On July 23rd, the Ministry of Agriculture & Food announced a consultation about adding some flexibility in the ALR for food processing plants.  

Currently, there is a 50% rule in place – “if at least half of what a farm processes comes from the farm itself (or from a fellow co-op member), they can process right there on the land without objection from the ALC.” 

The Ministry released a Discussion Paper on encouraging food processing inside the Agricultural Land Reserve, which included a proposal for another exemption: on land with poorer soils, “… ALC approval is not necessary to build food processing plants in the ALR, so long as 5 percent of the primary product used in the processing is grown or raised in the province.”   

There are some caveats: 

• The “Government will cap the maximum amount of land eligible under this proposal to no more than 0.25% of the 2.1 million hectares of privately owned ALR land;” and 
• The proposal would not exempt proponents from municipal permitting – or provincial permitting from other ministries. 

UDI responded to the consultation on September 3rd with a letter of support for the proposed change because it would reduce pressure on B.C.’s industrial land base as more food processing would be allowed in the ALR. We also noted that: “... coordination is necessary between the ALC and municipalities to ensure food processing uses permitted in the ALC are also permitted in the municipalities’ agricultural and rural zones. In addition, coordination with the Metro Vancouver RGS is also required.”