Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart announced a targeted incentive program to encourage the continued sale of cultivated and formerly cultivated agricultural Crown land. The new, targeted program offers current lease-holders a 10 per cent purchase incentive on the sale of eligible land until March 31, 2018.
“This focused incentive program supports our government’s consistent approach to putting land in the hands of producers in cases where there is no higher public good from an ecological, environmental, heritage or economic perspective,” Stewart said. “Saskatchewan producers are the best stewards of the land and should have the opportunity to realize the benefits of ownership.”
Lessees may continue leasing if they do not wish to purchase. However, producers who continue to lease cultivated and formerly cultivated land that is eligible for sale will see a 45 per cent premium applied to the standard formula rental rate in 2018. This follows the 15 per cent premium applied in 2016 and 30 per cent premium applied in 2017.
The 2017 Lease Premium Land Sale Program differs from past Agricultural Crown Land Sale Programs in that it only applies to land subject to the rental premium (45 per cent above formula). Of the more than six million acres of agricultural Crown land under lease in Saskatchewan, approximately 300,000 acres are subject to a rental premium.
Letters are being sent this month to the approximately 1,100 lessees with cultivated or formerly cultivated Crown land to inform them of the new program. Any parcel of land previously determined as ineligible for purchase will remain as such.
Grazing co-operatives and former federal pastures will not be eligible for the sales incentive and will not be subject to the rent increase, even if they contain lands that are cultivated or formerly cultivated.
Source : Government of Saskatchewan