P.E.I. cabinet denies land purchase by company with Irving ties

EDITOR’S NOTE: Extra on this story in print and on-line on Saturday, April 16. 

Prince Edward Island’s govt council denied the acquisition of virtually 227 acres of land in March by an organization that lists members of the Irving household as administrators.

A March 8 order in council denied an software to buy the land, positioned within the Freetown, P.E.I. space, from the property of Elwood Paynter, a former potato farmer who died in November. The purchaser was Island Holdings Ltd., which lists Robert Ok. Irving as a director and co-president; James Ok. Irving as director and chairman; and James D. Irving as co-president.

A second order in council, issued on the identical day, denied a petition to accumulate an curiosity in the identical land and particularly named the three Irving relations because the proposed purchasers.

Parts of this identical land had been leased by Paynter’s property to Island Holdings Ltd. in 2021, 2020 and 2019.

When requested for the explanation behind the denial of the acquisition, Kip Prepared, a communications consultant with the P.E.I. Division of Agriculture and Land, stated the reasoning couldn’t be shared as a consequence of cupboard confidence.

SaltWire Community reached out to a consultant from J.D. Irving for remark. A consultant from Cavendish Farms responded.

“Because it was the manager council’s determination, they would wish to offer clarification on the method adopted for this petition,” wrote Marc Doucette, vice-president of communications for Cavendish Farms, in an electronic mail.

Adjustments to behave

The denials come months after modifications had been made in fall 2021 to the province’s Lands Safety Act, which the Progressive Conservatives have lengthy pledged will guarantee land-holding firms should not in a position to bypass provisions within the act supposed to stop consolidation of land. The modifications included clearer definitions of when there’s “direct management” of 1 subsidiary by one other landholding company.

Advocates on P.E.I. had warned that “loopholes” within the Lands Safety Act have allowed bigger agricultural firms to accumulate extra land. The LPA limits land possession of firms to three,000 acres, though a complete of 5,700 acres could be owned if allowances for non-arable land and leased quantities are embody.

These modifications did come into impact earlier than April 1, 2022, in keeping with Prepared, as a result of have to replace laws.

In an interview on April 14, Agriculture and Land Minister Bloyce Thompson appeared to counsel the denial was associated to legislated timelines round promoting land gross sales.

“Typically a non-resident firm, the land must be advertized correctly. It’s important to undergo the right channels. Perhaps that wasn’t performed,” Thompson stated.

Island Holdings owns a complete of three,352 acres throughout P.E.I., in keeping with property information listed on the province’s Geolinc database.

Two new purposes – one by Island Holdings and one by Robert Ok, James D. and James Ok. Irving – had been submitted on March 31 for the acquisition of 69 acres of the Paynter property. A suggestion from IRAC on the applying was acquired by govt council on April 12. No order in council has been printed so far, indicating both approval or denial of the applying.

Brendel report

The LPA modifications had been prompted partially as a consequence of a 2019 political scandal involving a land sale involving over 2,000 acres of farmland. Brendel farms, a household farming operation, had initially sought to promote the land to 3 farming firms that listed members of the Irving household as administrators. This sale was denied by the then Liberal authorities of Wade MacLauchlan on the eve of the 2019 election.

Months later, the identical 2,200 acres of farmland was transferred to a different landholding company, Crimson Fox Acres Restricted, which listed Rebecca Irving, niece of each Robert Ok. and James Ok. Irving, as a director. This sale, which was described as a company asset sale versus a land sale, didn’t obtain approval by cupboard.

After the story was first reported by SaltWire, the agriculture minister ordered an investigation to be performed by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Fee. Thompson later ordered Crimson Fox Acres Ltd. to divest the land.

An software for judicial evaluation of this determination was filed by Rebecca Irving and Crimson Fox Acres in 2020.

Eighteen months later, the IRAC investigation report into the sale, which Thompson had pledged to make public, has not been launched. SaltWire has requested the doc beneath freedom of data however the province’s data and privateness commissioner is presently revewing this and different requests.

Farming teams have been elevating questions for years in regards to the lack of transparency concerned in land selections in P.E.I. IRAC suggestions on land gross sales, in addition to the reasoning behind cupboard selections, are hidden from public view.