Farmland is one of the main resources here in Saskatchewan, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that people are sensitive about who can lay claim to it. As such, the provincial government is holding public consultations for The Saskatchewan Farm Security Act.
“Farmland ownership is always a sensitive issue. Over the last number of years, people are suspicious that foreign owners have obtained farmland,” said Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart. “It’s been difficult to enforce the foreign ownership piece of the Act because it’s quite vague.”
As it stands, only Canadian residents and 100 per cent Canadian-owned entities can own more than 10 acres of farmland in the province. However, according to Stewart, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has purchased farmland in the last year and a half. While it was previously deemed that the CPPIB and other institutional investors were ineligible, they were able to circumvent policy because of “legal opinion.” In other words, they managed to find a loophole and so now people are trying to deal with institutional investors.
The concern is that should institutional investors with deep pockets get their hands on enough land, it’ll drive up land prices, making it difficult for young people to start farming. Last month, the provincial government “clarified the existing legislation by placing a pause on the acquisition of land holdings by non-family trusts (with more than 10 beneficiaries), pension plans and administrators of pension plans while the review is being undertaken,” said a government news release.
Aside from the vagueness of the farm security act, the provincial government is also having a difficult time investigating or enforcing the act in foreign countries. Stewart says the Farmland Security Board does its best and even occasionally hires special investigators to look at suspicious sales, but they don’t get very far once they’re off Canadian soil.
It’s because of these issues that the Saskatchewan government is using consultation to figure out what they can do and what people want them to do.
“People have strongly-held views on it one way or another,” said Stewart. “We can’t predict how it will turn out; we just hope we’ll get a strong enough consensus to inform government.”
The online survey has a number of detailed questions around things like the powers of the farmland security board, wording of the Act, etc. Because it’s such an important strategic resource in Saskatchewan, Stewart says it may even be treated differently than it is in Manitoba and Alberta.
“I think (this consultation process) refers to the stage of agriculture in the province. It’s a very dynamic industry and it’s growing in terms of productivity ... it’s not at all what people are in the industry 20 or 30 years even remember,” he said. “I want to point out to people that we can’t roll the clock back, but we have some small influence on what happens in the future.”
Stewart says he doesn’t believe the responses they get will be extremely dramatic one way or the other, but they’re especially keen to hear from stakeholders. They’re hoping for a large number of respondents and the questions are fairly intricate and involved. As such, it’ll probably take the ministry some time to analyze and compile the results. While they don’t know how long it’ll take, they are hoping to have something ready by fall in case they need to make changes to regulations or legislation.
“We want to encourage people that are interested, particularly agricultural stakeholders, to do the consultation,” said Stewart. “This is an opportunity to have your views recorded at a time when it’ll actually make a difference.”
The consultations can be found at www.saskatchewan.ca/farmland. According to the government news release, it will illustrate:
• the current situation surrounding farmland ownership;
• the role of the Farm Land Security Board;
• the current agricultural landscape in Saskatchewan; and
• a jurisdictional comparison of farmland ownership rules in other provinces.
