Province alters Agricultural Crown Lands program

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This article was published 01/08/2023 (1037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The president of Manitoba Beef Producers is applauding changes to the Agricultural Crown Lands leases and permit regulations that the province announced on Monday.

The Crown Lands program, in which parcels vested to Manitoba are leased to producers for agricultural use, including grazing, haying or annual cropping, is designed to grow the livestock industry and help it achieve sustainability, provincial Agriculture Minster Derek Johnson stated in a press release sent out Monday afternoon. Changes that were made to the program are a direct result of public feedback during a 45-day consultation period.

For Manitoba Beef Producers president Matthew Atkinson, seeing the province move forward with the changes is a relief and a testament to the work MBP and the provincial government have put in over the past several years.

“I know some producers were hoping for more [changes], but it’s taken a lot of work to get here,” Atkinson told the Sun.

Under the changes, outgoing leaseholders will be able to choose the value of improvements for compensation at either the value set out in the appraisal report or a lesser value they specify.

In addition, the changes reduce forage lease rents over the next several years to help producers recover from the drought and flood conditions of recent seasons; extend lease terms from a maximum of 15 to 20 years when producers invest in forage productivity improvements; allow 15-year leaseholders to transfer the remaining years of their leases to an eligible third party; allow non-profit Indigenous organizations to be eligible to hold forage leases; and formalize the process for assessing land productivity that is used to determine rent to create an incentive to manage the land and invest in its productivity.

The province is also developing a process that could enable legacy leaseholders to transfer their Crown lands to a third party by nominating the next leaseholder if the Crown lands are not selected under Treaty Land Entitlement and do not impact Indigenous treaty rights.

The Agricultural Crown Lands program needs to work for leaseholders and all people who use the land, Johnson said.

“We are revising the Agricultural Crown land leases and permits regulation to improve the program for all who use it.”

With an election looming in two months, Atkinson says he is aware that many provincial parties are putting their best feet forward currently.

“I’m really thankful for where we’ve got to, but of course, we’re heading into an election right away, too,” he said.

The province began changing the Crown lands program in 2017, and it was updated significantly in 2019 to enable leases to be allocated by auction and to set rates at market-based rents.

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