Farm weddings cancelled after ALC demands compliance

An Abbotsford, B.C. farmer says she will have to cancel more than two dozen weddings on her farm after all, due tonew demands from the Agricultural Land Commission in its crackdown on rural nuptials.

Woodbridge Ponds owner Caroline Mostertman says she hadfive moreweddings booked ather blueberry farm this year and nearly twodozen before the end of 2016 but she will have to cancel them all.

"At this pointI just have to admit that there's no hope that we'll be able to finish off the weddings for next year," Mostertman told CBC News on Wednesday.

Mostertman'sproblems began in the fall, when theALC apparently began a crackdown on non-agricultural activity like weddings on the lands it governs.

BothWoodbridge Ponds in Abbotsfordand Bottega Farm in Kelowna received orders telling themto stop hosting weddings, despite having bookings in the days ahead.

ALC rules clearly state that non-agricultural activity is not allowed on the lands it governs, butBottega Farmhas since been allowed to honour its existing bookings through 2016.

Not so forMostertman, who says she is being asked toget her buildings up to the City of Abbotsford's fire and building codes andapply for a non-farm use permit, which requires official support from the city.

The city then needs to send that application to the ALC for another round of approvals.

Mostertman says the permit can take two years to obtain although the chair of the ALC, Frank Leonard, said if shegets her paperwork done, the commission will review the farm's application within weeks.

And, in a bid to address the overall issue, the ALC has alsosent out a draft policy on non-farm uses for farm lands and has extended the deadline for comment onhow agri-tourism should be regulated in B.C. until Jan. 15.

But all of that is cold comfort toSerena Miller, one of the brides-to-be who will now no longer bewalking down the aisle in the lush fields of Woodbridge Ponds.

"I just finished planning everything and now I'm back to square one again. This close to Christmas? This is not what I want to be doing."