Fraser Valley Blueberry Field
The BC government is seeking ideas and opinions from farmers and the general public on how to revitalize the Agricultural Land Reserve.
B.C.’s Minister of Agriculture, Lana Popham, announced the formation of an independent committee to lead a public engagement process and provide recommendations to the provincial government. The Advisory Committee will consider best approaches to revitalizing the ALR and the ALC.
The government has also released a discussion paper on the topic. The Advisory Committee asks that respondents read the discussion paper the committee has prepared before completing the online survey. Both the discussion paper and the survey can be found at this URL: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/agriculturallandreserve/
The survey focuses on collecting British Columbians’ opinions and views on these common themes:
- A defensible and defended ALR
- ALR resilience
- Stable governance
- Efficacy of zones 1 and 2
- Interpretation and implementation of the Act and regulation
- Food security and B.C.’s agricultural contribution
- Residential uses in the ALR
- Farm processing and sales in the ALR
- Unauthorized uses
- Non-Farm uses and resource extraction in the ALR
The deadline for submission is April 30th at 4 p.m. The Advisory Committee will provide a final report to the Minister in fall 2018.