Commission Role and Services

Commission Overview

The Agricultural Land Commission administers the Agricultural Land Reserve, a provincial land use zone that encompasses 4.75 million hectares of agricultural land. The ALR was established in 1974-75 based on a review of agricultural capability (a combination of soil and climate ratings), existing land use and an extensive consultation process with local governments, landowners and other stakeholders. The boundaries of the ALR are continually adjusted to reflect better information on the suitability of lands for agriculture, changes in land use and community needs. Boundary adjustments result from Commission decisions made on applications for land use changes or as a consequence of community plan reviews.

The Commission has a clearly defined public purpose, authority and role as defined in the legislation it administers on behalf of the province — the Agricultural Land Commission Act, 2002. The legislation describes the purposes of the Commission as follows:

a) to preserve agricultural land;

b) to encourage farming on agricultural land in collaboration with other communities of interest; and

c) to encourage local governments, First Nations, the government and its agents to enable and accommodate farm use of agricultural land and uses compatible with agriculture in their plans, bylaws and policies.

The protection of agricultural lands, through a provincial ALR, benefits all British Columbians by providing opportunities for the production of safe, high quality food, both now and in the future.

The Act sets out procedures for land use approvals including the inclusion or removal of land from the ALR, and non-farm uses and subdivisions within the ALR. Among other provisions, the Act provides for the delegation of authority to decide non-farm use and subdivision applications to a local government or a public authority. The Act is supported by the Agricultural Land Reserve Use, Subdivision and Procedure Regulation, which defines permitted land uses within the ALR and details procedures for applications and enforcement and compliance activities for the Reserve.

In addition to land use applications under the Act, the Commission reviews relevant plans and bylaws of local governments to ensure that the ALR is properly identified and that local policies are supportive of the ALR and farmland preservation. The Commission works with other agencies and ministries to ensure that their policies and programs support and do not hinder farming on agricultural land.

The Commission works closely with various partners to deliver its services to the public. Foremost are the 136 local governments across the province with ALR land within their jurisdictions. Local governments receive, review and make recommendations on applications before they are forwarded to the Commission. Local community plans and bylaws help reinforce the provincial ALR and provide a stable land base within which farms and related businesses can thrive. The Commission works closely with local boards and councils to plan for agriculture and to help reduce the regulatory burden for farmers and others in the ALR. The Commission also works with other public authorities such as the Oil and Gas Commission and Land and Water BC to streamline regulatory compliance for related economic activities such as resource extraction in the ALR.

The Commission is an independent administrative tribunal funded by the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management and reporting directly to the Minister. It operates with similar values to the ministry and adheres to the ministry Governance Principles for Sustainability. It also has a close working relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and works jointly with ministry staff on programs such as 'Strengthening Farming'.

In 2003/04 the Commission worked with staff of the Sustainable Resource Management and Water, Land and Air Protection Ministries together with the Private Forest Landowners' Association (representing industry) to develop a new way of regulating forest practices on private managed forest lands. The Commission Chair led the implementation of a new partnership — the Private Managed Forest Land Council — to assume oversight of forest practices and to protect public values in privately owned forests.

Commission Vision, Mission and Values

Vision

A provincial agricultural land reserve system that fosters economic, environmental and social sustainability

The Agricultural Land Reserve provides a sustainable agricultural land base that supports, and creates opportunities for, a safe and secure source of food and other agricultural products. The protected land base provides for agricultural expansion and compatible economic activities. It helps build healthy and sustainable rural and urban communities.

Mission

Preserve agricultural land and encourage and enable farm businesses throughout British Columbia

The Agricultural Land Commission is the provincial agency responsible for administering the provincial land use zone in favour of agriculture — the Agricultural Land Reserve. In pursuit of its vision and mission, the Commission adjudicates change of use applications; reviews plans and bylaws to ensure consistency with provincial objectives; and works with local governments and others to encourage and enable farming of agricultural lands. The preservation of agricultural land and encouragement of farming is a provincial interest that has widespread public and industry support.

Values

The Commission is committed to the following values to guide its activities and the delivery of public services.

Integration — Policies and programs foster long-term sustainability by considering a range of economic, social and environmental values for the benefit of present and future generations.

Accountability and fairness — The Commission sets performance standards and implements mechanisms for compliance, auditing and reporting on progress. The Commission acts fairly and in the public interest.

Transparency — The Commission establishes open decision-making processes and the basis of all decisions is public information.

Science and knowledge — Agricultural Land Reserve boundaries and decisions are based on biophysical criteria, local knowledge and site specific circumstances.

Responsiveness — The Commission, in carrying out its responsibility to protect the provincial interest in agricultural land preservation, considers the needs of farmers, landowners, applicants, First Nations, local governments and others.

Shared Responsibility — The Commission is aware that its decisions affect others, and that others share in the responsibility for making decisions. The Commission strives to develop working relationships with local governments, First Nations and other communities of interest and to ensure consultation with stakeholders in all of its decisions and activities.

Certainty — The Commission makes clear and timely decisions within a predictable and understandable regulatory framework.

Commission Operating Context

The Commission's work over the year was influenced by both internal and external factors. During 2003/04 the Commission consolidated many of the significant changes that took place during the two previous years, both for the Commission itself, and across government. The Commission's focus over the past year has been to build certainty and stability for the ALR through the efficient delivery of its program and services, and to accomplish this within a reduced budget.

Internal factors

The chief internal factors affecting the Commission were government's continuing direction to improve regional responsiveness; to streamline operations and reduce regulations; and to implement more results-based processes. Commission staff worked in regional teams to handle their increased workload resulting from workforce adjustment and reduced resources.

The six panel regional structure of the Commission was fully operational during the fiscal year. The Commission operated with monthly meetings of the panels in their regions and onsite meetings with most applicants. The number of applications submitted to the Commission remained largely unchanged from the previous year, despite new regulations that broadened uses permitted in the ALR. The Commission received 464 new applications during the year, compared to 465 applications during 2002/03.

Delegating further subdivision and land use decisions to local governments remained a significant and largely unfulfilled challenge. Despite continuing efforts by the Commission, no new delegation agreements were negotiated with local governments during the year. In a survey of local governments, only 14 of 136 expressed an interest in discussing delegation with the Commission. The continuing lack of interest by most local governments in assuming additional decision-making authority for the ALR means the Commission has had difficulty in meeting even the most modest targets for delegation. The Commission has eliminated its strategy to reduce the number of ALR applications through delegation and other means, as a result of this response.

The existing delegation agreement with Fraser-Fort George Regional District has been extended to include several additional community planning areas. This delegation initiative has met its objectives and risks to the Commission's mandate in this area are considered low.

External factors

Agriculture suffered several severe setbacks this past year, including the effects of a single Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in Alberta cattle and avian influenza in the Fraser Valley. As a result of export restrictions due to BSE, cattle sales receipts were down 35% in 2003. Projected income from agriculture in BC is expected to fall short of targets established for 2003/04. Nevertheless agriculture continues to be a steady contributor to the BC economy and its spin-off effects in food processing, distribution, retailing and food services are substantial components of the BC economy. The positive benefits from the primary agricultural sector are felt in all areas of the Province.

An increasingly competitive world economy creates additional challenges for BC's farm businesses, as food commodity prices are forced downward. Input costs for farmers in BC remain high. Many have responded by focusing on fresh local and regional markets and by creating value-added products that provide a greater return. Some BC farmers are producing high value products such as greenhouse vegetables that are aimed at niche markets. For example, BC hot house growers have been very successful at bringing new products to market and expanding their markets. Greenhouse producers use state-of-the-art technology to produce high quality crops in a sustainable and safe manner; annual production in BC in this sector now exceeds $250 million.

Development pressures on farmland continue, particularly in the high growth areas of the province — the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan and southern Vancouver Island. Short-term arguments to develop farmland often disregard the positive economic and environmental benefits of productive farmland over the long-term. The benefits of the ALR in directing settlement onto other lands and increasing density of development should not be overlooked. The existence of the ALR for thirty years has led to the development of more compact communities in BC, with associated savings in infrastructure, energy and transportation costs.

Ongoing Issues and Risks

The Provincial government has renewed its efforts to advance the First Nations treaty settlement process in the past year. This is a high profile issue for the Commission, as treaty settlement lands offered to some First Nations include land designated ALR. The Commission continues to work with First Nations, ministries and agencies involved in the treaty settlement process to achieve the object of the Agricultural Land Commission Act. To this end, the Commission is proposing legislative amendments that will provide First Nations with similar rights and obligations as local governments under the Act and enable the Commission and First Nations to work towards outcomes that recognize First Nations' community needs and protect the agricultural land base.

The Commission is working to identify further opportunities to share decision-making authority with other public agencies and local governments. While this has been a 'tough sell' to date, particularly with local governments, some opportunities remain to partner with other public bodies to provide decision-making capability for the ALR while continuing to maintain provincial oversight.

There is a degree of uncertainty in the agricultural business sector as a result of BSE, US border closures to live cattle and avian influenza. This uncertainty is affecting farming on a daily basis and is reflected in declining farm incomes in the beef and poultry sectors. Declining farm incomes place additional pressures on the Commission in its management of the ALR as often, exclusion, subdivision and other non-farm uses of ALR lands are seen as a way to supplement declining farm incomes. The provincial role in managing the ALR is essential to provide stability and certainty for the land base needed for successful agriculture. Land use certainty provided by a provincially managed ALR can help stabilize rural economies and contribute to provincial prosperity over the long term. The Commission will be analyzing and addressing risks to the delivery of their programs in the years to come as government implements an enterprise-wide risk management system.

Commission Structure

The business of the Agricultural Land Commission is carried out through three functional areas that are the equivalent of a single core business area. The Commission is responsible for administering the ALR. The ALR was 4,752,631 hectares, as of March 31, 2004, an area substantially unchanged from the previous year (See Appendix 1).

The Commission staff structure has three components:

1. Strategic Planning and Corporate Policy. The Commission develops policy and participates in the agricultural planning and policy initiatives of other ministries, agencies and local governments.

2. Regional Operations. Staff, organized by region, supports the Commission in its review and adjudication of applications under the legislation, and compliance with the Act and regulations.

3. Administration and Information Systems. This function includes accounting, administrative support and records management. The Commission maintains an application database and ALR maps for the province.

The Commission's clients are the public, owners of land in the ALR, local governments, farm businesses, related agricultural industries, service providers, ministries and other agencies of government.

Strategic Shifts and Significant Changes in Policy Direction

The Commission worked on consolidating the strategic shifts it implemented during the previous two years. A stable and predictable agricultural land base provided by the ALR helped the ministry and government build and maintain land use certainty throughout the province. In turn, this has helped lay the foundation for economic recovery, particularly in the rural areas of the province.

• There were no additional delegation agreements concluded with local governments during the year; however, the Commission re-focused its efforts on those local governments that expressed interest in assuming some additional decision-making authority for the ALR. The Commission revised its performance measure for delegation to reflect the lack of interest by most local governments in delegated authority.
• One delegation agreement was negotiated with a public agency — the Oil and Gas Commission — for oil and gas development in the ALR in the Peace River and Northern Rockies Regional Districts. Potential agreements with other public agencies were investigated.

Update on New Era Commitments

The Commission substantially achieved the New Era commitment "to increase regional responsiveness of the Commission to community needs" over the previous two years. This was accomplished by the new Commission structure of six panels making ALR decisions in six regions of the province and meeting with applicants, stakeholders and local governments on a regular basis. During the year the Commission improved its performance management system to specifically track the decisions it made that were based on 'community need'. This is reported in the following section.