Dating back to pre-Confederation, Islanders have been concerned about land use and ownership in what we affectionately call our “million-acre farm."
In fact, before joining Canada our forefathers insisted that in addition to helping us pay off a crippling railway debt, the federal government buy out the “absentee landlords” who owned most of the Island so the people who actually lived here could buy it.
The federal government agreed to both conditions and in 1873, P.E.I. became the country’s seventh province.
A century later, in response to an alarming amount of land being purchased by corporations and non-Islanders, the Lands Protection Act was passed setting limits of 1,000 acres for individuals and 3,000 acres for corporations. Non-resident purchases of more than five acres had to be approved by cabinet. In recent years, allowances for leased land and non-arable land have extended the original limits. But concerns linger. Speaking to the National Farmers Union last week, Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson conceded there are problems with the existing act, which he intends to fix.
It won’t be with an entirely new act, he said, but with an update and modernization of the current one – Lands Protection Act 2.0, he calls it.
Clearly, there are grey areas in the act that must be addressed, particularly in the wake of a 2,200-acre land transaction that was turned down under the act earlier this year, but then went ahead after a series of corporate transactions.
The matter was initially raised by Green Party agriculture critic Michele Beaton in the legislature last spring. She suggested the transaction clearly violated the spirit of the act. At the time, Thompson told her the government doesn’t operate on rumours.
But after looking into the matter and speaking with farmers and the general public over the summer, Thompson said an announcement on the future of the current act is coming soon.
It’s noteworthy that in the spring election, Progressive Conservatives campaigned to uphold “the spirit and intent” of the act, and that pledge was repeated in the Speech from the Throne.
The National Farmers Union has been critical of previous governments for failing to tighten the Lands Protection Act so that its spirit and intent is honoured. If, through shortcomings in the current Lands Protection Act, corporations are gaining too much control of Island land, then government is obligated to take action, and Thompson has indicated he intends to do so.
In a minority government, however, he’ll have to work closely with the Opposition and third- party members to formulate and pass appropriate legislation. It’s important they get it right.
As one farmer put it during a public meeting several years ago, “We need to be careful, because farmland isn’t being made anymore.”
More than a century and a half ago, Islanders demanded their million-acre farm be owned by the people who live on and farm it — the people most likely to protect it for future generations.
It’s just as important today that established land ownership limits are enforced and that, if loopholes exist that allow corporations to circumvent the spirit of the law, they must be closed.
Call it modernizing the act, updating or amending it, or simply call it Lands Protection Act 2.0.
Just get it done.
Wayne Young is a freelance writer living in Summerside.
