By Joe Millican

Black Press

Scrapping B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) would be “disastrous” for the local economy, according to Abbotsford Coun. Patricia Ross.

Ross, who chairs the Fraser Valley Regional District, was responding to a report published this week by the Fraser Institute.

In that document, entitled B.C. Agricultural Land Reserve: A Critical Assessment, the right-wing economic think tank concludes that the ALR has “failed to sustain family farms” and has instead “helped make the Vancouver housing market one of the most expensive in North America.”

The ALR was established by the provincial NDP government in 1973, as a way to restrict development on valuable farmland.

As it now stands, any application to remove land from the ALR must go through the provincial Agricultural Land Commission.

The report’s author, Diane Katz, describes the ALR as “a social engineering experiment gone awry.”

“It has not shielded British Columbia from global agricultural trends, but it has deprived property owners the free use of their land, diminished the housing choices of families, and created barriers to upward mobility,” she wrote.

Katz said the ALR has done nothing to “nurture” a new generation of farmers.

In fact, she said the number of farms in B.C. has declined by nine per cent since 1996.

Ross said the report showed an “overall disregard” for agriculture and agriculture practices.

“It’s absolutely essential that we keep it (the ALR).

”We have some of the very, very best farmland in the world,” she said.

The report fails to address the “incredible contribution” agriculture makes to the Fraser Valley’s economy, according to Ross.

She said ditching the ALR would have severe implications for the Fraser Valley.

“We could lose all of our valuable farmland and we could lose the industries it supports,” she said. “I think economically it would be disastrous for us, and from a sustainable community perspective.

“I think it would be ridiculous.”

Ross admitted that the ALR does have some problems.

For one, she said the Agricultural Land Commission should be allocated more staff so it can more efficiently evaluate the applications that come its way.

Garnet Etsell, chair of the Abbotsford-based B.C. Agriculture Council, said farmland must be protected at a time when urban centres are growing.

Pointing out that 63 per cent of B.C.’s agriculture industry is based in the Fraser Valley, Etsell said that with the world’s population expected to grow dramatically by 2050, there is no benefit to reducing the amount of land designated for agricultural purposes.

“Why on Earth would you want to give up your future production capacity?”