After the riverside community of Dunster, B.C. learned a landholdings company owned by U.S. billionaires bought nearly 1,000 acres in the area, residents voiced concerns about rising real estate prices, abandoned farmland and declining populations throughout the Robson Valley. As the area's aging farmers sell off property to fund retirement, newcomers vying to live off the land find themselves competing with global investors.
"It's a really complex situation, and for me it's an age-old dance," Karyn Janecke, a local landowner said at a community meeting July 15. "We want to preserve our community, but we don't want to limit individual freedoms."
Most of the valley land on either side of the Fraser River is within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), which can't be broken into parcels smaller than 150 acres. The restriction is meant to protect farmland, but is increasingly viewed as a cost barrier for middle-income buyers.
"The people who can buy big acreages are going to be people who have a lot of money and are not interested in farming," Glenda Thompson, another local landowner said at the meeting. "The people that can afford these big parcels will not be those type of people who will be part of the community. I can't see it."
On the other side of the table, another valley resident stressed industry-- not property -- was the valley's major concern. "We should be discussing how to preserve what we have, but also how to bring industry to the valley," he said. "We need to bring people who want to work into the valley, and those who will create jobs."
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http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/08/05/Robson-Valley-Absentee-Farm-Owners/
