B.C.’s Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), which adjudicates land use for the five per cent of the province set aside for farming, is cutting staff because of inadequate government funding.
Six out of the 45 full-time employees will lose their jobs, according to commission CEO Kim Grout. Those being laid off have already been notified.
Grout said this process has been “extremely difficult” for her.
“Especially in a very small organization,” she said.
Cuts were first announced on Monday (March 23) in emails sent to agriculture industry organizations and local governments from ALC chair Jennifer Dyson, who wrote that the commission’s mandate was expanded in 2019, while funding remained “essentially flat.”
“Although additional funding was approved in principle at that time, it was later withdrawn,” Dyson wrote, “leaving the ALC to deliver its expanded mandate within its existing budget.”
In 2019, the commission had a $5 million budget. While this has increased to $5.5 million since, the bump does not keep up with negotiated wage and benefit increases and added responsibility. And general costs have increased due to inflation.
Grout says the Ministry of Agriculture had been providing temporary support, but she was informed in January that this would end. Now, the commission is $600,000 short.
Agriculture and Food Minister Lana Popham called this a “difficult time” for those affected and acknowledged the commission has faced “increasing challenges” in recent years. But she suggested the commissioner will be able to weather the cuts.
“I am confident the ALC will continue to carry out its important work and that it remains firmly committed to advancing B.C.’s farmers, food security, and food economy,” she said in a written statement.
Opposition critics and a former commissioner say these cuts will only exacerbate already expanding response timelines. And the letter from Dyson to industry organizations says the reductions will impact service capacity and “some service impacts may be experienced.”
The Agricultural Land Commission was created in 1973 to oversee newly created land reserves meant to preserve B.C.’s best farmland. Farmers within those boundaries who want to alter land must apply to the commission for permission. Alterations that require a permit can range from adding fill material to erecting a new barn to building a second home.
Former commissioner Bill Zylmans, a potato farmer and agriculture advocate, says farmers need the ability to make quick changes to respond to changing environmental conditions.
And he said the system is already too slow, with some farmers waiting months, or even more than a year, for decisions from the commission.
“We need instantaneous response, and it’s been a challenge already,” he said.
Zylmans sat on the South Coast panel for the seven years leading up to 2019. He boasts that his panel had wait times down to 60 days by the time he left.
When an application first comes in, staff must review the file before presenting it to the commissioners for consideration.
Because so much of this process relies on staff time, Zylmans says job losses will have a “huge impact” on wait times.
B.C. Conservative Agriculture critic Ian Paton, whose father was a commissioner in the 1980s, said farmers are “pulling their hair out with delays” already.
“If you’re going to start cutting back on staff, the permitting process is going to take even longer,” he said.
Paton also warns that the commission is perilously short-staffed in compliance and enforcement, with just six officers, one advisor, and one supervisor to oversee the entire province’s Agricultural Land Reserve — a total of 4.6 million hectares.
Along with adequate funding, Paton wants a major review of land reserve boundaries.
“There are lots of pieces of farmland that haven’t been farmed in years because they’re low, they’re swampy, they’re soggy, they’re rocky,” he said. “So not everything in the ALR should even be there.”