Land Commission lays off staff

With no budget increase this year, the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) is laying off six staff to make ends meet.

“Ongoing financial constraints and the requirement to operate within the approved budget have required the ALC to reduce its staffing complement,” ALC chair Jennifer Dyson says in a March 24 letter to agriculture sector organizations, including local governments.

The six positions affected are not identified, though ALC CEO Kim Grout told Country Life in BC the Commission’s mandate to protect agricultural land and support farming remains unchanged, even though service capacity may be reduced. (This will translate into longer wait times for some services.)

“Staffing reductions affecting six positions across the organization were necessary due to ongoing financial constraints and an expanded workload that has not been matched by stable funding,” Grout explains.

While the BC NDP have made much of championing the protection of agricultural land, making a review of ALC governance and regulations a priority after they took power in 2017, the money hasn’t followed.

Under the BC Liberals, the ALC’s budget increased from $2 million in 2012 to $4.5 million in 2017 – much of the gain delivered through a landmark $1.1 million increase in 2016.

Under the BC NDP, just $950,000 has been added to its budget while its responsibilities have increased significantly.

“The commission’s operating budget has remained effectively flat, while costs and service demands have continued to rise,” Dyson’s letter notes. “Application volumes, compliance and enforcement activity essential to maintaining the integrity of the ALR, and legal obligations have all increased, alongside inflationary pressures and negotiated wage increases.”

Delta South MLA and Conservative Party of BC agriculture critic Ian Paton, whose father once chaired the ALC, intends to raise the issue when allocations come under scrutiny in the legislature next month.

“This is going to be about year No. Freaking 5 that I’ve said to the minister, ‘What is going on? You have no increase to your ALC budget,’” he says. “Has the NDP given up on the ALR? If they don’t pull it together with proper funding, sooner or later, we’re going to see people doing anything and everything they want on farmland with no consequences.”