COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 20192
NO grounds for charges nfrom page 1
LOWER Mainland prices soar nfrom page 1
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early May and found no
grounds for charges.
“We utilized the code of
practice for hog farming, and
have determined at this point
that we will not be
proceeding with any charges
against Excelsior Hog Farm,”
says Shawn Eccles, senior
manager, cruelty
investigations, with the BC
SPCA.
The visit occurred more
than a week after People for
the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) provided a
video to CTV allegedly
documenting instances of
inhumane conditions at the
farm. An initial visit was
pre-empted, Eccles said, by a
protest at the farm on
April 28 that saw more than
50 activists invade the farm’s
barns and more than 100
gather outside.
“We had made
arrangements to attend the
farm with appropriate
individuals that had training
or experience in hog farms
and a protest occurred,”
explains Eccles. “We assessed
what we saw on the date that
we were on the farm, and at
this point there is no
evidence to warrant a
charge.”
The activists’ intervention
prevented the prompt
investigation of the
complaint by the proper
authorities, and the fact that
the person who shot the
video never stepped forward
to back up the evidence left
investigators with no grounds
for pursuing the matter.
“We can’t attest to the
veracity of the video,” says
Eccles. “As a policing agency,
[we] have to rely on evidence
… that I have either through
eyewitness testimony – which
I don’t have – or physical
evidence.”
However, some members
of industry are criticizing BC
SPCA’s handling of the
matter, saying it didn’t act
fast enough, or clear the air
when it nally determined
there were no grounds for
pursuing charges.
The video followed a
break-and-enter at Excelsior
dropping from $166,900 an
acre in 2017 to $148,800 an
acre last year.
By contrast, top sale prices
in the Lower Mainland
increased to a whopping
$218,900 an acre in 2018, up
from $162,700 an acre in
2017.
This has prompted many
farmers to reconsider where
they buy, and how they
manage their operations.
“They’re moving out to
cheaper real estate that has
irrigation,” says Duggan. “If
you can nd good parcels of
irrigated farmland, they don’t
seem to stay on the market
for very long.”
Gord Houweling of BC
Farm & Ranch Realty Corp. in
Abbotsford agrees.
“We see folks that will
move up to Salmon Arm,
Enderby,” he says. “They’re
looking for hay land, ranch
land, heifer-raising facilities,
within a maximum of four
hours of the home farm.”
Often, they’re looking to
reorganize the farm to make
the most of location and land
values. Dairy farmers in the
Lower Mainland, for instance,
will locate milking herds in
the region close to
processing plants, while other
elements of the operation –
forage production and heifers
– will take place in the
Interior.
“It only makes economical
sense to make the home farm
produce the milk and get the
young stock o the farm so
they’ve got room for more
milk cows. And that’s what
we’re seeing,” says Houweling,
noting that the new
Agricultural Environmental
Management Code of
Practice is one more incentive
for growers to split up
operations.
Houweling also has listings
on Vancouver Island, but he
says the market is slow. The
low sale volumes didn’t stop
land values from
appreciating, says FCC, as
buyers seeking refuge from
the high cost of properties in
the Lower Mainland came
calling. The region logged the
biggest gain in value of
anywhere in Canada, with an
acre of farmland rising 21.7%
to an average of $50,858 an
acre.
Farm sales increase
Sales of farm properties
rose 57% in 2018, according
to data from the BC Ministry
of Finance.
A total of 1,547 farm
properties changed hands in
2018, up from 987 in 2017.
Sales were concentrated in
the Northern Rockies-Peace,
Fraser Valley and Metro
Vancouver regional districts.
The three regions accounted
for just 40% of all sales, while
the other 60% were
distributed among the
province's remaining 24
regions. The majority of these
saw 50 farm sales or fewer in
2018, with just 10 seeing 51
sales or more.
Columbia-Shuswap,
Cowichan Valley and Central
Okanagan regions saw sales
increase by more than 200%.
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We service all of
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in late March during which
surveillance cameras were
installed. Those cameras were
removed, and Abbotsford
police are investigating.
The force’s
communications ocer,
Sergeant Judy Bird, said the
two incidents are subject to
separate investigations. Bird
said evidence is being
collected to see if there are
grounds for prosecuting
those responsible for either
incident.
The latest incident saw
police identify and secure
contact information for 50
protestors. Just one arrest
was made, but the individual,
Amy Soranno of Okanagan
Animal Save, was released
pending a court appearance.
“Our investigation
continues, and we will be
looking at charges for the
protestors with respect to
break-and-enter and
mischief,” Bird said of the
protest.
While farm invasions are
rare in Canada, Bird said the
protest is a reminder that
such incidents are possible.
She encourages farmers to
report suspicious activity on
their properties to police.
“I don’t recall us having
anything like this in
Abbotsford before,” she said.
“This puts an extra reminder
on us that this has the
potential to happen again in
the Fraser Valley.”
the income crunch when farms transition.