• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

August 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 8

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Country Life in BC, 36 Dale Road, Enderby, BC, V0E1V4. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

Shaved, showered and shampooed

New regs rolled out for pot growers

Egg farm decommissioned

Richmond cranberry grower honoured

Editorial: Ground for reform

Back Forty: Facing a tenuous future of feeding the world

OpEd: Wildlife federation’s audit request full of holes

Armyworm posing little risk this season

Letters: Dairy feeling price pressures

Abbotsford waits for clarity on ALR guidelines

Chicken quote to increase 20% by 2020

Dairy incentive days this fall

Aquilini seeks exclusion for former nursery

Business risks looms large at national meeting

Maple Ridge denies exclusion bid for dairy

Fire damage won’t delay blueberry shipments

Good weather marks return to normal conditions

Cherries set for near-record crop this season

Laser system has potential for bird control in crops

Hazelnut growers get replant funding

Gulf Islands farmers want rules respected

Young Agrarians push small-scale premium

Value pinned on local ecosystem services

Cash crunch threatens BC berry growers

Hop sector brewing a bright future

IPM for SWD a tall order, says crop consultant

Audit request takes aim at cattle ranchers

Forage action plan nears completion

Site C fund directors get to work

Abattoir recommendations delayed till fall

Research: Smart flowers have the tools to attract clever bees

Science should underpin colony management

Abbotsford tour puts spotlight on innovation

Summer fun at Stock Show

Business smarts needed for farm success

Wannabe: Signs of hope’s fulfilment

New day for Century Growers

Woodshed: Role playing turns up heat for Deborah

Seasonal pastime

Community is key crop for Kelowna farmers

Jude’s Kitchen: Crisp and cool entertaining

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

7 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

Link thumbnail

Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

buff.ly

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...
View Comments
  • Likes: 1
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

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

Link thumbnail

Your weekly farm news update

web-extract.constantcontact.com

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
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

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

Link thumbnail

Christmas trees in demand

buff.ly

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…
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 3
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

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
View Comments
  • Likes: 10
  • Shares: 8
  • Comments: 8

Comment on Facebook

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..

View more comments

Subscribe | Advertise

Gulf Islands farmers want rules respected

Local government committees often overstep ALC

July 29, 2018 byBarbara Johnstone Grimmer

PENDER ISLAND – Bylaws passed by local government shouldn’t pre-empt decisions by the Agricultural Land Commission, the commission’s chair and CEO told a recent meeting of the Islands Trust council.

While it may seem to be stating what’s clearly written in section 46 of the Agricultural Land Commission Act, the question is at the heart of a storm brewing on several Gulf Islands.

Speaking during a public delegation session at the Islands Trust council meeting June 20, Pender Island resident Michael Sketch pointed out that Islands Trust and its local trust committees (LTCs) has regularly interpreted the ALC’s conditional approval of applications as full legal approval.

“Despite the ALC Act and its precedence over LTC bylaws, Islands Trust bylaws have been drafted and adopted which are not consistent with the ALC Act, regulation or orders of the ALC,” says Sketch. “Conditional approval for non-farm uses have been interpreted by Islands Trust staff as approval in law, whether or not the conditions of approval have been met.”

Sketch recalled how former ALC chair Richard Bullock addressed the Islands Trust council on Salt Spring in 2012 regarding the issue.

“He showed passionate support for the ALR, intending to persuade Islands Trust decision-makers,” says Sketch. “Less than two months later, North Pender LTC forwarded a non-farm use application to the ALC for a waste transfer facility on ALR land.”

The parcel had changed hands months earlier, with old industrial zoning on ALR land already in place but with no ALC permission in law, according to Sketch. The zoning was intended only to provide road access across an ALR portion to a non-ALR oceanside fuel facility which had ceased operations decades ago.

“Six years later, all non-farm uses on that property, either applied for or incorrectly given by Islands Trust, have been refused by the ALC,” says Sketch. “Islands Trust staff now recommend that the LTC continue allowing one of those refused uses, in part for reason of a legally incorrect historical precedent.”

This situation is not unique to Pender. Nearly a third of the islands governed by the Islands Trust have seen trust staff recommend the reading of bylaws which, if adopted, would be inconsistent with ALC legislation or an order of the ALC.

Sketch is not alone in his assessment of the situation. Gabriola Island resident Jacinthe Eastwick has also spoken out about Islands Trust bylaw readings on North Pender, Gabriola, Salt Spring and Galiano that are inconsistent with the ALC Act, a regulation or order of the ALC.

Despite public protest leading to the eventual reversals of bylaws on three islands, Galiano adopted official community plan (OCP) amendments in 2017 which approved community as a non-farm use within the ALR, inconsistent with an ALC order.

“Islands Trust staff said the Galiano land had been excluded from the ALR, but it wasn’t,” says Sketch. “Extraordinarily, both trust executive and the Minister [of Municipal Affairs and Housing] approved an OCP amendment which allowed community housing on land which remains in the ALR with no ALC permission in law.”

During the June 20 meeting, held on Saturna Island, current ALC chair Jennifer Dyson and ALC CEO Kim Grout presented statistics on ALR applications and agricultural land use in the trust’s area, and answered trustees’ questions. The public were not allowed to ask the chair of the ALC questions directly, but rather had to submit them to a trustee to be asked. ALC representatives did not attend the public delegation session where Sketch questioned the apparent disconnect between the ALC and Islands Trust.

Dyson’s and Grout’s presentation indicated that ALR land was less than 2% of the Islands Trust’s 520,000 hectares (1.3 million acres), with small parcels less likely to be farmed than larger parcels. Natural vegetation covers up to 60% of the ALR.

Since the formation of the ALR, there have been 385 completed applications to the ALC in the Islands Trust area: 18% for exclusion, 11% for inclusion, 42% subdivision applications and 29% for non-farm use.

Both the Islands Trust and the ALC were formed by the NDP government of the 1970s as unique agencies intended to “preserve and protect” land.

 

 

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

Surrey ALR inclusion cheered

ALC rejects Teacup appeal

Whistleblowers at FIRB, ALC protected

Abbotsford updates farmland policies

Province allows secondary homes

Agassiz land exclusion refused

Province to lift restrictions on second homes

CPR on ALR track

ALC appointments made

Changes to land commission kick in this fall

Kelowna readies exclusion bid

Open ears

Previous Post: « Hazelnut growers get replant funding
Next Post: Wildlife federation’s audit request full of holes »

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved