Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

Agricultural land comprises less than five per cent of the total land area of British Columbia. There is ongoing pressure to convert this limited agricultural land to non-agricultural uses. The Commission protects agricultural land in BC through the Agricultural Land Reserve or ALR, a provincial land use zone in favour of agriculture. The ALR provides an agricultural land base that supports, and creates opportunities for, a safe and secure source of food and other agricultural products. The protected land base also provides for agricultural expansion and compatible economic activities.

The Agricultural Land Commission Act provides processes for landowners, local governments and First Nations to apply to the Commission to include or remove land from the ALR. The Commission employs the following strategies to achieve this objective:

• The Commission decides applications with the objective of ensuring that lands suitable for agriculture are retained in the ALR; and
• The Commission reviews the plans and bylaws of local governments and other agencies to ensure that the ALR is properly identified and that the policies are supportive of the ALR and farmland preservation.

Performance Measure:

The amount of land with capability for agriculture is finite and its location is fixed, although the suitability of agricultural land may change over time as a result of factors such as surrounding development and investment in agricultural infrastructure. The Commission, through the application process, includes or excludes land from the Reserve based on suitability for agriculture. The Commission also may exclude suitable agricultural land to meet community needs in cases where no alternatives exist.

The net change in the size of the ALR is an indicator of the stability of the agricultural land base. A relatively stable or increasing net size of the ALR indicates that lands suitable for agriculture are being retained in the ALR.

The Agricultural Land Commission Act and the Regulation permit a number of non-agricultural uses and subdivisions of land within the ALR that are considered to be compatible with agriculture. The Act also provides processes for landowners, local governments and First Nations to apply to the Commission for land use changes and subdivisions within the ALR that are not permitted outright by the Act and Regulation. The Commission employs the following strategy to achieve this objective:

• The Commission decides applications with the objective of ensuring that these land use changes do not diminish the suitability of lands within the ALR for agriculture.

Performance Measure:

The Commission reviews non-farm use and subdivision applications on a case-by-case basis and considers the merits of each application. An assessment of the potential impact on agricultural suitability relies heavily on the experience and judgement of the Commission. Depending on the circumstances, the Commission may give different weights to considerations such as the compatibility of the proposed use with agriculture, soil capability of the land, location and whether the proposed use would meet a pressing community need. After balancing the relevant considerations, the Commission may approve an application that it determines would not diminish the suitability of land for agriculture.

Because the specific circumstance of each application is unique, it is difficult to evaluate the impact of Commission decisions on the 4.7 million hectare ALR land base. The Commission refuses most applications that would diminish the suitability of land for agriculture while approving those applications that do not diminish the lands suitability.

Some approvals granted on the basis that they meet a pressing community need may have an impact on suitability for agriculture. A significant increase in approvals based on community need indicates the increased likelihood that the overall suitability of land for agriculture is being compromised. Note that community need is a factor in some decisions where poor agricultural suitability is also a factor. The indicator will only include decisions where community need is the primary factor in the decision.

The land use framework for agriculture includes the Agricultural Land Commission Act, local government land use plans and by-laws, and the legislation, plans and policies of other ministries and agencies that affect agricultural land use.

The ALR is a working agricultural land base. The utilization of the ALR for agricultural production contributes to the economy, stabilizes rural communities and provides a safe and secure food supply. The Commission shares the responsibility for encouraging farm use of agricultural lands with its key partners. These include 134 local governments, the agricultural sector and its professional organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, other ministries and agencies, Agriculture Canada and other federal agencies, and some First Nations.

To contribute to the success of the agricultural sector, the Commission works to ensure that its plans and policies and those of its key partners permit and enable the use of the ALR for agriculture. The Commission employs the following strategies to achieve this objective:

• The publication of guidelines to assist local governments and other agencies with land use responsibilities to ensure that the provincial interest in encouraging and enabling farming is addressed by their plans and policies; and
• The selective audit of local government official community plans to determine consistency with the guidelines, legislation and regulations. The Commission is working towards results-based processes and has established guidelines to ensure that the provincial interest in encouraging farming is addressed by jurisdictions with land use responsibilities.

Performance Measures:

The change in the number of local government official community plans that are consistent with the Agricultural Land Commission Act and with the Commission's guidelines is an indicator of the Commission's success in working with others to encourage, enable and accommodate farming. The Commission is moving from reviewing all plans and by-laws of local government to a risk-based program of comprehensive audits of a sample of plans with ALR. Local government plans are evaluated to determine their consistency with the Act and Commission guidelines and the degree to which they encourage farming in the ALR. The Commission expects the number of plans that effectively encourage farming will increase over time, with a specific target to be established after a baseline is determined.

The Commission, along with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries also encourages local governments to adopt agricultural area plans that support agriculture. An increase in the number of plans adopted is another indicator of the Commission and Ministry's success in encouraging, enabling and accommodating farming. For this measure, the 2004/05 base and targets have been modified from last year's Service Plan based on improved information.