Evaluation of Agricultural Area Plans in British Columbia

 OVERVIEW
The purpose of the proposed project is to evaluate the effectiveness of Investment Agriculture Foundation’s Local Government Agricultural Planning Program (LGAPP).  Has the program made a difference?  Have the funded agricultural planning processes influenced how municipalities view agriculture?  Since 1999 IAF has funded the development of Agricultural Area Plans (AAPs) to assist local governments and their agricultural communities work together to develop a shared vision for the future of agriculture.  As the funding program moves forward and as the demand for developing AAPs grows, it will be important to know what projects have been able to deliver the most significant value and which ones encountered the most problems. 
The primary benefits of AAPs are to reduce urban/rural conflict, improve local economic activity from farming, establish consistency with provincial policy and legislation, and help build sustainable communities with balanced economic diversity.  With these potential benefits in mind, the aim of the project is to evaluate what has been accomplished by and as a result of the funding program and how the development of future AAPs might be improved:  Has British Columbia’s agriculture benefited from the creation of AAPs?  Has the creation of AAPs influenced or affected agricultural land uses, such as the Agriculture Land Reserve (ALR) and urban/rural interfaces?
OBJECTIVES 
The broad objective of evaluating the LGAPP funding program is to improve the development of future AAPs in order to strengthen municipal planning processes and protect the importance of agriculture to communities.  This broad objective is consistent with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Strengthening Farming Program, which helps to secure farming and ranching in the communities of British Columbia, supports sustainable and economically viable agriculture, and promotes the use of normal farm practices.  Within this broad context, the specific objective of the project is to acquire and assess the intended outcomes and impacts of the IAF funding program against information about what has been achieved. 

The aims of the project are to investigate whether the funding program caused demonstrable effects on specifically defined target outcomes and to assess the overall effects, intended or unintended, of the program as a whole.  The information collected will help to assess the following areas for each AAP:
  • What processes were used to develop the agriculture plans (e.g., who was involved and to what extent)? 
  • What outcomes were achieved (e.g., were the AAPs officially approved or adopted as part of the Official Community Plan)?
  • What impacts, both quantitative and qualitative, have AAPs had on local agriculture and communities (e.g., to what extent, if any, have AAPs helped farming)?
  • To what extent were the intended benefits (e.g., reduce urban/rural conflict, improve local economic activity from farming, establish consistency with provincial policy and legislation, and help build sustainable communities with balanced economic diversity) achieved?
Provincially, the information collected will also help to assess the extent to which the agriculture sector has benefited from the creation of AAPs and whether the creation of AAPs has influenced or affected things such as the ALR in the province.  Evaluating this information will help improve our understanding of what has worked well (and not so well) so that future plans for agricultural land uses can be improved. 

Appendix A Interview guide Key Informants
Appendix A Interview guide IAF LGAP

Appendix B Richmond Plan Summary
Appendix B Central Okanagan Plan Summary
Appendix B Comox Valley Plan Summary
Appendix B N Cowichan Plan Summary
Appendix B Rural Oliver Plan Summary
Appendix B Salmon Arm Plan Summary
Appendix B Spallumcheen Plan Summary
Appendix B Summerland Plan Summary
Appendix B Surrey Plan Summary
Appendix C List of consultants by plan
Appendix D Outline of planning process



For more information contact
David J. Connell, PhD
Associate Professor
250-960-5835
david.connell@unbc.ca