REGINA — The Opposition New Democrats have introduced a private member’s bill in the Legislature taking aim at foreign farmland ownership.
The bill introduced by NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon is to amend the Saskatchewan Farm Security Act to prevent illegal foreign farmland ownership. It includes a number of changes aimed at cracking down on illegally owned farmland.
One of the changes includes the addition of a clause in which a court may order the net proceeds of a sale of land from a forced divestiture of illegally held farmland be forfeited to the Crown.
The bill also calls for changes to fines. Fines of $1,000 to $50,000 for individuals would be replaced by a fine of $1 million. Fines to corporations of “not more than $500,000” would be changed to up to $10 million, according to the legislation.
The bill would also call for a statutory declaration for every farmland transaction and removes the current limitations that prevent the Farmland Security Board from investigating older transactions where concerns have been identified.
At an embargoed news conference prior to the bill, Wotherspoon said this was about the next generation of producers, and said those producers “that are doing the hard work, playing by the rules and taking the risk, deserve fairness and opportunity.”
“They deserve not to be sold out by a government unwilling to enforce the law and be forced to compete potentially against foreign entities, foreign money in the purchase of farmland.”
Wotherspoon pointed to rural leaders gathered in Regina this week for the SARM annual convention, as well as agricultural producers.
“They know it and they’ve been on this. They’ve been raising alarms on behalf of their members of speculation and illegal foreign farmland ownership, and why it’s making it harder for local producers to compete.”
Wotherspoon characterized the penalties in the current Act as a “slap on the wrist,” and said they are “so outdated when we look at actual values and profits” of current land.
He urged the government to support his bill.
“Scott Moe and the Sask Party sat on their hands for years. The very least they could do is support our bill and expedite its passage.”
First reading of Wotherspoon's bill took place Tuesday afternoon. Prior to the bill, the issue of foreign farmland ownership was raised during question period by the Opposition.
In his response, Premier Scott Moe said the government has already made some changes in response to the Provincial Auditor's recommendations and is doing consultations right now with farmland owners across the province.
It was "not off the table for us to be considering additional changes as we move forward," said Moe.
Agriculture Minister David Marit said the government had strengthened the regulations and implemented all of the recommendations of the Provincial Auditor, and had struck a committee to look at reviewing the Act and changes that could be made.
Marit noted the Farmland Security Board was requiring statutory declarations on all sales that have to be made. He added that when he met with delegates in a session at the SARM convention earlier that day, the issue of farmland security came up only once and it was a member "who was mad that he had to sign the declaration… because he just felt he didn't have to because he was a Saskatchewan resident."
Marit also challenged Wotherspoon to present any cases of foreign ownership that they know of.
"I ask the members opposite if they know of a case of foreign ownership, I ask him to table it in his house today, Mr. Speaker," said Marit.
In speaking to reporters after Question Period Marit made it known the Sask Party is not supporting Wotherspoon's bill,
"We're doing everything we can right now through the process now," Marit said, having pointed to adoption of the Provincial Auditor recommendation and the work of their committee looking into the issue.
He also took issue with the contention that their current legislation didn't have enough teeth.
"I think we have enough teeth in the Farm Ownership Act right now," said Marit. He acknowledged the feedback from the committee they struck was to make changes, but only "some minor changes to the Act."
"There was some good feedback from stakeholders to the committee. We're going to look at those," said Marit. He added if there were any things based on the feedback to the committee that they could do to strengthen the Act, "we will."
