Flaman Rentals Blog

SK Farmland Ownership survey raps up

Posted by Flaman Agriculture Aug 13, 2015

With public consultations on farmland ownership rules wrapped this week, Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart is keeping an open mind about what legislative changes, if any, are needed to the Saskatchewan Farm Security Act.

While admitting “he hadn’t a clue” what kind of changes respondents wanted, Stewart said the government would be “informed” by the results of the survey. “Depending on the results of the survey, we may deem that no change is required. So in that case, there would be no legislation,” Stewart told reporters at the Legislative Building Wednesday.

But Stewart added: “There’s a fairly strong likelihood that we’ll find from the results of the survey that the respondents would like some kind of change. That being the case, we’ll have some legislation prepared to go in the fall session.”

During the three-month consultation period, the government received nearly 3,200 responses to its survey on the issue, with 62 per cent of coming from farmers. Only six per cent of respondents were non-residents.

Stewart conceded there will likely be some disagreement between farmers and business over the issue of farmland ownership by pension funds and other institutional investors.

Full story at Regina Leader Post

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