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Originally published:

MAY 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Water licence angst

Green gold

Pandemic puts pinch on finances

Province to lift restrictions on second homes

Editorial: On the level

Back 40: Asian giant hornets aren’t welcome here

OpEd: Proposed meat regs a step in the right direction

Province plans pilot for new drought ratings

Sidebar: Universal

High snowpack limits drought

Jack Frost nips potential for huge cherry crop

Ag Briefs: Dog attacks put sheep producers on alert

Ag Briefs: Poultry scholarship established

Ag Briefs: BC Tree Fruits extends CEO contract

Letters: Build soil with carbon tax

Funding revived for local gov’t agriculture plans

Sidebar: Mission expands definition of accessory use agriculture

Record funding flowed through IAFBC last year

Lotsa tomatoes

AgSafe embraces new governance structure at AGM

ALR exclusion fails to win ag committee support

BC dairy industry sees steady demand

Dairy producers work to resolve quality issues

Tree fruit consultations off to flying start

Canada holds off Asian giant hornet restructions

Strawberry groewrs eye new varieties

Funding stopped up for raspberry replant

Beekeepers welcome technology transfer program

Island couple step up to revive local abattoir

Tech crucial to speed variety development

Research: Urban farms can contribute to food security

Building soil structure with organic compost

Locally grown asparagus fills a niche market

BC propagator awarded research grant

Understanding the methodology to farm financing

Seed bank continues legacy of seed-savers

New owners to extend Woodside Farm’s legacy

Ruckle Farm looks toward the future

Farm Story: Spring deliveries inspire the urge to get farming

Farmer-chef connections still paying off

Woodshed: Henderson between a rock and a hard place

Pandemic forces BC agricultural fairs to adapt

Jude’s Kitchen: Herbs & sprouts

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4 days ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

6 days ago

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7 days ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle...
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1 week ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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1 week ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Water licence angst

Experts sound alarm with time ticking on well registration

Irrigation wheel line sprinkler watering an alfalfa field farmland located in Keremeos, British Columbia, Canada.

May 1, 2021 byKate Ayers & Peter Mitham

DUNCAN – It’s been more than three years since Ken Ellison applied for licences to draw water from the three wells on his farm in the Cowichan Valley as part of a new groundwater management regime introduced under the Water Sustainability Act in 2016.

With water restrictions in his area becoming more common, the idea of having priority access in the event of water restrictions under the first in time, first in right (FITFIR) provisions of the new act appealed to him.

But, like hundreds of other well owners, Ellison has yet to receive his licences. Adding to his frustration, the same act he believed would protect his water rights was invoked in 2019 to prevent Ellison and other farmers in the Koksilah watershed from irrigating their crops.

“Our water was taken away from us for six weeks, with absolutely no consideration for FITFIR and still to this date I have heard nothing about a confirmation on my licences,” he says. “The promise of FITFIR is the only reason that I went forward with these applications, and government has mishandled this program the whole way through!”

Ellison is not alone in his frustration. Other users have seen the provisions of the new regime for non-domestic groundwater users as needlessly confusing and more restrictive than anticipated. Many have simply held off applying for a licence.

According to the most recent statistics  from the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, just 4,069 licence applications had been received by March 31 of an estimated 20,000 wells in the province. And of these applications, just 1,292 licences have been issued.

This is shaping up to be a massive headache for government, which initially gave existing users two years to register their wells and obtain groundwater licences. The province waived application fees as an incentive. But a lack of uptake forced the province to extend the deadline twice. Users now have until March 1, 2022 to register their wells without losing their FITFIR designation. The province is on record saying that no further extensions will be given.

“If the vast majority of users do not apply, they are not going to stop using their water, so government will have a big enforcement and non-compliance problem on their hands,” says the province’s former deputy comptroller of water rights Mike Wei, who helped draft the new groundwater regulation. “Politically, that will be a difficult thing to manage.”

The concerns were highlighted in a report Wei co-authored for the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC last month.

New users – those who applied for wells drilled or commissioned on or after March 1, 2016 – also require a licence. However, historical users without a licence on March 1, 2022 will be deemed new users, too.

“Any new-use applications received prior to theirs will get a more senior priority date. By not applying, historical groundwater users are effectively giving their current volume of groundwater use back to the government for reallocation,” notes the report.

Wei appreciates the frustration Ellison and other applicants have experienced.

“When you apply, people don’t hear anything from government for years and silence is deadly,” Wei says.

In addition to not keeping applicants informed, the government has not explained the benefits of applying for a licence and the consequences of non-compliance to those who have yet to apply, Wei says. Historical water users put their livelihoods at risk by not applying for a licence and there could be far-reaching implications for BC farmers and rural businesses.

“The transition is meant to bring people into the fold, not to exclude people from the fold,” he says. “If the government signals that and communicates clearly what all this means for the average business person, that would be great. It’s not a tax grab; it’s a transition from one system of right of access to another.”

To build confidence in the new groundwater regime, the recent report says the province should dedicate adequate staff to processing applications and promptly issue licences to existing users.

The recent provincial budget took a step in this direction with an $11 million allocation to support FrontCounterBC offices around the province.

BC Agriculture Council executive director Reg Ens expects much of this to be spent on staffing, improving service delivery and reducing processing times.

“Specifically where we’re hoping that helps is with the groundwater licensing issue –  that huge backlog that’s there,” he says.

The report also urges the province to explain the consequences of not obtaining a licence, and being open to extending the application deadline.

Wei thinks the province should undertake compliance activities to show it’s serious about unauthorized water use. It also needs to rethink its deadline for implementation.

“I just don’t see 10 months being sufficient, especially during a pandemic with no end in sight,” says Wei. “Government is the only one who can extend the timeframe.”

 

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