CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Brian D. Turner, a farmer of 52 years, believes the family farm is endangered on P.E.I.
His concerns brought him out to a Progressive Conservative leadership candidates’ forum on farming and land issues Tuesday at the Murchison Centre in Charlottetown. The forum was organized by the National Farmers Union (NFU).
"There's been 60 years of neglect of rural P.E.I.,” Turner said.
“They've been starving people off the land. If they would look after the farmer, it would be a lot easier to make a living off of smaller farms.”
Turner, who raises oats, hay, sheep and cattle, told The Guardian he could count the number of young people he knows who are getting into farming on one hand.
Randall Affleck, a dairy farmer based near Bedeque, said he was concerned about the growth of larger farms. He said smaller, family farms are increasingly disappearing, despite land size restrictions in the Lands Protection Act for individuals and corporations. He believes larger farms are finding loopholes in the Act.
"You hear a lot of it when you're talking to fellow farmers. The legislation needs to be followed," Affleck said.
The concerns of Affleck and Turner were echoed by others within the audience of 80 who attended the forum. Several attendees raised concerns about lack of enforcement of the Lands Protection Act (LPA), declining soil health, the impacts of climate change and transparency around land decisions made by executive council.
But only two candidates, Shawn Driscoll and Kevin Arsenault, attended the forum. Podiums bearing the names of the other candidates – Allan Dale, Sarah Stewart-Clark and Dennis King – remained vacant in the middle of the stage.
NFU says invites were sent
Stewart-Clark, in a post on Facebook, said she, Dale and King opted not to attend due to the fact it was “not a sanctioned event.” The post also claimed the format of the event had been changed “since the original communication from the NFU.”
“While this is a topic we each care deeply about, we have never agreed to be part of this debate and in some cases no communication to the campaign teams was even made,” read a statement attributed to the campaigns of Dale, King and Stewart-Clark.
But Douglas Campbell, district director for the NFU in P.E.I., said an e-mail invitation was sent to all five candidates. He said no change was made to the format of the event. Four candidates initially responded, indicating they were interested.
“I would have thought the candidates would be interested in coming out and hearing from the public about what their issues were on the land rather than running away from them,” Campbell said.
“I think that says a lot about the candidates and I think that should be a concern to the party itself.”
At a debate organized by the PC Party in Charlottetown on Jan. 17, all candidates were asked about their 20-year vision for agriculture on P.E.I.
Dale said he believed P.E.I. should follow a model used by the Dutch government, involving growing twice as much food using precise amounts of water, fertilizer and land.
King suggested taking a “long, long look” into the future of the sector, as well as growing more organic food and vegan options.
Stewart-Clark raised the dire impacts climate change could have on agriculture, and suggested planning for these impacts using evidence-based decisions.
King, Dale and Stewart-Clark did not specifically address land size limits or enforcement of the LPA at that debate.
Arsenault suggested large companies such as Cavendish Farms were dominating the agricultural market. On Tuesday night, he also criticized loopholes that allowed some farms to exceed LPA land size limits. He said the province should establish a land banking system.
Driscoll said LPA limits are not being enforced. He questioned whether land size restrictions should be raised, and said many young farmers had difficulty maintaining viability with small farms.
“The way we are going right now, the way land use is being enforced, we are leading to factory farms. If we don't that then we have to have a conversation about how we get younger people involved," Driscoll said.
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