A Fort St. John rancher at the centre of a political firestorm says he’s gone ahead and built some rodeo grounds on his land, despite a ruling from the Agricultural Land Commission against his proposal.
Terry McLeod says so far he’s stripped a hill to build a race track and seating for 3,000 people as part of his rodeo facility.
McLeod says he should be able to build what he wants because it’s his land.
“It’s my own land. there’s people running things on their own land everywhere,” he told the CBC on Wednesday morning.
Mcleod says, although the farm land in question is listed as high quality, it’s not.
“When people picture farmland in Vancouver or Victoria or Kelowna, they are thinking we are growing apples in Fort St. John. They are out of their mind. We have a hay crop this year we couldn’t even get off it rained so much.”
He says the rodeo grounds were actually under construction when the ALC toured the land this summer and built by the time the ALC ruled against it, and notes the facility hosted the RCMP musical ride this summer.
McLeod says the region needed a proper rodeo facility and he tried to convince the Agricultural Land Commission that the rodeo could be built on land protected by the Agricultural Land Reserve because a rodeo is agricultural.
But earlier this year the ALC ruled against his proposal, saying the land should be protected. It is not yet clear if the ALC will order the rodeo grounds to be taken down.
Source CBC