It's the ALR, Folks

I was chuckling my way through Times columnist Anne Patterson's latest piece on starting up a bat farm-slash-fill operation. It was good, tongue in cheek stuff, pounding the hammer on the appropriate agency: the Agricultural Land Commission... until the last two paragraphs.

Unfortunately, Anne fell back into the trap of thinking that the Township of LAngley, or any municipality, can prohibit or stop a fill application in the ALR. That simply is not the case.

As our lawyers tell us:

Section 2 of the Agricultural Land Reserve Use Subdivision and Procedure Regulation provides that land development works required for farm use, including the placement of fill necessary for that use, "may be regulated but must not be prohibited by any local government bylaw" except a bylaw under Section 917 of the Local Government Act. Any bylaw enacted by the Township under Section 917 of the Local Government Act will require the approval of the Minister of Agriculture.

The Minister has not, and would not, allow us to prohibit a fill deposit the Agricultural Land Commission approves (that's the whole reason there is the "Right to Farm" legislation). We can kick and scream and complain at Township Council all we want, but it's wholly and fully up to the ALC, and our community is left picking up the pieces.

Which is why I continue to encourage people concerned about specific fill applications to write the ALC. They are the only ones who can stop these things. Their address, again, is:

Agricultural Land Commission
#133 4940 Canada Way
Burnaby, BC
Canada V5G 4K6