VANCOUVER – Opposition NDP leader Adrian Dix says a letter from the B.C.’s Agriculture Ministry suggesting that the Agricultural Land Commission put off a boundary review is further proof the government wants to dismantle the land reserve.

The letter, written by Deputy Agricultural Minister Derek Sturko, asks commission chair Richard Bullock to suspend any decisions about adjusting reserve land boundaries in the East Kootenay region until the province’s core review of government operations is completed.

Dix says the letter is clearly a “stop work order,” and he has called on Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm to resign.

The Agricultural Land Commission is an independent body that oversees 4.7 million hectares of land set aside for agricultural production.

Last week, cabinet documents leaked to the Globe and Mail indicated Pimm asked to move the commission into his ministry and to transfer much of its decision-making power to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

Pimm was also recently admonished by the commission for lobbying for the removal of a piece of land in Fort St. John so a rodeo and RV campsite could be developed there.