NDP advocate for stiffer enforcement, penalties for foreign farmland owners in Saskatchewan

The opposition is urging the Farm Security Board to review past foreign land deals and tighten regulations in Saskatchewan. Donovan Maess reports.

The NDP opposition wants the government to lay down the law when it comes to foreign farmland owners in Saskatchewan, but the Sask Party feels current deterrence measures are doing the job.

Saskatchewan’s Farmland Security Board (SFSB) is in charge of overseeing land transactions and investigating potential breaches.

However, it relies on public complaints to launch such investigations – something the NDP wants to change.

“Go back, investigate and review transactions of concern and ensure compliance,” NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon told reporters Tuesday. “[The government] has failed to make sure the Farmland Security Board has the resources and the teeth they need.”

According to the SFSB, it investigated eight complaints of possible breaches in 2024-25.

Of those investigated, the board issued four orders directing an entity to divest its land and reduce operations.

Another three were issued fines with the final report still being investigated, as of last fall.

Wotherspoon is concerned there could be more landowners illegally in the province which have yet to be reported.

“The scope and scale of how much land is owned in breach of our law, illegally by foreign owners is not clear,” he added.

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The board investigated six reports in 2022-23, but did not receive any reports in 2023-24.

It comes two years after a provincial auditor report found regulations around foreign ownership of Saskatchewan farmland need better enforcement.

Provincial law regulates the amount of land that non-Canadian entities can own or lease in the Saskatchewan.

The auditor made 10 recommendations at the time of her report, including “escalation procedures” including fines and penalties if foreign buyers do not provide documentation that is requested – in addition to the board informing the foreign entities to sell the farmland in a timely manner if the sale was done inappropriately.

She also recommended the board set performance indicators to allow for effective assessment and publicly report on its regulatory and enforcement activities.

Current fines for breaking the regulations are between $1,000 and $50,000 for individuals. For corporations, penalties are at a maximum of $50,000.

The NDP wants to see fines increase significantly to up to $1 million for individuals and $10 million for a corporation involved in illegal ownership.

“The penalties in place are so outdated,” Wotherspoon said. “When you look at the actual values and profits with respect to land ownership, the potential of land being flipped and the operations of that farm by a foreign entity; we’ve beefed up those fines in a significant way to make sure there’s a deterrent in place.”

Minister of Agriculture David Marit says all of the auditor’s recommendations were put into action by the SFSB.

“The security board has all the tools that they need,” he said following Tuesday’s question period at the legislature. “Including the declaration you have to sign off on. I’m comfortable in that.”

Wotherspoon claimed some rural leaders have been calling for the government to hand down harsher enforcement of the regulations.

However, according to Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Bill Huber, current backstops are adequate.

“There’s always a loophole for some people to get through,” he admitted. “But I think the auditor’s done a good job of trying to police that and prevent it. Personally, I don’t have a concern with it.”

The NDP introduced a private member’s bill Tuesday to the legislative assembly which aims to amend the SFSB’s enforcement powers.

Marit says the motion is unlikely to receive the necessary government support in order to pass.

“We are open to changes if they feel it’s going to improve the plan,” the minister added. “The declaration, the recommendations and the changes we made, which the provincial auditor asked for, we implemented as quickly as we could and we’ve landed in a good spot.”

- With files from David Prisciak & Wayne Mantyka