When the Agricultural Land Commission says no after the Regional District said yes, it can make for some grumpy elected officials.
A long conversation ensued between the directors of the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) after nine decisions by the commission were different than the local government decision, while six were in agreement.
Eight of the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) dissenting decisions were to deny an application that the RDBN approved at the local level, and one was to approve an application that the local government previously said no to.
These applications are made when the land in question is part of a provincial collection of land called the Agricultural Land Reserve - land set aside from regular development so it can be farmed. Many additional rules apply to such land, and the ALC is the oversight department that ensures ALR land is maximized for farming and never turned into land that can’t grow food.
The applications are usually about mining gravel from the land, cutting big pieces into smaller pieces (on the legal property map), adding extra houses, or building something for a supplementary business, but there are many reasons a landowner might need permission on ALR land to make changes to its amenities.
“There is such a discrepancy between what was recommended for approval here, and was then denied,” said Smithers mayor Gladys Atrill.
Vanderhoof Rural director Shirley Moon said “Sometimes the decisions the ALC make no sense at all.”
“If we have no weight, why are we monkeying around with staff time?” wondered Francois-Ootsa Rural director Clint Lambert. “What are we doing? I have a hard time with government in the first place; I have a really hard time with it being like that. They want consultation, but when it comes right down to it, they just decided what they want anyways.”
ALC chief executive officer Kim Grout said it was natural for local governments to want to consider a number of different elements whenever a landowner in their area wants to do something with their property, but the ALC has only one factor they must, by law, take into account: will the idea help that land grow food?
“We don’t really have the ability (to consider) other factors. Local governments have a very different mandate than we do. We only have one,” Grout said. “Every decision the commission makes is on our website, and all the reasons are laid out in their Reasons For Decision. Their only mandate is to encourage agriculture, and preserve the size, integrity and continuity of the ALR. That is the lens they apply on all applications.”
The one outlier decision in the latest package was the one denied by the RDBN but then approved by the ALC. Grout said that would never have happened if the Regional District had simply not submitted the application. A local government does not have final approval power, but they do have denial power. If they felt the application wasn’t compliant, said Grout, why was the application forwarded onward to the ALC?
Regional District director of planning Jason Llewellyn said some of the denials, the ones pertaining to gravel pits, still have a chance of approval. The denials were simply a reflection of the ALC wanted a more detailed reclamation plan explaining how the land would become productive for food again once the gravel was removed.
“Their rules trump all local governments’ zoning - municipal or regional district - and the legislation very specifically says the only consideration for the Agricultural Land Commission, when making a decision, is the impact to agriculture. Previously, it used to be a number of factors and priorities. One was agriculture. Two was social, land-use planning, and all the other things a local government would consider. When the changes occurred a number of years ago, it went very strictly to just agriculture. That’s the root cause of the disconnect.”
Grout said there were many ways a local government could become better educated on the legislation that binds the ALC, and to encourage applicants to also become self-educated on what the rules were.
In the ALC’s view, local governments were an important part of the overall land-use-planning puzzle. If the ALC denies an application, it isn’t a reflection of bad decision making by the local government, its a reflection only that the application doesn’t focus authentically on the final consideration - food production. Most land isn’t in the ALR, but what land is within those borders must be dedicated to that goal. The underlying principle is, far too little food for British Columbians is grown in British Columbia, to the point that even a common weather event over the course of a few days could threaten the wellbeing of entire regions.
“You can always farm in the ALR, that’s the one thing you can do for sure,” Grout said. “The disasters of the recent past I think gave people a sense that regional production and local production is really important. You cannot rely on a port in Vancouver, or even processing outside of the province, and we (in B.C. agriculture administration) have been so encouraged by the enthusiasm for local farming. People are still recovering, but wow, it has really changed the dial on the conversation.”