Bob and Jeannette Rempel look after a five acre parcel of agricultural land on Highway 3, near the south end of Cawston.
The couple purchased the property in 1998, and initially Bob planted market garden vegetables.
A few years ago, Rempel found that vegetable growing was becoming a bit too labour intensive. He then decided to raise cattle - up to nine head- on the flat fields surrounding their house.
“Through the last decade, we had no contact with BC Assessment,” he said in what is becoming a familiar story in the South Okanagan - Similkameen. “Around May of 2010 we began receiving letters from BC Assessment, challenging my farm status.”
Bob and his wife began to gather up the farm receipts for the agency. For land used for cattle production, the landowner must produce receipts that would indicate the value realized by having the livestock raised on the property.
Last year was a poor one for Rempel, who also had to undergo an operation that also affected his ability to farm.
After submitting the necessary paperwork in November, the Rempels received a letter from BC Assessment, dated November 25, stating that a review determined that they no longer met the requirements to be classified for farm status. It further stated that their assessment value would change as a result, and the change would appear on the 2011 assessment notice.
Rempel feels the challenge was based on one year’s worth of farm receipts, as that was all that was sent to the agency.
“What’s going to happen, is people will start to lie,” he predicted. “How many other small acreage owners are there in B.C. facing a similar situation?”
“If land is in the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) it should have an automatic assessment as farmland, because you can’t do anything else with it,” he stated.
The Rempels are not sure at this point what their status is. Their property assessment notice arrived earlier this month and showed no change in value - even though the last correspondence from BC Assessment in November of 2010 said that there would be. They plan to appeal, just in case.
The Rempels are also confused about the minimum income threshold being used. Their operation netted approximately $4,000 after slaughtering and other costs were deducted from the gross income of over $7,500 - figures which are all above the present level of $2,500, let alone the increase recommended by last year’s review panel to $3,500.
“It makes no sense,” Bob said over the conflicting information. “We’ve been raising cattle for six years without a problem, or even contact from BC Assessment.”
He admits that small acreage farming is difficult at best to make any kind of reasonable return on, given the expense, risk, and hard manual labour, and this kind of interference obviously isn’t helpful.
Last year’s cattle have been processed and the Rempel’s fields currently sit idle, waiting for spring and a new herd to appear. While it might be considered small potatoes when compared to other cattle raising operations, it nonetheless has provided food and economic value to the Lower Similkameen for the past 12 years. For many small acreage farmers, loss of farm status could be the final straw in an enterprise that doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it these days. Indeed, Bob echoes a sentiment being heard more and more this year.
“I’m not so sure I want to do it anymore,” he concluded.