Delta-South MLA releases petition to save farmland
Delta-South independent MLA Vicki Huntington is leading the effort to protect local farmland from industrial development and is asking the public to lend their support by signing a petition.
Huntington recently revealed an industrial development company has secretly optioned nearly 600 acres of ALR farmland near Deltaport, with plans to build an intermodal yard and logistics park for the port.
“We need to tell this government that wholesale industrialization of our productive, irreplaceable farm land is absolutely unacceptable," stated in a press release announcing the petition's launch.
Huntington added that the Agricultural Land Reserve was created in 1973 to protect South Delta’s extraordinarily productive farmland.
"Now, under the pretense of serving the Asia-Pacific Gateway, the port and industrial speculators are scheming to turn back the clock,” she said.
Huntington maintains the plans are being pushed by a business consortium, based on the understanding that the farmland between Hwy. 17 and Deltaport Way would eventually be approved for development as part of Deltaport’s container port expansion.
Directors at Metro Vancouver have also voiced their concerns over the situation.
The petition will be available at Huntington’s MLA office in Ladner, and will be distributed by volunteers at various locations in Delta and throughout the Lower Mainland. She will also formally introduce the written petition to the Legislative Assembly in Victoria.
An online version of the petition will be made available on Huntington’s website at www.vickihuntington.ca.
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