Summary

This bill increases financial penalties for violating Saskatchewan's farmland ownership rules, removes time limits on investigations into past transactions, makes statutory declarations mandatory for all farmland acquisitions, and allows net proceeds from court-ordered sales of improperly acquired farmland to be forfeited to the Crown.

Saskatchewan law restricts who can own farmland in the province. This bill makes enforcement stricter in several ways. Currently, a board may request that farmland buyers file a statutory declaration proving they are eligible to own land, the bill makes this declaration mandatory for every acquisition. Penalties for breaking farmland ownership rules would rise dramatically: individual fines would increase from $50,000 to $1,000,000, and fines for corporations or other entities would rise from up to $500,000 to up to $10,000,000. Administrative penalties would also climb from $10,000 to up to $10,000,000. The bill removes existing time limits that currently prevent investigation of transactions older than two or three years. Finally, when a court orders improperly acquired land to be sold, the bill allows the court to order that the net proceeds from the sale be forfeited to the provincial government rather than returned to the seller.