The Fraser Institute: BC's Agricultural Land Reserve a Costly Failure Responsible for the Most Expensive Housing Costs in North America

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

British Columbia's Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) has failed to sustain family farms as intended and instead has helped make the Vancouver housing market one of the most expensive in North America, concludes a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, one of Canada's leading economic think tanks.

"The Agricultural Land Reserve is a social engineering experiment gone awry. It has not shielded British Columbia from global agricultural trends, but it has deprived property owners the free use of their land, diminished the housing choices of families, and created barriers to upward mobility," said Diane Katz, author of The BC Agricultural Land Reserve: A Critical Assessment and Fraser Institute director of risk, environment, and energy studies.

Meanwhile, ALR officials have allowed government entities to remove twice as much property from the reserve as land owners, reflecting the arbitrary-and politicized-nature of the BC land-use controls.
Proponents of the ALR, which was created in 1973 by the NDP government of then premier Dave Barrett, have variously argued that government control of farmland is necessary to protect family farms, preserve green space, and ensure a local food supply.
Decreasing number of family farms and rising housing costs

The complete study is available for download at www.fraserinstitute.org.

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