Reg Phelan, a PEI farmer with Seaspray Organic Cooperative and board member of the National Farmers Union, says that the act is not being enforced and that some companies, through the creation of additional companies, have found a way around the regulation. (Phelan is seen here with his dog, Levi)
PEI’s Lands Protection Act is designed to limit the amount of land that a person or a corporation can hold, in response to historic difficulties with absentee land owners, the small land area and high population density and the need to ensure strong stewardship for the province’s economy. Reg Phelan, a PEI farmer with Seaspray Organic Cooperative and board member of the National Farmers Union, however, says that the act is not being enforced and that some companies have found ways around the regulation through the creation of additional companies.
“It’s been there for over 30 years to protect the island farmland for it to stay in the hands of producers,” says Phelan. “I think it’s been pretty helpful over the years, but recently there’s been quite a push on the part of some of the bigger concerns to gather up a lot more land and the government seem to be just going along with it and approving them which we think is against the whole intent of the act.”
Phelan notes that in some cases, the companies involved are not even being discrete about their efforts to work around the regulation by keeping the original company’s name prominently used, but just having their land owned under a different party.
“They’ve been able to get around the act by doing that,” says Phelan. “They don’t mind putting the name on the building or on the equipment or the trucks and stuff like that.”
A representative for PEI’s Community Lands and Environment department says that the issue is currently being reviewed by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC). However, Phelan is not hopeful that the commission will reach a satisfactory conclusion.
“We’ve been meeting with IRAC for the last couple of years over this issue,” says Phelan. “In one case, we even took photos of all these places with their names on the buildings that they’ve taken over and brought those into IRAC. They finally sent a letter back saying they couldn’t review it, saying it might be a conflict of interest. IRAC used to be pretty diligent about checking this stuff out but they seem very hesitant in talking about it in recent years.”
Phelan says there may be some further action on the issue as it becomes politicized — at a recent meeting, members of PEI’s opposition parties spoke out about the issue.