Green leader Andrew Weaver calls for ban on overseas buyers in ALR; Richmond councillor says farmland being “attacked” by mega-mansions
Fresh calls for the protection of the Lower Mainland’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) against overseas buyer speculation have been sparked by a Vancouver Sun article about alleged illegal activity, including an illegal casino and money laundering, at a mega-mansion in Richmond.
Speaking on CKNW’s The Jon McComb Show, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver said, “Land in and around Metro Vancouver and to an extent Kelowna and elsewhere, is being viewed as a commodity that’s traded like silver or gold as opposed to a place to live or residence or place to actually farm. This is not going to end well unless we get a grip on it now.”
Weaver said that the provincial government needs to put limits on the foreign sale of farmland over certain acreages, and told listeners that the Greens would introduce legislation to protect the ALR “soon.”
“The [ALR] fix is a relatively simple one. It’s not something that would be viewed as controversial,” Weaver added.
Richmond councillor Harold Steves told REW.ca’s sister publication the Richmond News that the alleged illegal activity highlighted by the Sun is indicative of the rise of mega-mansions as the “worst attack” on local agriculture since the inception of the ALR in 1973.
He said such problems are caused by a failure at both provincial and municipal level to restrict home sizes, as well as the lack of foreign home buyers’ tax on ALR properties. Steves added that market pressures to convert agricultural land into industrial complexes have also contributed to making farming in the region unviable.
Many mega-mansions of up to 20,000 square feet have been built over the past decade in Richmond’s ALR. Steves told the Richmond News that he believes farming is “last on many new owners’ minds.”
Last spring, Steves called for limits on new houses built on farmland to about 5,000 square feet, but Richmond city council decided to set limits of around 11,000 square feet – a limit that is still regularly breached.
