Keyboard with large, orange key with pause written in white letters

MD of Pincher Creek hits pause on rezoning applications

Written by Jaiden Panchyshyn on February 21, 2023. Posted in Laurie Tritschler, Local News, MD of Pincher Creek. Leave a Comment

Pincher Creek’s MD is pausing recreational development pending a review of the district’s land use bylaw.

Council voted last month to put off decisions on all rezoning applications for rural recreational development through the end of June, or until council updates the MD’s land use bylaw. The resolution, tabled by deputy reeve Tony Bruder, follows a recent spate of applications by residents and outside entrepreneurs hoping to launch tourist ventures on MD ranchlands, especially campgrounds.

Ranchers who opposed a rezoning bid by the Waterton outfitter Blak Star Globes had called for a rezoning freeze at a public hearing last November.

Council voted down Blak Star’s application in December, but approved a broadly similar rezoning at the same meeting.

“The perception was that we were picking winners and losers,” Reeve Rick Lemire told Shootin’ the Breeze on Feb 8.

Two women in red coats and a man in a blue coat smiling and cross-country skiing

Lemire said the MD has heard from a number of hopeful rural recreational developers since the new year, prompting council to take a beat while it hashes out a consistent policy framework.

Council had planned to update its land use bylaw, which outlines zoning, as part of its upcoming strategic plan — a long-term priority, according to Lemire.

Seven rezoning applications came through council in 2022, five of which were approved, according to MD spokeswoman Jessica McClelland.

“We decided that we couldn’t wait,” Lemire said.

Council sat down for an initial review of its land use bylaw last week, drawing on the advice of Gavin Scott, a planning consultant with the Oldman River Regional Services Commission.

The Covid-19 pandemic thrashed Alberta’s tourist economy, plunging tourist spending from $8.2 billion in 2019 to $4.9 billion in 2020 — a 43 per cent decrease, according to Travel Alberta.

Couple dressed in toques and scarves on a winter background promoting winter walking in Pincher Creek

But the industry is recovering — tourist spending hit $5.7 billion in 2021 — in part because pandemic travel restrictions inadvertently drew Albertans to camping spots in the Pincher Creek area.

“There’s going to be lots of rezoning applications coming, so we need to look at them with a refreshed perspective,” Lemire said, explaining that council went through a similar process when windmills started to crop up in the MD.

“We did a study that showed us where we wanted windmills to go and where we didn’t want them to go. So, we’re doing something similar here for campgrounds.”

Developers can still file rezoning applications in the interim, but a staff report appended to council’s Jan. 13 agenda notes that “Council has the right to refuse them at first reading.”

Local producers may see minimal benefit from ag tax credit

The province is eagerly promoting a tax credit for Alberta’s agricultural processing industry, but food producers in Pincher Creek and neighbouring MD will likely see marginal benefits, according to local government officials.

The initiative will spur the industry through a 12 per cent non-refundable tax credit on corporate investments in Alberta processing plants of $10 million or more, Agriculture Minister Nate Horner said at a press conference Feb. 8.

“At a higher level, this means that we’re not putting raw commodities in train cars and then shipping it away,” Horner said, taking aim at Alberta’s “competitor states” in Idaho, Colorado and Texas.

Alberta farmers had the highest operating revenue in Canada in 2020, with processed exports hitting $6.4 billion the year before, according to Statistics Canada and the Government of Alberta. Raw exports, known as primary commodities, slumped by nearly 10 per cent in 2019, amounting to $5.3 for the year.

Agribusiness in the MD is driven by ranching and grain cropping for animal feed and seed oil, all of which are primary exports, Reeve Rick Lemire told Shootin’ the Breeze.

“I’m not sure how (the tax credit) would benefit us,” Lemire said, noting that any bump to regional agri-processing could indirectly boost local production.

Woman in orange and yellow safety vest speaks to older man dressed in grey beside a police car

Marie Everts, economic development officer at the Town of Pincher Creek, said on Feb. 10 that local food producers may not have the capital to invest $10 million in their farms or ranches.

“There are obviously going to be places that will see more of a benefit,” Horner granted. The minister qualified that southwest Alberta ranchers can expect higher demand from the region’s beef processing hub in High River.

Horner anticipates an immediate eight per cent return on investment to Alberta taxpayers on the one hand, and a healthy boost to provincial food security on the other.

Multimillion-dollar food processing plants can stay in business for between 40 and 50 years, he explained.

Beef dominated Alberta’s agricultural exports in 2019 in terms of value, climbing 18 per cent year over year to hit $2.4 billion, the GOA reported in 2020. Ranchers, meanwhile, shouldered the province’s biggest share of agricultural operating expenses, shelling out $8.1 billion, or roughly 42 per cent of total farm expenses, according to Stats Can.

Wheat was Alberta’s second-highest agricultural export in 2019, followed by canola seed, crude canola oil and live cattle. Annual wheat exports fell by 13 per cent in value and 10.5 per cent in quantity, according to the provincial government.

MD of Pincher Creek hits pause on rezoning applications

Local producers may see minimal benefit from ag tax credit

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