter.

However, the province rejected the request.

Now, it appears to be warming to the concerns of Ted van der Gulik, a retired senior engineer with the BC Ministry of Agriculture who now serves as president of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. Van der Gulik is also a director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, but recently wrote his own letter outlining all the problems of enforcement and administering fines when government staff can’t even handle the applications they’ve received to date.

The province expects to register 20,000 wells but has received just 3,082 applications since it began accepting applications under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) in spring 2016. The province waived application fees on two occasions to encourage well registration and applications for groundwater licences, but troubles have dogged the process.

To date, 428 licences for groundwater have been granted. However, all owners must pay for water drawn from wells since February 29, 2016. Come March 1, any unlicensed extractions will make criminals of users who have been unable to obtain licences, unless the province extends the deadline.

The province now seems open to doing so, van der Gulik told a regular meeting of the board on January 9.

“The province said that they would take my information under advisement and see how many applications are received by March 1,” he told Country Life in BC after the meeting. “That doesn’t mean they are going to extend the deadline but it does open the door a bit.”

Van der Gulik notes that any wells that are not licensed by the end of February will be considered new well applications. In addition to paying an application fee, they’ll lose their seniority in the first-in-time/first-in-right hierarchy the WSA establishes. This can be both costly, and licences may even be denied.

“If you license your well before the deadline, it is grandfathered in,” explains van der Gulik. “And the province accepts that you have a right to use it as long as it is licensed.”

But any well constructed and registered since the WSA rules took effect in 2016 is considered a new well. Many of these new wells will require technical assessments before receiving a licence. A technical assessment considers the quantity of water being drawn, the type of aquifer and the potential impacts on existing rights holders and environmental flow needs.

Some assessments can be done on a computer in an office, but others will require a full range of technical studies, including site visits by a hydrologist and a pump test. These could run upwards of $30,000.

“Any well drilled on a property more than about five acres will need a full assessment done,” says van der Gulik.

Any well that’s been drilled but refused a licence following the assessment cannot be used. Owners that do will be drawing water illegally.

“I know of one new well applicant who had an assessment done and had his licensing application denied,” says van der Gulik. “He went to the expense of drilling, went through the proper channels and was told he could not operate the well. The province decreed that that well was tied to a sensitive stream with low flows.”

The same thing could happen to an owner of a existing well if they fail to apply in time.

“If you finally find out you are short of water and decide you want to get your licence, you are going to be out of luck. You won’t get a licence and you will be told to shut down because all of these people have prior rights.”

Van der Gulik believes a pre-approval process similar to what happens for surface water should exist for groundwater extractions. Works for streams are not allowed to be installed until owners secure a licence.

“Right now, a person constructing a new well can do so without any feedback from the province prior to the works starting. There should be some pre-approval process before a property owner goes to all that expense,” he says.

The various issues underscore the need for more time.

“We need more time,” says van der Gulik. “California took 15 years to license their wells. We are trying to do it in three.”

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