B.C. government emails show disdain for Agricultural Land Reserve

VICTORIA – The B.C. New Democrat’s agriculture critic says two-year-old emails between key players in the Liberal government’s bid to weaken laws that protect provincial farmland shows how long the plan has been in the works.

Nicholas Simons is calling on the government to withdraw legislation set to become law on Thursday that dramatically changes the decades-old Agricultural Land Reserve.

In one July 2012 email, former agriculture minister Pat Pimm said he was frustrated with the Agriculture Land Commission saying “who the hell is running this province anyways,” and in a second email he made a derogatory statement about First Nations.

Pimm issued a written statement apologizing, saying he deeply regretted his statement about First Nations.

In another email, Energy Minister Bill Bennett tells former agriculture minister Don McRae that he was pushing for boundary reviews for land that was currently designated agricultural in his Kootenay East riding.

Bennett, who is in charge of the core review of government services, has spearheaded the legislation that would split the land reserve into two zones, making it easier to use farmland in the Kootenays and northern B.C. for other purposes such as oil and gas development.