Canada’s Foreign Buyer Ban Should Include Our Precious Farmland

Potato plants are seen on a farm in Clinton, P.E.I., on Jul 21, 2025. The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini

Commentary

Foreign nationals are currently forbidden from buying Canadian houses, so why are they still allowed to buy up our farmland?

In January 2023, the federal government banned foreign nationals from purchasing houses in Canada for two years to ensure our domestic housing stock stays in domestic hands.

After the two years expired, the ban was extended to Jan. 1, 2027. At that point, it may well be extended again given its widespread popularity. According to a poll by Research Co., 76 percent of Canadians support blocking foreigners from buying houses in Canada.

There are some exceptions which weaken the ban. For instance, non-Canadians can still buy properties outside of census metropolitan areas, and large buildings with four or more units are not covered under the legislation.

Arguably, the most glaring loophole in Canada’s foreign buyer ban is that it stops at residential properties, and does not include an even rarer and more precious asset: farmland.

While the regulation of farmland ownership is currently handled by the provinces, Ottawa could use the Investment Canada Act to limit or block foreign acquisition of Canadian farmland.

Canada is a huge country in terms of sheer landmass, but very little of that land is arable—only 4.4 percent, according to World Bank data. The best-quality “prime” farmland is scarcer still. Even in provinces with strong agricultural sectors like B.C., prime farmland accounts for 1 percent of land.

Our agriculture sector—the cultural and economic backbone of rural Canada, and this country’s guarantor of food security in an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape—depends upon a proportionally small amount of land.

The only thing that ensures this irreplaceable stock of farmland remains in Canadian hands is a patchwork of widely divergent provincial policies—some strong, and some incredibly lax.

Saskatchewan takes a hard-nosed approach; non-Canadians are banned from owning more than 10 acres of farmland without a specific exemption from the province. In Manitoba, foreigners are blocked from acquiring more than 40 acres without a similar exemption.

In stark contrast with these tough Prairie provinces are Ontario and B.C., which currently have no restrictions at all on foreign farmland ownership.

Foreign ownership of farmland is not tracked in detail, putting Canadians in the dark as to how much agricultural land is leaving domestic hands at any given moment.

Agriculture and land organizations across the country are pushing for government action to track and curtail foreign farmland purchases.

In February, the Coalition for the Protection of PEI Lands published an open letter to the Prince Edward Island government demanding “an investigation into the influence of foreign and corporate land holdings in PEI” in light of soaring farm prices and a rapid loss of agricultural land on the Island.

The letter specifically points to an organization, which reports have said is linked to the Chinese regime, and which is engaged in large-scale land acquisitions in the province.

Foreign farmland ownership was also on the agenda at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual general meeting in February, where a resolution titled “Protecting Canadian Agricultural Land from Foreign Ownership” was passed.

The resolution called on Ottawa to “amend the Investment Canada Act to classify agricultural land as a critical resource requiring review of foreign purchases to ensure they align with Canada’s food security, sustainability, and rural development goals.”

Classifying farmland as a critical resource is eminently justifiable, considering the importance of both agricultural exports and our own domestic food security.

If Canada does not treat our farmland as a critical resource to be stewarded domestically, we risk sending the signal that it is a global resource that other countries may dip into to feed their own hungry populations.

The United States is recognizing this threat, with Republicans introducing bills to end the acquisition of American farmland by geopolitical adversaries. A House bill co-sponsored by 12 Republicans “seeks to ban Chinese companies, entities, or individuals linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from buying, owning, or leasing U.S. agricultural land.”

Leaving the protection of Canadian farmland from foreign interests to a loose patchwork of provincial rules is clearly insufficient.

While provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba have acted to protect farmland, others such as Ontario and B.C. have failed to put any limits on foreign ownership at all. And even P.E.I., a province with strong land regulations, is struggling to prevent its rules from being flouted.

Ottawa is willing to use federal power to protect Canada’s housing. A similar intervention is needed to protect Canada’s farms.

Our agricultural land is a critical resource, and it is long past time that we recognized it as such.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.