Blog | Action Surface Rights

CAEPLA – Fair Market Value: A Letter to Landowners Affected by BiPole III

April 21, 2015 By Admin

Did You Know?…

The National Energy Board (NEB) has just created a pamphlet on the new Administrative Monetary Penalties that can penalize landowners for crossing pipelines without permission. For individual landowners the “daily” penalty could range from $250 to a maximum of $25,000 per violation. If, as a landowner, you have a corporation the “daily” penalty could range from $1,000 to a maximum of $100,000 per violation. The original agreement on my family farm said the pipeline was not to interfere with normal farm practices!

CAEPLA has been advised that the NEB has no intention of sending notice of these new regulations or the new pamphlet out to pipeline landowners. Be sure to understand your risks. If you would like a copy of the pamphlet titled “Administrative Monetary Penalties Information for Landowners”, contact the NEB at 1-800-899-1265.

Written by CAEPLA

What is fair market value? For land? For energy projects? See the letter below written March 25th to landowners affected by BiPole III.

Click Here to Read Letter

Filed Under: News

Alta. NDP would add longterm care beds

April 16, 2015 By Admin

Lethbridge Herald

April 15, 2015

Edmonton

Leader Rachel Notley says the New Democrats will improve access to long-term care if they win the Alberta election on May 5. Notley says hundreds of patients are being forced to spend months in hospital waiting for room in a nursing home. She says the severe bed shortage is due to the PC government not giving the issue enough attention. She says the NDP would add 2,000 long-term care spaces over four years to reduce the wait list and relieve pressure on overcrowded hospitals. Notley made the announcement at the Edmonton home of Bernie Travis, whose husband, Clarence, has been waiting in hospital since August for a long-term care bed.

Filed Under: News

Where is Democracy?

April 16, 2015 By Admin

Sunny South News

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Sunny South News

By Debby Gregorash

I wasn’t much interested in politics until I married and nearly died of boredom with toddlers, laundry and endless cleaning up.
I started listening to CBC Radio and became fascinated with how our political system works.
I soon came to realize the average citizen out here in Alberta doesn’t study politics or the issues either.
So, the wool can be pulled over their eyes with ease. I pray this next generation pays attention.
I remember listening to the radio when the Premiers’ conference was on and was impressed by Peter Lougheed and his provincial savings account — the Heritage Fund.
Well now, it’s pretty well gone. We charged decent royalties back then for the oil taken from our province.
Now, we practically give it away, which is pretty much why we are broke. How did this happen? Well, we have become a Petro-state.
At the same time, I was learning about all this, I was developing my spirituality.
I liked the part in the New Testament where Jesus says if you feed the poor, care for the sick and visit people in jail, and all those compassionate things — you are doing the same thing for him.
I looked around at the province back in the 1970s and it wasn’t too bad and almost seemed to have a civilized and compassionate air to it.
Alas, now the food banks can barely keep up, too many poor people are in jail, the push for private health care is on and the government is no longer “of the people” but “for the corporations.” Rule of government by corporation is fascism.
I understand immigrants in the 1950s were sick of totalitarianism and fascism in their home countries, so what I don’t understand is why they can’t see it now, here in Canada, and in fact keep voting for it.
Is it true people vote a certain way because “we’ve always voted this way?”
I once voted federally for the Progressive Conservatives but they are dead and gone now, replaced by the Reform Party, which stole the name “Conservative.”
Meanwhile, old men vote Conservative and tell the wives who to vote for. I know of a woman who said, after her husband died, “Oh well, now I can vote for the candidate I want.” It’s a secret ballot, for heaven’s sake, you can vote as you please.
Meanwhile, democracy is dying and the gap between the rich and poor is increasing.
Funding is being stolen from public health and education and the world is being funnelled into private hands.
In other countries around the world, you can go to university or college for free and the citizens in those countries are prospering.
We need young people to get well-rounded educations that include the arts and sciences.
Graduates should not be indentured for the rest of their lives. That’s slavery.
We need somehow to revoke the law that says corporations are persons. We need to force them to have a conscience that includes the costs of protecting the environment instead of using rivers and lakes, and the air and the soil, as toxic dumps.
The technology to move to a world without fossil fuel energy is here but the people who make the rules are the same people who profit from this dinosaur industry.
I once thought “Globalization” would mean a world-wide awakening to truth, peace, co-operation and all those good things communities can have.
But the corporate view of globalization is making a profit wherever democracy is not strong. Greed is the new God.
Every day I listen to the economic reports and the market numbers and I wonder why we don’t have a “Happiness” report or a “Democracy” report.
Why is it all about how much you can steal from people, nature, and the soil?
Why must unemployment be good for industry? Why do we put up with modern day slavery? Where are the Democrats?
Their democratic voices need to burst forth and we need to pay attention.

Filed Under: News

Prentice takes heat for province’s climate change strategy

April 16, 2015 By Admin

Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald

Published on: April 13, 2015
Last Updated: April 13, 2015 10:51 AM MDTJim Prentice will campaign in Alberta while Canada’s premiers meet in Quebec this week to discuss climate change, but his rivals are calling his inaction on greenhouse gases, “a shameful lack of leadership.”

While critics jumped down his throat on the campaign trail Sunday for procrastinating on critical global warming strategy, the premier says the Progressive Conservative government is working on its own plan.

“I’m very pleased with the progress we’re making,” Prentice said Saturday. “I committed that we would renew the policies of the government relative to climate change (and) we’re in the process of doing that.”

Environmentalists took to the streets in Quebec, Calgary, and Edmonton Saturday to protest the lack of action on climate change nationally. They say they want to see meaningful progress when premiers meet in Quebec Tuesday to discuss what provinces can do before a United Nations climate change summit in Paris later this year.

Greenpeace climate change campaigner Mike Hudema said Alberta is holding the rest of the country back in climate change actions.
Advertisement

“We have other provincial leaders that are taking steps to address a growing climate crisis and yet Alberta’s emissions continue to skyrocket,” he said. “We need real provincial leadership.”

Prentice’s campaign spokeswoman said Alberta senior government officials will attend the Quebec conference in place of the premier to observe the meeting. However, neither Environment Minister Kyle Fawcett nor Municipal Affairs Minister Diana McQueen — who Prentice recently tasked with shepherding Alberta’s policy — are going.

“We believe it is important for provinces to work together to reduce carbon emissions in a way that respects both the environment and the economy,” said Prentice campaign spokeswoman Emily Woods.
“Unfortunately, with an election campaign now under way in Alberta, Premier Prentice will be unable to attend the Quebec conference.”

She said the premier looks forward “to hearing what provinces have to say on this important matter and to working with them to take action on climate change.”

Prentice’s predecessors Alison Redford and Dave Hancock had promised to unveil a new provincial strategy last year after environment officials conceded to a legislature committee that Alberta missed its 2010 targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

More recently, the provincial auditor general criticized the government’s failure to report publicly on its climate change program.

Prentice now says he will meet the province’s 2020 climate change targets and hopes to unveil a new climate change plan in June, but opposition leaders on the campaign trail are skeptical.

“As an Albertan, I am frustrated because we have a government which has been planning a climate change plan for years and talking about introducing one but never moving on it,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said. “They’ve failed to do it and in doing so hurt our national reputation and ultimately hurt our job creation opportunities as well.”

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said he is fearful Prentice will commit Alberta to a national cap and trade program that will force Alberta energy companies to purchase emission credits from other provinces.

“To me that sounds like one more equalization program,” he said. “It would have a total negative effect to Alberta. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever except to damage Alberta’s resource industry and quality of life through more taxes and less real positive change to the environment.”

He said the current strategy to invest billions of dollars into carbon capture and sequestration projects is “unproven technology” and merely a “corporate welfare” program.

Liberal Leader David Swann, who was fired from his position as a medical health officer after disagreeing with former premier Ralph Klein’s position on climate change, said it remains a crucial issue.

“Fundamentally this is our economy’s number one threat in Alberta. Mr. Prentice needs to show leadership to protect and grow the economy — and he is not,” said Swann.

Swann said the Liberals would put “a meaningful price” on carbon, raising the current $15 per tonne of emissions by heavy emitters on a predictable, graduating basis so industry can plan and budget for it.

Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark called the delay in updating Alberta’s climate change strategy, “unfortunate.”

“I think it’s a shameful lack of leadership from Jim Prentice and the PCs that will hurt Alberta,” said Clark. “We have an opportunity to be the leaders in this country and leaders in the world on environment policy and I think if we are, the world will want to do business with Alberta.”

He said climate change policy offers a huge opportunity to Alberta to do the “right thing” while serving as a tool to diversify the economy.

“Alberta can be a big part of the solution to climate change,” he said. “Instead we have a PC government that has chosen to drag its feet.

with Trevor Howell, Calgary Herald

[email protected], [email protected]

Filed Under: News

Time for a change in Alberta politics

April 16, 2015 By Admin

Lethbridge Herald

By Letter to the Editor on April 14, 2015.

Insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Premier Prentice has shown great hubris and called an early election to give him a mandate to fix Alberta’s budgetary failings. This is a totally unnecessary and very expensive waste of money. Albertans have already told the premier what they want through an online survey initiated by the government. Unfortunately, the results did not match the premier’s plans and virtually all of the wishes expressed by Albertans in the survey have been ignored. In fact, Premier Prentice’s plans are in complete opposition to the wishes of Albertans expressed in the survey.

Health-care premiums are to be reintroduced. There will be no return to a progressive personal income tax. Corporations are to feel no increased tax pain. Incredibly low oil royalties are to remain the same. Massive debt will once again be incurred over the next few years.

Premier Prentice says, “All Albertans need to look in the mirror” when dealing with Alberta’s budgetary problems. In this, he is absolutely correct. It is Albertans who continually elect inept and entitled Progressive Conservative governments with a massive majority. Another such Progressive Conservative government, with little opposition, is the worst possible electoral outcome. It can and will cater to the vested interests of the wealthy, corporations and oil companies. Average Albertans will be left to pay for the Progressive Conservative government’s financial mismanagement and corporate welfare.

I encourage everyone to vote in the upcoming election, but I strongly urge you not to vote for the very political party that got us into the present financial mess. The Progressive Conservatives have had over 40 years to get Alberta on a sound financial footing that is not reliant on oil prices. We accept change in all walks of life. Why not in Alberta politics? It is time for a change in who runs our province. The Progressive Conservatives have not earned and do not deserve your vote.

Robert King-Brown

Lethbridge

Filed Under: News

Prentice says Alberta will not have provincial sales tax as long as he’s premier

April 16, 2015 By Admin

The Canadian Press

Published on: April 14, 2015
Last Updated: April 14, 2015 9:04 AM MDT

EDMONTON — Premier Jim Prentice says there will not be a provincial sales tax as long as he is the leader of Alberta.

Prentice says Albertans have told him they don’t want the tax and he agrees with them.

Alberta is the only province without such a levy, but Prentice said earlier this year he would consider it if there were widespread support.

Opposition leaders, however, say Albertans need to be careful about promises from Prentice.

They have all noted that he also promised to follow Alberta’s fixed election law, only to drop the writ a year early.

Prentice says his budget sets a 10-year financial path for Alberta and he needs a mandate to implement it.

Canadian Press

Filed Under: News

Wildrose demands Prentice divulge details of deal for golf course

April 16, 2015 By Admin

The Canadian Press

Published on: April 13, 2015
Last Updated: April 13, 2015 8:50 PM MDT

The Kananaskis Country Golf Course, three years before the 2013 flood.

Kananaskis Country Golf Course / Calgary Herald

Alberta’s Wildrose party says Premier Jim Prentice needs to come clean on a contract for the publicly owned Kananaskis Country Golf Course.

The party says in a news release that the contract to repair the flood-damaged course needs to be made public because of questions surrounding it.

The deal, signed last July, has seen more than $5 million being paid to a private operator to cover expenses and losses after the 36-hole course was damaged by extensive flooding.

The operator, Kan-Alta Golf Management Ltd., is a donor to the governing Progressive Conservatives.

When the deal made headlines last month, Prentice ordered a stop to all payments ahead of an independent review.

Prentice says it’s not appropriate for the province to be in — quote —”the golf course business.”

The Canadian Press

Filed Under: News

Jim Prentice acknowledges Albertans are unhappy with the PC party

April 16, 2015 By Admin

April 13, 2015

By Staff The Canadian Press

CALGARY – Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Prentice says he knows there is a certain level of public anger being directed at his party.

In a speech to about 200 supporters in Calgary, the incumbent premier said Albertans have not been happy with PC governments that lost sight of party values.

He says his government will not make the mistakes of the past and will earn back the trust of voters.

FULL COVERAGE: Decision Alberta 2015

But he warns there are tough times ahead and there will be items on the public wish list that will go unfulfilled.

Prentice is attempting to extend the PC party’s four-decade dynasty, having just brought down a budget that hikes taxes and runs a record $5-billion deficit.

He has spent the first week of the election campaign touting the spending plan, while challenging the opposition parties to provide more than just the bare bones of ideas on how to deal with low oil prices.

Filed Under: News

Crowsnest Pass council opposes transmission line

April 16, 2015 By Admin

Pincher Creek Voice

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Chris Davis

In a correspondence dated March 16, 2015, Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter expressed Crowsnest Pass Council’s opposition to the Alta link Castle Rock Ridge to Chapel Rock Transmission Project.

The correspondence was addressed to the following:

Alberta Electric System Operator – Stakeholder Relations
Mr. John Barlow, M.P. for Macleod, House of Commons, Ottawa
The Honourable Jim Prentice, Premier of Alberta
Mr. Pat Stier, MLA for Livingstone-Macleod
Honourable Frank Oberle, Minister of Energy
Mr. John Grove, Municipal and Community Relations Manager, South, Altalink
ReeveBrian Hammond, MD of Pincher Creek
Reeve Cameron Gardner, MD of Ranchland
Mayor Don Anderberg, Town of Pincher Creek

According to the correspondence, CNP council received a petition by “in excess of 166 persons” opposed to the alignment route east of the Bellevue “adjacent to an existing transmission line on the eastern boundary of the Municipality”.

“After a considerable debate on the alignment option, Council was of the opinion that there are several considerations they must identify as significant disadvantages to this proposed hydro line construction project.”

The perceived disadvantages include (taken directly from the correspondence):

Our community has not been properly consulted on the effect of the towers on our community. This project has been called the “Castle Rock Ridge to Chapel Rock Transmission Project”. Both of these areas are not even close to the Crowsnest Pass. It was only when Altalink presented to Council, and we demanded that they do a consultation in our community, did a consultation happen. Originally they had no intention of holding a consultation in our community even though we are directly affected. There needs to be an extension in order for all citizens in our community to express their views on this project.
The Community of Bellevue has a population of over 2,800 people within 1.1 square kilometer, whereas the total population of the MD of Pincher Creek is approximately 3,100 people with a density of .9 per square kilometer. Therefore, our community is at a much greater impact than the MD of Pincher Creek in regards to visual impact and wind noise within this community .
The planned corridor for this project will go through some very tough terrain and will jeopardize and threaten many species in this South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (SSRP) identified subalpine region, including the Limber Pine and a major wildlife corridor. The SSRP also talks about “appropriately considering land uses and values”. The Alberta Government is “committed to responsible development”, and this is not responsible development when it threatens to dramatically effect a whole community. The proposed route contradicts Alberta’s objective to diversify our economy from oil to tourism.
Our community relies heavily on the tourism industry as our only source of business revenue, and with over 10,000 vehicles passing through a day, clear sight lines are imperative. The transmission line would be in full view of the multimillion dollar Frank Slide Interpretive Centre while tourists view the historic “Frank Slide”.
The siting of the towers and line on a prominent height of land on the boundary of a community of 800 land owners will be a significant deterrent for future subdivision and development within the Community of Bellevue, and will cause a significant devaluation or reduction of assessed value of the personal properties adjacent to the line route.
The Council has been advised by property owners who live in close proximity to existing such line right-of-ways of the wind noise, and constant irritation caused by the sound from the towers and the lines that are very close to this residential community.
The Council is of the opinion that the other three proposed line route options pose a significant lesser risk to a much more sparsely populated area, than the route option north of Bellevue.
In the Crowsnest Pass the major marketing advantage is the view from the valley, and the valley is already a major corridor for the railway, highway, hydro transmission lines and pipelines. Since we are considered a “Gateway” to Alberta, a major management issue in the valley is the control of invasive weeds along all of these right-of-ways, and all too often the Municipality is left to conduct operations to control and eradicate these weed infestations with no help or recognition of the problem from the owners of these right-of-ways. In the last three years, Alberta Transportation and Canadian Pacific have started to realize the issues with invasive weeds and have started to recognize the cost to control invasive species of weeds, but the pipeline companies and the hydro companies have been less than reactive to the problem.
The Municipality is one of the only communities and part of the Crown of the Continent initiative and partnership which strives to sustain the remarkable landscape of this area.

“In the opinion of the Municipal Council of the Crowsnest Pass, the proposed alignment for the Transmission Line is a detriment to one most marketable feature and landscape of the Municipality and the area, which is the purity of the site lines and scenery. Therefore, we the Municipal Council will go on record as being opposed to routing of this Transmission Line through the Municipality.”

Filed Under: News

Surface rights group taking issue to court Lease payment concerns have group looking for financial support from Alberta landowners

April 13, 2015 By Admin

APRIL 9, 2015 THE WESTERN PRODUCER

BY PAUL COWLEY FREELANCE WRITER RED DEER

An Alberta surface rights group plans to fight to ensure that landowners don’t lose lease payments from bankrupt oil companies. Don Bester, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Group, accuses the provincial board that oversees surface rights issues of changing a longstanding practice of guaranteeing annual surface lease payments. The practice ensured that landownersweren’t left out of pocket when oil or gas companies went out of business. Bester said the board “erred in an interpretation of law” in a 2014 case involving Drayton Valley-area farmers Doug and Marg Lemke and Petroglobe Inc. The Lemkes argued that the insolvent company owed them $3,700 in lease payments. However, the Surface Rights Board rejected their application to seek compensation through the board. “The (Alberta) Surface Rights Board claimed the Bank and Insolvency Act superseded the Alberta Surface Rights Act, although it is veryclear that this is not the case,” said Bester.

He said the board would previously order companies that were defaulting on their payments to pay up or be stripped of their mineral rights. The board could provide compensation to landowners if no agreement was reached with the company. Bester said the implications extend beyond lease payments to farmers. There is also the question of who will be responsible for cleaning up former well sites.

“To us, it’s one of the more important issues we have faced,” he said. Municipalities also stand to lose thousands of dollars in taxes that oil and gas companies pay on the land on which their pipelines and facilities are located, he added. Alberta Surface Rights Board counsel Karen Sinclair-Santos said there has been no change in legislation or the board’s options for dealing with

companies that are behind on their payments. These options include suspension or termination orders for the site in question and board-issued directions to pay. Each case is dealt with on its own

facts, which can be complicated in cases of bankruptcy or receivership. She said the board can still offer compensation.

“Each time an application comes before the board, it makes its decision on the particular facts. There’s no guideline directing a board member to make a decision in a particular way.” There have been a number of decisions where the board has recognized that Bankruptcy Act provisions halt enforcement actions under the surface rights legislation. Sinclair-Santos said landowners who aren’t satisfied with the board’s decision can seek a judicial review.

Bester said taking the board to court is expected to cost as much as $30,000. The group is hoping to raise money to wage its fight by appealing to those potentially affected, including the counties of Red Deer, Clearwater, Knee hill and Mountain View. “We’re on the fundraising trail.” Clearwater County chief administrative officer Ron Leaf said assessment staff are not expecting any changes that will affect pipeline tax collection, which can be complicated when oil or gas companies are in arrears because they do not own the land on which their pipeline sits.

Filed Under: News