B.C. Government promotes development on Agricultural Land Reserves
In June, 1988, the Provincial Cabinet by order-in-council permitted golf course development on Agricultural Land Reserves (ALR). Since that time developers and consortiums of multi-millionaire developers have been purchasing or placing options on the ALR. They have been pressing municipalities with proposals for golf courses on the ALR.
People are beginning to realise that golf courses are just the start leading to further development and subsequent erosion of the ALR. Our scarce and precious farm land is threatened.
"Our Country Connection"
"Our Country Connection" is a community project created by Brian Payne for the Delta Farmer's Institute to educate public awareness of our dependence on farming and fishing.
Delta has a rural heritage. Farmers feel that as a minority they are not appreciated nor listened to by their fellow citizens, the consumers of the food thah the farmers produce.
Many farmers fear that the municipal government is no longer fulfilling its responsibility to protect the Agriculture Land Reserve from development.
"Our Country Connection" is a heritage project that proposes the opening of an interpretative centre in Ladner Village, a facility to provide education about farming and fishing. It will be a combination of art gallery, café and theatre designed for family entertainment and dedicated to the preservation of Ladner Village's proud roots in her farming and fishing past. Our early pioneers couldn't have survived without each other any more that we can today.
Other municipalities have let their past disappear beneath subdivisions and highways. They have encouraged the development which destroyed their village identity and resulted in a half empty downtown core surrounded by impersonal and over-crowded malls with the usual teenage delinquency, drug trafficking and major crime. The greenery has gone, the farms are forever fled. Increasingly the Fraser Valley is being compared to the smoggy sprawl of Los Angeles.
This Ladner Village Heritage Project focuses the concern of old and new residents alike over the prospect of unchecked growth destroying a small village atmosphere and an ideal community to raise children, grow old and enjoy your family life.
It could provide a rallying point for concerned groups, for farmers, fishermen, residents, businessmen all-taxpayers to pull together, to cooperate, and to create alternatives to urban sprawl.
