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Simons part of new agriculture committee

Provincial politics

Powell River-Sunshine Coast New Democrat MLA Nicholas Simons will be lending his voice to a newly formed opposition standing committee on agriculture and food.

According to NDP party leader John Horgan, the committee is being struck after well over a decade of B.C. Liberal neglect of the provincial agriculture industry.

“New Democrats believe that agriculture deserves a place in the legislature and we fully intend to give it the attention it deserves,” Horgan said.

New Democrat agriculture spokesperson Lana Popham noted that a standing committee could help reverse the age gap in B.C.’s agriculture industry by developing strong agricultural policies that incent young people into agriculture, and allow them to make a good living.

“Retaining young farmers is critical to having a strong agricultural future,” Popham said. “The B.C. Liberals have not taken the steps needed to encourage young people to get into the industry. In 15 years they haven’t developed a long-term agriculture plan and they have put our provincial food security at risk.”

Popham has worked for the last six years to get the B.C. Liberals to bring back the select standing committee on agriculture, which hasn’t met since 2001. She said although the opposition standing committee on agriculture and food will be operating without legislative supports such as Hansard, the committee has support across the province.

“I have heard tremendous support for a legislative committee from all parts of the agriculture industry,” Popham said. “We have support from small farms and big farms, conventional farmers and organic farmers, and from entrepreneurs and food security advocates.

The members of the committee are: Simons; Popham, MLA Saanich South; Raj Chouhan, MLA Burnaby-Edmonds; Katrine Conroy, MLA Kootenay West; and Robin Austin, MLA Skeena.

For his part, Simons said he hopes to bring attention to issues facing the agriculture sector both in his current role as opposition critic on small business and in his former role as agriculture critic.

“This is an issue that should be a part of a committee structure. All regions of the province should get a voice in policy and expressing their views on policy,” Simons said. “We are missing out on a real opportunity here by not having a committee system.”

A schedule of the NDP committee meetings, a public website and information on how the public can participate will be released over the next month.