Councillor Mike Bose Leads Surrey Council Initiative to Protect Farmland and Expand Food Hubs

SURREY, BC — Surrey City Councillor Mike Bose (Surrey First) introduced a motion before Surrey City Council directing staff to strengthen municipal buffers protecting agricultural lands from encroaching industrial and commercial developments.

Farmland Preservation in Serpentine-Nicomekl Valleys

Councillor Bose, a fourth-generation Surrey farmer and long-time agricultural advocate, emphasized that Surrey's 19,000 acres of fertile farmland in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) represent a critical regional food security asset that must not be compromised for speculative warehousing projects.

The approved policy directive mandates enhanced drainage infrastructure investments and updated dyking systems across the Serpentine and Nicomekl floodplains to protect active vegetable and dairy farms from extreme weather events.

Surrey Agri-Food Innovation Network

Councillor Bose also proposed expanding municipal partnerships with Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s School of Horticulture to build local food aggregation and processing hubs in Cloverdale.

Council voted unanimously in favor of supporting drainage maintenance grants for local agricultural producers.

Implementation Roadmap

City engineering staff will table the Agriculture Drainage Master Plan before the Environment Committee next quarter.