Yesterday I posted an article with  information on the market price of prime farmland in Prince County at rates as high as $6,500 per acre, pointing out that the Irving family was somehow able to acquire the 2,200 acres for a little more than a third of the market value for the land, roughly $2,300 per acre ($5.1 million). 

After posting that blog article, I was contacted by a person privy to what actually happened with the Brendel/Irving land transfer scheme.  I agreed to protect that person’s anonymity, but I’m absolutely certain what I’m about to report is true.

Six separate farmers in the Bedeque area had learned that the Gardiner family (Brendel farms Ltd.) was selling roughly 32 parcels of land, totalling approximately 2,200 acres.

Negotiations between the Gardiner family (Brendel Farms Ltd.) and the six local farmers  culminated in what was described to me as a “done deal.”  And here comes the real shocker:  The price the local farmers offered was $6,200 per acre ($13,640,000). 

The group of six farmers was then shortly-thereafter informed that the land was “unfortunately already sold.”

The price the media reported Irving paid for the 2,200 acres ($5.1 million) was approximately $8.5 million less than the group of local farmers offered!

It would appear the Gardiner family was in some way indebted to the Irvings, and was forced to sell to settle that indebtedness, despite receiving a much better offer from the six local farmers.

The provincial government should force the Irving family to divest themselves of the complete 2,200; and that land should go to the local farmers at the same price Irving reportedly paid for it: $2,300 per acre!