WHEREAS it appears that some municipalities agreed to provide their municipal pastures to the Land Utilization Board for transfer to the PFRA pasture program and did so with a condition that they operate as Government Pastures or be returned to the municipality, or similar; and

WHEREAS the Province does not appear to be interested in discussing this with the municipalities or honoring the original intent of the agreements that provided the transfers;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Province to deal with the original PFRA Transfer Agreements to the satisfaction of the affected municipalities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if the issues with the original PFRA Transfer Agreements are not addressed to the satisfaction of the affected municipalities by August 31, 2014, SARM assist with bringing  a class action lawsuit against the Province for breach of agreement(s).

RESPONSE FROM HONORABLE LYLE STEWART, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

Regarding reversion of former federal pasture lands to rural municipalities (RMs), our Ministry is more than willing to examine any historical agreements that RMs may have established with the Land Utilization Board (LUB).  Our legal review of the LUB Minutes has been unable to find reference to any reversionary contractual agreements with RMs. The Minutes show a series of progressive decisions by the LUB on this matter, ending January 30, 1959, where the Board decided to no longer transfer lands back to RMs.  If any RMs are able to locate historic agreements on reversion of lands, I ask that you encourage them to bring these forward.

On April 4, 2014, Mr. Dale Harvey, Executive Director of SARM, and SARM staff met with Ms. Karen Aulie, Assistant Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and Lands Branch officials.  I understand this was a very informative meeting and I encourage the collaborative exchange of information and discussions to continue on this matter.