FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2025

MLA Matt MacFarlane tables bill to help protect farmland

Charlottetown, PE – Today in the PEI legislature, MLA Matt MacFarlane, Third Party Critic for Agriculture, tabled a bill that if passed will help protect farmland and keep this precious resource available to future generations of farmers while ensuring that farmers retain control over their land.

The bill, which is an amendment to the Planning Act, will introduce protections for agricultural land to ensure the long term viability of the agricultural sector on PEI while balancing the rights of farmers.

“Land on PEI is finite – they aren’t making any more of it,” said MacFarlane. “In particular, we are losing farmland at an alarming rate – by some estimates up to as much as 39 acres every day. We must use every tool we have to better protect farmland and guarantee the future of farming on PEI.”

This amendment will help protect agricultural land and recognizes its importance for food security, environmental sustainability and the importance of our ability to produce our own products.

“Our province is in desperate need of a land use plan, but it’s been six years and this PC government continues to drag its heels,” said MacFarlane. “In the absence of the long-promised and long-overdue land use plan, this bill will provide increased protection to our Island’s farmland.”

MacFarlane intends to start debate on the bill in the following weeks and expects full support from this PC government which claims to be champions of agriculture on PEI.

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For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie Rankin
Chief of Staff
Office of the Third Party
Tel: (902) 213-6378
Email: kerankin@assembly.pe.ca