Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 15, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press saturday november 15. 1975 business finance Farmers squeezed As developers switch to Rural areas by Ruth Kahane growth of Industry and mushrooming developments outside towns and Villa Jea Are changing the face of Manitoba s Rural municipalities. In at least half of them the actions of developers and speculators Are Fortine local officials to realize that change Dot s riot necessarily happen in a Way that is by Netie Iai to All involved. Top Grade agricultural land is being used for hous ing. Developers Are avoiding taxes in the City and using Good agricultural land Lor Industry. These Are at least two apparent drawbacks out of Many thai a Rural municipality May face when it has no policy or development plan. And the Fanner is one of the first to feel the resulting Pinch. The face clout operator for one. Is victimized when his agricultural territory is invaded by housing subdivisions and gradually he finds himself surrounded by City people we Don t like the smell of his pigs and his the residents complain to the clean environment commission. And the Rural municipality s officials sit in a quandary Over who should have the right to be there. Or at tax Lime the Farmer finds his land assessment has skyrocketed Many times beyond what it was a year before. Why landowners around him have been speculating by subdividing their land into parcel lots of five and 10 acres. This is All to their advantage. But the in crease in the value of the land Only undermines the stability of the producer who wants to keep on farming. Suppose the producer wants to expand his operation. The housing and subdivision surrounding his land will make it next to impossible for him to accomplish this. The land is owned by Many people and its value has gone up to correspond with the subdivisions. How to negotiate for the individual Farmer becomes an the Lack of allocation of agricultural land for Agri culture May make it even More difficult for the new Farmer in the future. Finding Goud land to Start an operation could become exceedingly difficult class f agricultural land is attractive to developers. It is Flat has lower Cost and taxes than in town or City land. When it is close to a Centre of population it Isi a prime target. There is Little the Farmer can do to protect his future options. That is unless the municipality he farms in takes action. A few municipalities have drawn up development plans and zoned certain areas for hous ing others for agriculture roads and so on. But the Pace of haphazard development has moved faster than most municipalities. Between Winnipeg and Brandon for example there Are communities with up to five times As Many housing outside town As inside. Developers Are jumping from higher land value areas into lower value areas Ai the Cost of agricultural land. The villages keep on taking up the costs of ser vices such As busing children into towns for school. And costs Are still relatively Low for commuting into town to work. With forces like these slacked up against them. And towns Are becoming less tightly knit and fringe is alteration is increasing. Without planning it is difficult 10 predict the future shape of a municipality and just severe the mis use of ils land resources will be. During the last session of the provincial legislature the minister of municipal affairs. Howard Pawley introduced land use planning legislation. The plan Ning act due to be proclaimed Early in is aimed at making it easier for municipalities to protect their land resources for specific purposes such As agriculture. Before a municipality could conc but they needed the say so of the provincial municipal Board. But neither the province or the municipality based zoning on a plan development was random. Under the planning act. Municipalities arc encouraged if they wish to join together with neighbor ing municipalities and form planning districts. A plan Ning District would create a development plan thai would include land water minerals and so on. And project where All services Industry and housing should by located. Afler the development is seen by the people in the municipality and they voice their objections the min ister of municipal affairs May accept the plan or he has the Power to Call a municipal Board hearing if Here arc major objections to the plan. Final approval conies from the lieutenant governor. Once the plan is approved it becomes the final guideline for develop ment. Any municipal zoning thai follows Musl be done in accordance with the plan. The direct Board has the final voice on zoning. Some municipalities feel a greater urgency for this Type of District planning than others do. It All depends How closely they Are located to a major Urban Centre and whether they presently have conflicts Between one Type of land use and another. Springfield municipality for example is in close proximity to North Winnipeg and is fast feeling the pressures of the encroachment of Urban sprawl. Said one of Springfield s municipal officials at a recent meeting in Beausejour where that area s municipalities discussed the planning act let will Cost us to gel a planner on our own. In Springfield we have 500 land splits in a month. Let s get going with a planning District. We can t afford to one official from the pm of broke head expressed his municipality s View let s keep Good agricultural land for agricultural land. Housing is moving into areas where it is not suitable. 1 am very enthused about the idea of setting up a planning District. The whole concept makes Good other comments made at the meeting carried much the same tune a City person might not like a hos person s smell and a person i jilt not like a City person s both Short term planning and Lonj term planning Are a Musl. Can t undo what is i am appalled that Farmers Are Boink a taxed on land where subdivisions Are occurring around it. 1 think the act help alleviate i am a Farmer in amongst mind visions. Why should 1 be pushed out of the area new residents have no Righi to complain on a smell thai has been there for planning is pretty ticklish. I feel there is quite a conflict with agricultural areas being subdivided. I m sure of this though. Planning should have happened j5 years so Many districts Are in turmoil for municipalities thai Are farther from the City there arc other bases for asking the question to plan or nol to plan one reason according to Manitoba department of agriculture soils chief John Howden is that two times As much land is sold by leaps and Bounds sales than is the Case with subdivisions where the authorized and local Sale is recorded in the land titles office. All that need happen is thai one landowner give an agreement for Sale to the buyer Lor whatever amount of land he has agreed to sell. The buyer pays his lures directly to the landowner. The Sale never goes through the land titles office. And on the other hand where the Sale does no through the land titles office it is still out of the jurisdiction of the municipality. This is True even if it has planned under the old legislation and wishes to prevent the subdivision. Most parcels of land Are from live to 20 acres. And most parcel buyers according to or. Allow Dan Pur Chase More land than they can maintain. For that size of parcel you need a substantial amount of equipment. It is too Small to rent to a big Farmer to work for you. The weeds build up because of the inability to get someone to do it for he said that because those subdivisions Are wasteful in Many cases and because the substantial majority of them Are not recorded by land title sit is difficult to say exactly How much of our Good agricultural land is going to waste through subdivisions and parcel apparently there has never been a study of any kind on prime agricultural land that is us worked for this reason. There is nothing in the act that actually says thou shall protect agricultural land or any other kind of said Gerald Tencha a municipal planning official of the provincial department of municipal affairs. However the idea is to put on a plan that reflects what is happening today. The plan is based on protect ing resources and is concerned with the capability of the land.1 As b John Pelletier. The research zoning plan Ner who drafted it. The planning act provides a mechanism Lor planning where it is required. It is not envisioned As including every Square foot of Manitoba. But Only the local level identifies a problem thai Iii tires the yla Iii to relate to the area they Are planned said John Howden. Or. Howden said zoning under the act will Proba Bly assist the but it is Good and bad. The Good news it will protect him from the encroach ment and the Adverse effects of having housing and fanning next to each other. It will preserve the agricultural Opportunity in the province. And it will maintain a lower level of Cost for people getting into the Industry. But Here the conflict. By the same mechanism it will also Tell him he can l sell his agricultural land for speculative purposes. 11 rules out the parcel lot sales the ones that make Money. At the same time however it rules out speculation by All people not just farm ers. The municipal planning Branch itself realizes thai this is a sore spot for some people Whu will be affected by in a newsletter on Rural land use planning in november they wrote Many individuals see planning As an instrument to restrict a Man s to the use of his own properly however. Must consider the examples presented and try to visualize a solution in which planning is used As a tool with to direct development in a logical and reasonable manner yet still respecting and protecting the rights of the individual land owner As Well As the Community a1 in an interview recently. Municipal affairs minister Howard Pawl a reacted to the criticism thai such plan Ning May Lake away the incentive of the individual i think it is a bogeyman he said. There Are different types of incentive one is to use the land in a Way that exploits and results in polluting increasing the Cost to neighbors and so on. We want to encourage incentive to the individuals who arc working together to improve the whether or nol Rural municipalities choose to plan Ami zone for agriculture there Are Many other Vari Ables thai will affect the future of agriculture in the province. For instance if there is expansion in growing vegetables and fruits there will be opportunities for production on smaller parcels of land. The same goes for All specially crops that can be grown intensively on a Low acreage and bring in a High Price per acre. On the other hand if the demand for production is on crops which require a Large acreage to be profit Able the tendency will be for farms to grow larger. The planning act has nothing to say about shaping the future of agriculture. Yet by protecting the land re source itself it could be a vehicle to prevent conflicts of the fut i c. Financial analysts stepping up efforts to regulate themselves by Wally denn1sox financial analysts and investment managers Are determined to ensure peo ple putting their hard earned Money and savings into in vestments Are getting competent advice. To be avoided Are such personal disasters As an elderly widow having her life savings wiped out on a highly volatile Stock because of unqualified Security counselling. That s Why the analysis and investment managers now Are More rigidly regulating themselves. 1 and they re trying to a Alibi provincial securities commissions and governments in a co operative Effort to counter unqualified advice in marketable securities according to William r. Mccance and David a. Mccaslin. The. New president and vice president respectively of the Winnipeg society of financial analysts. The 80-member Winnipeg society is one of four constituent societies in Canada of the financial analysts federation a professional organization of North american investment managers and securities analysts. The financial analysts federation. With members in 4s societies has been authorized by its constituent member societies to assume direct responsibility for the professional conduct of individual members. Following last year s authorization the federation has moved rapidly to establish a Structure for implementing this responsibility. It has expanded its already comprehensive code of ethics and Standard of professional conduct and established procedures for enforcement of these rules and the discipline of member who Vio late them. The turbulent financial Market of the past five years a particularly spotlighted the problem of unqualified people of Fering disastrous advice on securities according to messes. Mccance and me Caslin. Both senior analysts for Pic great West life Assurance company. Except for the federation s criteria and the minimal licensing requirements of provincial Sec lilies there ? virtually nothing to prevent anybody from setting himself up a investment counsellor. Or. Mccance noted. Lie cited the example of the unqualified advice Given to the elderly widow whose 510.000 savings wiped out As a re sult of her investment in a highly Mutual fund. Thi was a woman who should have been adv cd put her Money into bomb thing Pikr Canada savings Visith a 100 per cent ii Aranico of nine per yield Mccance Aid. Person seek in ceiling should Nave some reasonable As Durance Hal the person advising a minimum level of competency. After Aii. Is you went to a doctor or a Launcr. Rcv. be certain he medical and bar associations have scrutinized their qualifications. 5 o. Would t one expect the same Assurance of a minimum degree of competency in investment we re trying to provide self regulatory procedures not merely action. _ and rather than the provincial Securi ties commissions setting up entire bureaucracies in an attempt to regulate we re trying to enlist them in a co opera Tive Effort of regulation. As a minimum a person offering advice on securities should belong to a professional organization which has certain standards and has recourse for action against those who violate them. Therefore anybody going for invest ment assistance should inquire about the advisor s credentials and ask whether he is a member of the financial analysts federation and whether he is a member of the Institute of chartered financial analysts or a student in one of its pro Grams. We would be glad to hear from any tone who feels he or she has been Given poor the financial analysis federation believes ils new Structure will enable it to develop and implement uniform Stan Dards of practice for analysts and invest mint managers throughout North Ameri Ca and to use peer groups to enforce these standards. This replaces the system p of local society enforcement based upon Hie code of ethics and standards of professional conduct developed by the federation Over its 28-year history. Provision is made for the continuing re vision of the code and standards so that the changing needs of both the securities Industry and investing Public Are a is find. Or. Mccance said. Key elements of the program include a professional conduct committee which in icy Luau s and adjudicates possible Viola lion i Ondr Ami standards and an inc is in alms Mandaris Board that main it conic Numus review of code and ads and recommends changes to both. Members also arc required to file Annu Al Vla Tenenb which report any involve mint in a proceeding or hearing or any rom Plain about professional conduct. I new entry Standard Loo. For Aii new i Sorici icer be next july t As of that Date Aii new regular members will have passed the first of a series of examinations b tin int Itule of chartered financial Ana in affiliate of the federation. Or. said ii the examination a been widely by accredited Orga and has been re for entry level qualifications in Industry. The regulatory committees and Beard of administer the Sci policing Iem realize the fact thai there is no Way to Analyse Borzl or Stock. E say to Aii analysts Iha the William r. Cance we re try ing to provide Seu regulatory procedures not merely slap or the wrist top experts gathering Cereal Congress rated vital As Market development tool the Victor Martens executive Oping countries to director of the Canadian in Congress he added Ter National grains Institute he said this created said the International Cereal and bread Congress to be held in Winnipeg in 1978 will be a very important Market development tool 1 for the Canadian grains Industry. Or. Martens who Heads the Congress organizing commit tee said you have to communicate with our custom ers create an awareness of Canadian grains and of our Market capability about of the world s Foremost Cereal scientists and technologists arc expected to at tend the Congress. The scientists who attend the Congress Are not working in a vacuum. They arc work ing within the Industry to develop new technology and there is no question that the International people will be working with Canadian Cere Al grains. What better place for them to come than to the heart of the commercial aspects of the Canadian Grain he said. Since the first Congress was held in Prague in 1927. Four successive ones have been held in Europe. The up coming sixth Congress will to the first in 1 be held in the North american continent. It is a Sood tiling to move it out of Europe where the talks have carried a european Connor Uijun. This Congress will carry a 10v per Mil Canadian Donti he problem because some coun tries such As saudi Arabia do not have a single Cereal scientist. Most scientists gain some knowledge and can adapt it to their conditions but Lor the developing countries there is no in bet he said. The International develop ment research Centre of Cida is being approached by the organizing committee to sponsor scientists from developing countries who want to attend. The Congress. Thai . Will also sponsor some countries he said. Or. Mancos us pan of a tin nil Canadian wheat Board contingent visiting China and have the Opportunity to make the a formal invitation to the Congress while there. However he said the arc very selective in their communications and u n 1 e is there is very particular tech Nical information of direct value to them Ami you can show them in Advance it will be they Likely will nol Send their experts to meet experts from other coun lie said the Congress Ean expect a delegation of scientists from Lipan. The grains in s t i i n l e Reci fitly held h Tor i people from the the or. Mai Lens said it will go beyond scientific and tech a Nical discussions. The first Day will set the stage by examining the poli tical aspects of food. For this they Are trying to attract world leaders in this area such As the world director of the United nations food Aid organization and the pres ident of Cida. I infill buy Bikini in m said. The Al Lair ruin to participants lie i Lucyl developed nation techno lug has advanced comparable Levels or. Muir Lens said. However there will lie an Effort made to scion vials from do vol japanese Dusty. Per cent i the Industry Marlin s we in a i lie with them. We a Verv Eysa into the i Ane a Illus i in n brie the Congress will examine the production capability of w o r 1 d grains con sumption from an economic Point of View. A n d the changes that might come into being. The timing of the lots Congress is particularly of port u n e. When the last Congress was held in 1970. The world was in a period of apparent food surpluses. Today we have moved into a time of shortages. In tact in three of the past Lour years t h c has consumed More Cereal grains i h a n have been produced.1 or. Martens said. T h e Congress scientific and technical Side will be comprised of Between 150 200 papers of which the Congress Hopes a Large num Ber will be original. The main subjects for the papers should be set by March 1976. He said. The Congress will be divided into tour streams so that a i e be n c a Lap he contain the a now a i a earliest program a is a t c will have a number of choices at any time. These will be i i cd c d under Hie broader if milling baking and Quality control. There will simultaneous translation of All papers into English. Ger Man. French and russian some 100 interpreters involved. Analyst says curbs a v Stock ave Oft t a a. Or. By the Canadian press a Toronto analyst the introduction of he Selec Tive wage and Price control for the recent Declerc Enca to asian Stock markets bul the controls have 3 favourable to feel on eat Tadiar prices. J. My waivers of Bache and co. Canada lid. Stork a o Rong recovery by the beginning of the year As regain Confidence in the Economy of the country. The Toronto Market is in 3 period of Davisii Anc by the Rev. Year an upward trend in share prices ii have Bee he says in a re cent mock Market review. Cent intr on e Oronto Kcal. generally i Iii rends at Xiv. York dropped about five per since the of. An in of controls a Nice York Stock pric of. Ihrcke per . Or. Nev o r k influence or a Toronto Market i too in be discounted for a nov trip. He err thai Uncertain n a Loci clarification of the ill reduce i c a v i n g the Marti Rispon a Nev a is suitably placed and valued in order for a sizable re Civ in prices to n a t h n ii Brasil. Guy. O Brienne inc of Thi Munir Cal. Agrees in Canada a. Asic Cid by Likely be Overn ;