A Saskatchewan program offering leaseholders on Crown farmland a 10 per cent purchase discount to buy the land will be extended to the end of 2010.
The agricultural Crown land sale program, announced in early November last year, offered a 10 per cent discount on the purchase price of Crown land for leaseholders who bought the land by the end of 2009, followed by a sliding scale of lower discounts in subsequent years.
The province on Monday said it would extend the 10 per cent discount to leaseholders’ purchases of Crown land made between Nov. 15, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2010, now to be followed by an eight per cent discount in 2011, six per cent in 2012, four per cent in 2013 and two per cent in 2014.
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“We are extending this deadline to ensure that all eligible Crown land lessees have an opportunity to take advantage of the discount,” Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said in a release Monday.
“With a late harvest and struggles in the cattle industry, we welcome this announcement,” David Marit, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and a councilor in the RM of Willow Bunch, said in the province’s release.
“This provides an extended opportunity for leaseholders to purchase the Crown land they are already managing.”
The province also noted that the purchase price discount is now applied based on the date the lessee’s application to buy is received by the provincial ag ministry, rather than the date of sale.
“This will ensure lessees will get the higher discount in the event the sale is not concluded until the following year,” the province said.
Farming lessees have already bought 110,000 acres of Crown farmland under the program since it was announced in November last year, the province said.
The province will not require its lessees to buy the land, but has previously said lessees “should know the government’s objective is to see saleable agricultural Crown land in the hands of private ownership.”
Not all agricultural Crown land may be eligible for sale, the province noted. Some land may not be for sale if:
- it’s reserved under the authority of the province’s Wildlife Habitat Protection Act;
- it’s considered “environmentally sensitive;”
- it contains sand and gravel, or is under active oil and gas exploration, or has commercially harvestable timber land;
- it may “fragment” other Crown holdings, or create limited access if sold, or is situated along a major water body; or
- it has “significant” heritage value, or is subject to public use, or may be “of value to the province for the public interest.”
Lessee-purchasers can finance the purchase by providing half the sale price to the province plus a payment schedule guarantee for the balance from a recognized financial institution. They can also make other arrangements as long as the purchase amount is paid to the province within 30 days of signing a sale agreement.
More information on the program is available online.
