VICTORIA— Despite promising to protect farmland during the election, leaked emails reveal that as soon as she was elected Premier Clark purposefully appointed ministers who had long desired to remove protections for farmland to oversee B.C. agriculture, say New Democrats.

“Both the ministers who led the attack on B.C.’s precious and irreplaceable farmland made their positions known to the premier before they were appointed to cabinet,” said New Democrat agriculture critic Nicholas Simons.

E-mails sent in July 2012 and obtained by the New Democrat Opposition show B.C. Liberal MLA Pat Pimm (Peace River North) and Bill Bennett (Kootenay East) – before they were appointed to their ministerial positions – complaining about restrictions on developing farmland.

“It’s clear the Premier had already planned her attack on the agricultural land reserve when the B.C. Liberal party told the people of B.C. during the election that they would protect farmland,” said Simons. “Otherwise Premier Clark would not have appointed people who don’t understand the importance of agriculture to oversee it.”

The e-mails can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/1ouwZL1