Province considers farmland tax

ABBOTSFORD – Unused farmland could be the next front in the province’s battle against real estate speculators.

Citing the precedent of the speculation and vacancy tax the province levies on underused housing, BC Premier David Eby said the province is considering applying a version of the tax to underused farmland in the ALR.

“There’s a very similar and parallel issue [in housing],” he said as part of the keynote presentation at the BC Young Farmers’ Farm Fest event in Abbotsford, November 16.

BC Young Farmers is a committee of the BC Agriculture Council, whose executive director Danielle Synotte moderated the presentation.

She said the province’s anti-speculation efforts have been ongoing for several years, so a proposal to tax unfarmed land is not a surprise.

“This is an ongoing, anti-speculation issue that this government has worked on for several years now,” she said. “Anti-speculation in agriculture? Of course we support that.”

The speculation and vacancy tax applies to homes unoccupied for six months or more each year. All residential property owners in the Lower Mainland from Squamish to Chilliwack must file an annual declaration, as well as those in the Capital Regional District and six municipalities north to Nanaimo and Lantzville. Kelowna and West Kelowna are also subject to the tax. The rate is 0.5% of property value for Canadians and 2% for foreign nationals.

“The ALR preserves much-needed land for farming, not real estate speculation,” the BC Ministry of Finance told Country Life in BC in a statement. “A targeted unfarmed land tax is worth considering but no action has been taken at this time.”

It encourages owners of ALR properties classified as residential to actively farm these lands to meet the BC Assessment Authority’s requirements for farm class.

BC Assessment requires documentation of farming activity prior to assigning properties farm class status, which gives owners a preferential rate. Unfarmed properties do not receive the rate, even if zoned for agriculture.

In addition, rules governing housing in the ALR were tightened in 2019 with the aim of preventing speculative construction in areas such as Richmond. The rules were tweaked in 2021 to permit up to three dwelling units on a farm property without seeking the permission of the Agricultural Land Commission.

Agricultural Land Commission CEO Kim Grout says the province has not approached the ALC about the proposed tax.

With files from Ronda Payne

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Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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4 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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5 days ago

The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.

DECEMBER 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 12

Province considers farmland tax

Unfarmed land tax

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