20 corporations with ties to Irvings own more than 12,000 acres on P.E.I.

Four years ago, the P.E.I. government said it had ordered a corporation owned by a member of the Irving family, Red Fox Acres, to get rid of some of its land because of a contravention of P.E.I.'s Lands Protection Act.

It was only the second time the province had ordered a divestiture of land under the act, which came into effect in 1982. The first time, it was also the Irving family that was ordered to give up land.

Two years ago, the government said the Irvings were now in compliance with the act, even though land title records show the same corporation still owns the land in question today.

No information was shared with the public to explain what changed, or just how the Irving family had come into compliance with the act. In the legislature, the Green Party suggested the company had leased the land to another Irving-controlled corporation.

And this is largely how enforcement of this unique piece of legislation has gone, over the 42 years since the act was enacted: with no way for the public to scrutinize how corporations, the provincial regulator, or even the provincial cabinet is following the law. 

"Governments… both Liberal and Conservative, have turned a blind eye to the Lands Protection Act. They haven't enforced it," said James Rodd, a former leader of the Island New Democratic Party and a founding member of the Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Land. That's a grassroots organization that sprang up around what has become a contentious issue in the province.

In October 2020, CBC News filed a freedom of information request with then-minister of land Bloyce Thompson's department for a copy of the investigative report that Thompson had ordered and received from the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission into the Brendel Farms land acquisition.

Even though the privacy commissioner ruled in January 2021 that the report could be released, it still hasn't been.

In the meantime, Rebecca Irving and Red Fox Acres had filed two court applications for a judicial review in November 2020, asking the P.E.I. court system to "nullify" the minister's decision to order the land divested.

That judicial review has never gone forward. While it's still listed as an active file in court records, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice told CBC News in September: "The province does consider this matter closed as the parties achieved compliance with the Lands Protection Act prior to advancing to the official review."

P.E.I. is the only province in Canada that places legal limits on how much land individuals or corporations can own.

CBC News used provincial land records to calculate how much land is owned by companies with ties to the Irving family in New Brunswick.

It totals more than 12,600 acres, representing just under one per cent of the province's total land area.

That amount is much higher than the limit for any single corporation under the Lands Protection Act of 3,000 acres — even taking into account exemptions for non-arable land or land leased out to someone else.