Report on Performance

Performance Plan Summary Table

Synopsis of Commission Performance Measure Results

Performance Plan Summary Table.

Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Performance Measures

Commission Goal 1

Preservation of agricultural land.

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.

Objectives

The objectives related to the preservation of agricultural land are to ensure that:

  1. Lands suitable for agriculture are retained in the ALR; and
  2. Commission decisions do not significantly diminish the suitability of land for agriculture.

Strategies

The Commission employs the following strategies to achieve the above objectives:

  1. 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 decides applications with the objective of ensuring that lands suitable for agriculture are retained in the ALR; and
  2. 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 Measures

1. 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 size of the ALR remained relatively constant in 2005/06; the net changes resulted in a 132.3 hectare increase. Inclusions and exclusions by region are shown in Chart 1.

Chart 2: Inclusions and Exclusions by region.

2. Some approvals are granted on the basis that they meet a pressing community need that cannot be addressed without impacting agricultural land. A trend towards a high percentage of applications for non-farm use and subdivision approved on the basis of community need indicates an 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 only includes decisions where community need was the primary factor in the decision. The indicator also includes applications for exclusion, which are considered applications for non-farm use for the purposes of the performance measure.

The percentage of applications approved on the basis of community need in 2005/06 was 2.9 per cent (13 out of 451 decisions for exclusion, subdivision and non-farm use, constituting 13 per cent of the land area approved), exceeding the targeted maximum of two per cent of approvals. The percentage of applications submitted on the basis of community need is outside of the Commission's control and the percentage approved on that basis may vary year to year. However, a rate of approval on the basis of community need that exceeds the target of less than two per cent consistently over a number of years indicates that the Commission should examine the overall impact of community need applications on the agricultural land base.

Exclusions approved on the basis of community need are broken down by region in Chart 2. This chart shows that a significant percentage of the area approved for exclusion in the South Coastal was excluded on the basis of community need. This is to be expected within the South Coastal region where little unsuitable land remains in the ALR that may be the subject of an exclusion application; most land excluded, therefore, is intended to address a compelling community need.

Chart 2: Community Need Component of Area Approved for Exclusion.

 

Performance Measure 2002/03 Actual 2003/04 Actual 2004/05 Actual 2005/06 Target 2005/06 Actual Variance Target Met?
Per cent net change in the size of the ALR + 0.84 % - 0.01 % - 0.01 % < 0.1% decrease over 3 years No net change + 0.1 %
Per cent of decisions for non-farm use and subdivision approved on the basis of community need No data available 14.1 %1 < 2% 2.9 % + 0.9 %

Data Sources and Issues

1 This measure is intended to report on applications decided where community need was the primary reason for approval. Reporting on the percentage of applications approved on the basis of community need in the 2004/2005 period includes all applications where community need was a factor in the decision, even if community need was not the primary reason for the decision. The data reported for 2004/2005, therefore, is not directly comparable to the data reported for 2005/2006.
For the purpose of comparison, community need was a factor in 11.8 per cent of decisions in the 2005/06 period. This is directly comparable to 14.1 per cent in 2004/05.

Commission Goal 2

A land use framework that encourages and enables agriculture.

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 and Lands, other ministries and agencies, Agriculture Canada and other federal agencies, and some First Nations.

Objective

The objective related to a land use framework that encourages and enables agriculture is to ensure that the plans, policies and activities of the Commission, local governments, ministries, agencies and First Nations encourage and enable farming.

Strategies

The Commission employs the following strategies to achieve the above objective:

  1. 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
  2. The selective review of local government official community plans and by-laws to determine consistency with the guidelines, legislation and regulations.

Performance Measures

  1. 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 intent of the Commission is to move 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 will be evaluated to determine their consistency with the Act and Commission guidelines and the degree to which they encourage farming in the ALR.

    The planned development of the audit program has been put on hold pending a more comprehensive review of the Commission's internal practices and procedures; therefore, no data pertaining to this measure is available.

  2. The Commission, along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, also encourages local governments to adopt agricultural area plans that support agriculture. An increase in the number of agricultural area plans adopted is another indicator of the Commission and Ministry's success in encouraging, enabling and accommodating farming.

    No additional agricultural area plans were adopted in 2005/06.

    Note that the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands measures the ability of the farm community to address and influence issues that affect agriculture by tracking the number of Agricultural Advisory Committees in its Service Plan. This performance measure complements the measure included in this Service Plan of the number of agricultural area plans adopted. The Ministry has established a baseline of 24 agricultural area committees in 2005/06, with a target to increase that number to 26 in 2006/07.
Performance Measure 2004/05 Actual 2005/06 Target 2005/06 Actual Variance Target
Met?
Per cent of official community plans that encourage and enable agriculture Not applicable Completion of audit plan and establish baseline by end of fiscal Audit plan not completed Not applicable Not applicable
Number of agricultural area plans adopted 121 14 15 +1

Data Sources and Issues

1 Updated information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands indicates that the actual number of agricultural area plans adopted by 2004/05 was 15, not 12. There was no actual increase, therefore, in the number of plans adopted.

Deregulation

The table below lists the Commission's most significant deregulation and regulatory reform initiatives.

Performance Measure 2004/05 Actual 2005/06 Target 2005/06 Actual Variance Target
Met?
Evaluation of impacts of fill / soil deposit deregulation N/A Audit of fill/extraction proceeding via notice of intent Audit complete1 None
Evaluation of oil and gas uses / impacts N/A Audit of Oil and Gas Commission delegation Audit complete2 None
Processing time for applications 86% of applications decided within 90 days (estimate) 80% of applications decided within 90 days 64.4% of applications decided within 90 days -15.6%3
Regulatory requirements maintained at June 2004 baseline 223 223 223 0

Data Sources and Issues

1 A review of notices-of-intent to place fill or remove soil received in 2005/06 indicates that the Commission reviewed and responded to 32 out of 35 notices within the 30-day timeframe. The Commission did not respond to 3 notices within the 30 day timeframe based on a preliminary assessment that the proposals would benefit or have no significant impact to agriculture.

2 The audit of the ALC's delegation of oil and gas applications to the Oil and Gas Commission is for applications submitted in the year 2004.

3 The Commission achieved an average application processing time of 85 days; however, the increased number and complexity of applications resulted in fewer applications being processed within the 90-day target. Additional time was required to ensure an adequate assessment of many applications prior to a decision. In the North, Interior and Kootenay Regions, the Commission extended its practice of postponing the on-site review of applications submitted in the winter months to spring in order to minimize the safety risk of winter travel and to improve the panels' ability to view the land.
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