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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/394777
matt o'grady November 2014 BCBusiness 51 what you're doing is right, you have to put your head down and do it. We did it in 2001 and 2002—we closed hospi- tals, we closed seniors homes, we laid off thousands of people, and we didn't consult with anybody. We did it because we knew we had to do it. "When the ALR was created here," he adds, gesturing out the restaurant window toward the mountains, "they drew a line at the foot of the Rockies over here at a certain eleva- tion. Then they went over to the west and drew a line at the foot of the Purcell Mountains. And they said, 'Everything within those two lines is within the reserve.' It's not this big fertile valley that's got 10 feet of top- soil. It's really rough and tum- ble: there's mountains within the valley, there's swamps, it's forested." Bennett rejects the notion presented by Corky Evans, the former NDP agriculture minister and fellow Kootenay resident, who wrote an open letter that equated Bill 24 to a plot dreamed up by the Fraser Institute, corporations and banks, "who will get richer paving farmland than by leav- ing it alone." "It's sacrosanct. You can't fix it. You can't do anything to it. You can't touch it," Bennett says mockingly. "Think about that from a public policy point of view. You create something 40 years ago, and you can- not touch it? It can't be improved? That's ridiculous." The changes to the ALR have proven popular with most of Bennett's constit- uents. At a meeting with the Kootenay Livestock Association the day after our breakfast at St. Eugene, Faye Street, general manager for the association, praises her MLA for standing his ground Bennett transitions seamlessly from the guy defending individual property rights in the ALR to the guy who's essentially raising taxes. "The fact is," says John Horgan, the NDP's longtime energy critic before he became leader last May, "Christy Clark has given him an almost impossible task." to push the changes through—and for his willingness to pro- tect farmers and ranchers, not just farmland. "There're all talking up there [in Victoria] about subdivi- sions," says Street, an imposing middle-aged woman who pounds the meeting room table for emphasis. "All Bill 24 is going to do is subdivide, subdivide, subdivide. But you know what? It has nothing to do with subdivision. This has to do with whether or not it's going to help agriculture sustain itself and stay alive and bring some of our young people back." The pro-Bennett sentiment continues when I canvass the crowd later that day at a barbecue celebrating Sam Steele Days. It's the 50th anniversary of the popular festival honour- ing B.C.'s most famous Mountie, and Bennett's here to unveil a time capsule for future Cranbrook residents. Between burgers, ice cream and cake (provided by lumber giant Canfor), he's rebuilding: (from left) Liberal MLA Don McRae, Bill Bennett and BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald in Campbell River.