B.C.'s Auditor General says ALC needs improvement

VICTORIA (NEWS1130) - B.C.'s Auditor General says the province should be doing a better job protecting our most prized farmland.

John Doyle says the Agricultural Land Commission doesn't have a good enough idea of the land it's meant to protect and should digitize its maps, because old boundary maps are literally falling apart.

Doyle says he found the Agricultural Land Commission doesn't even have a clear idea of the boundaries of the 4.7 million hectares it's meant to protect. "Is unable to enforce its compliance procedures.  And as a consequence of that, there is some risk to the utilization of that land."

Doyle says that hurts B.C.'s ability to deliver on its own food supply

He says the land reserve is the same size now as it was when it was created in the 1970's, and there have been some planning issues. "What's happened is, is a lot of the prime land in the southern part of the province has been removed, and a lot of land that is marginal has been included in the Agricultural Reserve."

He adds the commission also needs to work more with city and municipal governments on land use planning and making sure the ALR boundaries are correct.