Task force urged to repeal four land bills
The Redford government got an earful, Jan 11, at the Olds Cow Palace as about 220 participants took part in the fifth of 10 open houses hosted by the Alberta Property Rights Task Force.
Urged by Environment and Water Minister Diana McQueen, the task force chair, to “be open and blunt in your comments,” speaker after speaker targeted the government’s four contentious land bills – 19, 24, 36 and 50 – and some took aim at the task force process itself.
“What’s happening here is nothing but a sham,” said Luke von Maldeghem of Indus, south of Calgary.
“Where was the public consultation before these bills were passed? Where’s Ted Morton? You want solutions? Vote for something other than PCs,” von Maldeghem said.
Lack of public consultation before the bills were drafted and passed was a recurring theme among participants.
“These meetings should never have been necessary,” said Sharon Meadows of Innisfail.
The Olds session was “very poorly organized, very poorly advertised,” said Don Bester, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Group, who also attended.
Open house participants were split into six “listening stations,” with three taking place inside the Cow Palace foyer and the other three within the show ring.
“Divide and conquer, that’s the strategy – people can’t hear what the other people are saying. They did not want big audiences,” Bester said.
“I’m just really concerned that this is all for nought. I’ve heard it at each of these stations: ‘Repeal all these bills.’ It took them five years to put them together – do you think you’re going to get rid of this before the election?”
Asked how much of the meeting could be classed as a Wildrose Party pre-election event, Bester said, “All of it.”
During his presentation, Bester criticized the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) for “running around promoting the oil industry when they’re supposed to be a regulatory body, not a propaganda tool.”
Larry Koper called the ERCB “a joke” during his presentation.
“They follow the wishes of the people who pay their salaries and most of their salaries come from the oil companies.”
Koper said a total of eight oil wells were being drilled within a two-mile radius of his property north of Cochrane. When he asked oil company reps whether they would supply him with water if his aquifer became contaminated, they dismissed his concerns, he said.
“I was told I own the first three feet and below that, the hell with you. But without water I can’t live,” Koper said.
“Nobody’s looking at the impact and no one’s taking responsibility if I lose water from my place, or my so-called place. Oil companies are simply telling me not to worry and from what I’ve read, I’m worried, I really am worried, and that’s the only reason I’ll speak at an open session such as this.”
“We want a truly independent ERCB,” Red Deer County resident Glenn Norman said during the consultant’s summary, when all the participants briefly came together. “We don’t want an ERCB that is in the pockets of industry. Whether you agree with that or not, that’s the perception of 90 per cent of the people in the room.”
The call to repeal the four land bills was “the overarching piece of advice” by many at the open house, said lead facilitator Catrin Owen in her summary of the session.
Imposing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, defining property rights and enshrining them in an Alberta bill of rights were also common solutions offered up by participants, said Owen, a senior consultant with Calder Bateman, the Edmonton-based public relations firm which is managing the task force exercise.
Following the Olds session the task force held its sixth open house later in the day at Rocky Mountain House, where about 75 people attended. The final sessions were scheduled for Brooks and Hanna yesterday and Medicine Hat and Lethbridge today.
A report incorporating the public feedback is due at the end of the month.
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Comments
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message ID: 334384
Post On: January 16, 2012
Posted by User #: Airdrie Lover
Posted by IP:
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Why are the PCs spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these public consultations? The people of Alberta have long said that all these bills need to be repealed. The only answer I can think of is that the PCs wish to present the image that it's they, and not the Wildrose, who are the champion of this issue. But its such garbage....the PCs fought tooth and nail against the Wildrose on this file for years and stated we were fear mongering.