British Columbia Divided its Agricultural Land Reserve into Two Zones (2014-2019): Did it Make a Difference?

Abstract

Since its inception in 1973, the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in British Columbia remained a single zone, with the same rules used in every decision made by the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC). In 2014, Bill 24 divided the ALR into two zones, with each zone governed by different rules. Zone 1 included the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan regions. Zone 2 covered the rest of the province, which was about 90% of the ALR. The Government changed the legislative framework to reflect the diversity of the agricultural land base and to give farmers in Zone 2 more flexibility to earn non-farm income from their agricultural land. In 2019, the ALR was returned to a single zone with a single set of rules. Given its historical significance, we evaluated the effects of Bill 24 and found little evidence that the new rules influenced Commission decisions. Understanding why Bill 24 had little effect provides important insights about creating effective land use policy.

Keywords

• farmland protection
• agricultural landuse planning
• agricultural land reserve
• british columbia