Dear Editor:
Donna Barnett has got hold of the wrong end of the stick regarding the changes to the ALR regulations. First, direct appeals to Cabinet were eliminated in 1993, in an amendment that was put in place to give more fair administrative process and remove the ability of other people and agencies to undermine the land Commission. Bill 52 is a comprehensive overhaul of the Agricultural Land Reserve to strengthen the core aim of the ALR, which is to protect the integrity of agricultural land and its ability to provide food for all of us. The reason these measures are necessary now is as a result of the erosion of those protections during the BC Liberal’s time in government. We need to look no further than the destruction of some of the regions most valuable ranch land, 6 Mile Ranch outside of Kamloops, where the ruling of the Land Commission and the objections of the public were disregarded by the BC Libs, and that irreplaceable land was turned into a golf course. Golf courses, by the way, having been removed as an allowable land use by the ALR, by 1992. So do we need bill 52? Yes, we do.
Rita Giesbrecht
Cariboo-Chilcotin
B.C. Green Party