Green Party leader Andrew Weaver says the province has to do a better job helping farmers and protecting farmland in B.C.

Weaver, who was in 琉璃神社 Sunday and Monday, toured a small cidery in the Glenmore Valley on Monday and said he feels farmers have not been well-served by 16 years of B.C. Liberal government.

鈥淔armer鈥檚 can鈥檛 get on the land because the land value is so high,鈥� said Weaver. 鈥淭here is a role for government, to ensure (young farmers) have access to the land so they can farm.鈥�

The B.C. Green Party leader said B.C. has a problem with what it sees as agriculture land in this province being used in a 鈥渟peculative real estate sector.鈥�

And a B.C. Green government would address that, vowed Weaver.

He said foreign ownership鈥斺�渂y people who do not live and pay taxes in Canada鈥濃�� should be limited to no more than five acres of B.C. agricultural land.

鈥淏.C. is the wild west in every aspect of everything,鈥� he said, adding there are limits to how much productive farm land foreign buyers can own in many other provinces.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the right thing to do because ultimately, you cannot have your food-producing regions potentially at the whim of speculators in other areas.鈥�

Speaking at the Scenic Road Cider Company, a small two-year-old craft cidery in the heart the 琉璃神社-Lake Country riding鈥攁 riding represented for the last eight years by current B.C. Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick鈥擶eaver took direct aim at how the Liberals have handled agriculture while in power.

Asked if the Liberals had let down farmers Weaver, replied: 鈥淵es, I would say absolutely.鈥�

He called recent changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve brought in by Letnick that created a two-tier system, where development would be allowed on less productive agriculture land that is currently in the ALR 鈥渙utrageous,鈥� and simply a ploy to allow fracking and gas exploration on agricultural land in Northern B.C.

鈥淚t has nothing to do with the preservation of agricultural land in B.C.,鈥� said Weaver.

Speaking with B.C. Green candidate Alison Shaw by his side鈥攕he鈥檚 running against Letnick in 琉璃神社-Lake Country鈥擶eaver also said his party would focus on regional development offices to help young families get into farming in a similar way tech incubators help technology companies get off the ground.

鈥淲e have an aging farming population and that鈥檚 not healthy. We need to get young people back in to view farming as a career.鈥�

With federal plans to legalize the recreational use of marijuana coming next year and the downloading of much of the responsibility for that onto the provinces, Weaver said B.C. must protect what he called its 鈥渃raft鈥� marijuana industry, in a similar way to how craft beer production and craft ciders are dealt with.

鈥淭here鈥檚 billions of dollars of revenue potentially,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f those revenues are managed properly.鈥�

On Sunday, Weaver at a 琉璃神社 hotel before attending the 琉璃神社 Rockets-Seattle Thunderbirds WHL game at Prospera Place later that evening.

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