By Lynn Perrin BGS MPP. Regarding Vancouver Sun story about farmers hoarding land, in the 2005 the ALC allowed Abbotsford Council to exclude 459 acres of Class 1 & 2 farmland from the ALR for industrial development. Not a single acre has been developed even after $$ millions of public funds have been
spent on infrastructure.
Now there are 22 property owners on the west side
who have been given Abbotsford Council’s approval to take 225 acres out of
the ALR because the land is “not good enough to farm”. This is where I
farmed for 17 years and fed at least 20 families with free range pork,
beef and poultry.
Mayor Bruce Banman and most of the same Councillors as
in 2005 and the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce who is currently
celebrating our community’s $1.8 billion /year Agriculture economy
obviously have not done their homework.
Once again too many decision makers knowing the cost of
everything and the value of nothing. The ALC must reject this exclusion
application and show that food security trumps
developers’ profits!
This City of Abbotsford staff report that promises the same jobs and tax
revenue as the City in the Country Plan and was done by the same staff
that pushed through the 2005 ALR exclusions – an absolute failure in job
creation and increased tax revenues.