Concerns are being raised about the sale of more than 700 quarters of farmland in Saskatchewan to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The CPP Investment Board announced back in December that it was purchasing around 115 thousand acres from Regina-based Assiniboia Farmland LP for $128 million. Since 2005, Assiniboia had purchased farmland from producers and leased it back to them, serving as a mechanism for private investors to buy prairie farmland.
Saskatchewan's Progressive Conservative Party has now launched a campaign calling for more information on the deal, as in theory, farmers who want to buy land are now competing against their own pension money.
"We're asking people to sign petitions and write letters and help us to bring this process to a halt until such time as there's the proper due diligence done," says PC leader Rick Swenson. "This should have gone through a public process before such a sale was ever made. This sets precedence as there are jurisdictional issues between federal and provincial entities. We know so little about this transaction."
There are similarities between the sale of this farmland to CPP and the old landbank, where farmers were also competing against their own pension money, says Swenson.
He was disappointed with the response he got from Saskatchewan's Farmland Security Board after asking them to investigate the deal.
"We got a one paragraph reply back saying they hadn't even looked at this because it didn't fall within their jurisdiction because this is a Canadian entity," says Swenson. "Because of the questions around this, I would have thought they would have a legal opinion."
He believes it's not too late to prevent the deal from going through.
"Doing this without an open public discussion is wrong. We can stop this if we get together as rural people. It's unacceptable to take 700 quarters of Saskatchewan farmland and sell it off to an entity that perhaps shouldn't have been allow to," says Swenson.
Source: SteinbachOnline