Land Use or Land Abuse?

McKellar, Peter ed.
Publisher:  United Church of Canada, Canada
Year Published:  1977
Pages:  10pp   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX332

This Study Action Kit has been compiled to help the interested Canadians learn the facts about the nature, scope and urgency of the present land use situation in Canada. The materials are intended as a starting point for both study and action.

Abstract: 
This Study Action Kit has been compiled to help the interested Canadians learn the facts about the nature, scope and urgency of the present land use situation in Canada. The materials are intended as a starting point for both study and action.

One of the kit materials -- the autumn 1975 issue of the Agrologist entitled "Farm Land: Canada's threatened natural resource" -- contains reprints of five key articles on land use in Canada. One of these reprints is the position statement on land use policy for Canada drawn up by the Agricultural Institute
of Canada (AIC) in 1975. In defining the problem, the authors note that the most important of Canada's resources -- the land -- is being wasted, and they express concern that the land best suited for farming is rapidly shrinking as urbanization expands in direct confrontation with agriculture. They point out a definite need to develop policies for the use of land which will take into account all its potential uses, society's present and future needs, and which, at the same time, will be consistent with democratic, political and economic philosophies.

Since there are few provincial land use policies in existence today, and no national policy, there has like wise been no systematic consideration given to the effect on food production when land is developed for non-agricultural uses. As N.R. Richards and J. A. Lore observe in their editorial, current Canadian political attitudes towards land use reflect "laissez faire" economic theories in which land is regarded as a commodity to be bought and sold, and not as a resource.

Other study kit materials include a policy statement by the United Church, Worship Starters, and newspaper clippings highlighting the particular land issue in various regions of Canada.

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