To the editor:
Re: Farm Changes A Great Leap Forward column. (Aug. 13 Lake Country Calendar)
Tom Fletcher is confused about the Ministry of Agriculture’s consultation, which features a public survey. He mistakenly says it shows that changes in last spring’s ALR bill “have little or nothing to do with exclusions” of farmland from the ALR.
That bill, which made exclusions easier in 90% of the ALR (“Zone 2”), is now law. It’s no longer a current focus, in contrast to the survey about ALR regulations, which was open until August 22. The simple reason the survey doesn’t mention the bill or ALR exclusions is that they’re another matter.
It’s also illogical for Fletcher to imply that those who wanted consultation on the previous matter would oppose the current consultation. If anything, many want more of it.
To top off confusion with bad taste, Fletcher mocks MLA Lana Popham’sv photo and bizarrely ties a survey question to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, which cost millions of lives.
Jim Wright, president,
Garden City Conservation Society,
Richmond