Land Tenure Issues

The Basic Issue

Last Christmas I had the experience of paying off our mortgage and taking the papers in to the Land Titles Office to get the property cleared of claim against it. I thought I was just running one of a number of errands, not dissimilar to the others on my pre-Christmas list. To my surprise, there were a host of feelings which swept over me totally unexpectedly when I found myself in full possession of a piece of land for the first time in my life. The feeling is very hard to put into words, but my guess is that there is something wired into the land which runs far back into the mists of time.

Land ownership has been the subject of much study and theory over the years, and the basis of many wars, revolutions, skirmishes and quarrels and hassles. People speak of mankind's "territorial imperative", they jostle in offices over "turf", and many of our national sports are based on the gaining and losing of yards of territory. the Social Science of Geography specializes in the examination of the spatial relationships of mankind, and the Real Estate industry excels in its understanding of its value. Nations are based on land masses with their boundaries most often natural formations which are either easily recognizable or easily defendable.

The nature of land tenure in Western Manitoba plays a big role in he dynamics of this area. Many of the farmers who settled here came from Europe either voluntarily or under political or economic compulsion with the hopes of making a better start in the "New World". Ownership of land after many years of enforced "peasant" farming as serfs and tenants had finally opened up with the awesome hope of actually owning the land one worked. These feeling run deep in the cultural outlook of this area of the prairies.

One indication of just how deep these feelings run in this area is evident when, after several generations on prairie farms, current owners face losing is all due to the current farm crisis. As a friend of mine put it one day, "the shame is so great that when they lose it they do not drive out in the day, they sneak out at night". The stress that is generated on these folks, especially on the women in agriculture is enormous, and not easily relieved.

A First Nations Reserve is a type of Land Trust, only in that case, the buildings are also part of the property held in common, and the trust itself is still held by the Federal Government. A variety of solutions have emerged in the area of land ownership, both for agricultural land and for home dwelling land in the rural towns, as the prices of land are driven ever upward, regardless of the value of the buildings on it. The valuation of land, in all sectors of he real estate industry is a complex field, and the solutions to its problems are many and varied.

Off-Line Resources

• (no author) "Affordabile Housing & the Community Land Trust". Contact Practitioner Reports (p.58-59).Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This study is a good brief account for one system for creating affordable housing in towns, as the land value is removed from the dynamics of the marketplace in perpetuity. This is done through converting the land to a "land trust". It is often also used in the protection of ecologically sensitive lands by creating conditions of use in the trust agreement. When land prices rise, the value of the homes, which is now separate from that of the land, remain constant. Owners retain equity in the buildings and improvements they make, but not in the land. This process serves to make affordable housing a reality over time.

• Briles, Sara."The Role of the Community Land Trust: Understanding the Inter-relationships of Land Trusts, Poverty and Community Development". Small Town. Jul-Aug, 1995 (p.16-21). Reprinted in Ferrazzi, Gabe. Course Reader, Rural Community Development, Brandon University, 2001.
  This report deals with the problem of poverty and land ownership, and the linkages between the two. As land trusts are set up as non-profit organizations they are eligible or donations of more land in the future. The central concerns of this author are:
  • security
  • equity and
  • legacy.

  The author sees Land Trusts as:

  1. the removal of an impediment to rural community development
  2. a base or a model for further CD actions.

On-Line Resources