Province to 'update' Lands Protection Act over winter, says minister

Sep 27, 2019

P.E.I.'s agriculture minister told a meeting of the National Farmers Union Thursday that his government will have an announcement soon on the future of the Lands Protection Act.

"The LPA, the Lands Protection Act, is a hot topic for us," said Bloyce Thompson after the meeting. "The Lands Protection Act 2.0 I'm calling it.

"It's going to be a modernization and update. I don't want to call it a review. We've had enough reviews done of it. It does work. It just needs to be updated and improved."

The legislation puts limits on how much farmland individuals and corporations can own. Thompson said work on the act would, in part, address the issue of corporate land purchases.

"Over the summer I've heard a lot. A lot of farmers pulled me aside ... and it's not only farmers. It is the public," said Thompson. "They care about their land and they care about the agriculture business as well and so do I as a farmer myself, I know the importance of protecting our land."

'Impacts the future'

A sale of farmland earlier this year in Bedeque brought things to a head. That sale had previously been turned down under the act, but through a series of corporate transactions, the land changed hands.

"If our land is owned by a very small number of people ... it really impacts the future for here," said Reg Phelan, regional director of the NFU.

"For younger farmers wanting to get in, it's pretty difficult for them to compete with these much larger operations."

The province plans to work on the act through this coming winter, according to Thompson. He said he also intends to meet with Green Opposition agriculture critic Michele Beaton.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.