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VICTORIA — An independent report on agricultural revitalization in British Columbia is calling for a task force to address the “imbalance” between oil and gas development and agriculture in the province’s northeast.

The Agriculture Ministry released the final report today that makes 32 recommendations related to the province’s Agricultural Land Commission and Reserve.

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It calls for the proposed task force to review how to balance the surface rights of farmers and ranchers with subsurface rights of the extractors, and to deliver a strategy to address “the significant resource extraction issues” affecting farmland in the Peace Region.

In a letter introducing the report, committee chair and former Independent MLA Vicki Huntington calls for a government-wide policy shift that identifies B.C.’s agricultural land and industry as equivalent to other natural resources.

Huntington says the oil and gas industry has had a significant and growing impact in the northeast and the development of the energy sector has exceeded the capacity of the current regulatory environment to protect farmland.