To the editor:
I am writing about Tom Fletcher's column, headlined Farm changes a great leap forward, on page A9 of the Aug. 13 edition of the 100 Mile House Free Press.
Fletcher is confused about the Ministry of Agriculture’s consultation, which features a public survey. He mistakenly says it shows that changes in last spring’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) bill “have little or nothing to do with exclusions” of farmland from the ALR.
That bill, which made exclusions easier in 90 per cent of the ALR “Zone 2”, is now law.
It’s no longer a current focus, in contrast to the survey about ALR regulations, which was open until Aug. 22. The simple reason the survey doesn’t mention the bill or ALR exclusions is they’re another matter.
It’s also illogical for Fletcher to imply that those who wanted consultation on the previous matter would oppose the current consultation. If anything, many want more of it.
To top off confusion with bad taste, Fletcher mocks BC NDP Agriculture critic Lana Popham’s photo and bizarrely ties a survey question to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, which cost millions of lives.
Jim Wright, president
Garden City Conservation Society