In support of Walter Neufeld, of Abbotsford, letter to stop Bill 24:
The Agricultural Land Reserve created in the early 1970s, was developed for the obvious reason of preserving precious farmland.
It was too easy for the developers of the day to snatch up under- or semi-developed arable land for urban sprawl. It started to happen at an alarming rate, so it was needed and instituted by the government of the day.
The ALR has become a real success story in protecting our ranges to produce dairy products, and our arable lands for fibre food source.
Except for the odd political diva trying to corruptly swindle the odd piece to pad their personal pension plans, it has worked relatively well.
Now the current provincial agricultural minister has conspired with B.C.’s oil and gas sector to divide the ALR into two separate zones with different processes.
Though the oil and gas sector decisions are backed by the federal government, this compromise by the B.C. Liberals guarantees the oil and gas sector access to any land in the province.
So now we’re back conspiring to swindling land out of the ALR.
Though energy is, without a doubt, a most important issue, we can’t eat it.
Let’s just leave the ALR alone. It’s a government policy that works, and if it’s not broken, there’s no need to fix it. Stop Bill 24.
Art Green, Hope
