To the editor:
I am writing about the front page story, headlined Ag Centre to Fight the District, in the May 12 edition of the 100 Mile House Free Press.
The first and most obvious question arises from the heading – why is this a fight?
The Ag Centre has developed over years of community input, and a well-researched feasibility study commissioned by the District and published in 2009.
The history of implementing the original Feasibility Study includes a steering committee that was asked by the District to volunteer their time to plan and direct that implementation.
They did so for over two years, only to be told that if anything were going to be done, it had to be done by that group and the District was putting the Ag Centre “at arm’s length.”
So, that is what happened.
The group that had been asked to direct an implementation plan on an initiative by the District, and did so for the furtherance of a secure food economy for the entire region, took on the job and has been working to pursue that mandate ever since.
The Ag Centre is directly named in seven of the action items of the Miles Ahead Sustainability Plan for 100 Mile House from 2014, paid for by the Fraser Basin Council and now collecting dust in the District office.
When representatives met with the District planners about implementation of those action items, they were told there was going to be none.
Why?
Good question.
Rita Giesbrecht
Ag Centre member
