Benjamin Shingler The Canadian Press

Posted:Aug 17, 2014 11:13 AM AT

Last Updated:Aug 17, 2014 11:39 AM AT

A woman kneels in front of a line of police officers while protesting fracking in Elsipogtog, N.B., on Oct. 17, 2013. Photo by Ossie Michelin

Federal officials closely tracked the fallout of an RCMP raid on a First Nations protest against shale-gas exploration in New Brunswick, at one point raising concerns it could spawn another countrywide movement like Idle No More.

Documents obtained under access-to-information legislation reveal a lengthy email chain last fall monitoring events related to a blockade near Rexton, N.B., about 70 kilometres north of Moncton.

Members of the Elsipogtog First Nation, who were concerned about the environmental impact of shale-gas development, didn’t want energy company SWN Resources to do testing work on their traditional territory.

Police officers enforced an injunction on Oct. 17 to end the blockade of a compound where the company stored exploration equipment.

The early-morning raid led to violent clashes between officers and protesters. By the end of the day, six police cars had been torched and 40 people arrested.

‘Growing support of protesters’

As the situation unfolded, a government official sent an email reporting “growing support of protesters by first nation (sic) communities and other groups across the country.”

“An ‘Idle No More’ like movement of protests is reportedly being planned starting tomorrow,” wrote Alain Paquet, director of operations for Public Safety Canada.

“We will keep you informed through our Situation Reports…”

Those in the email chain included staff within the Privy Council Office, the central bureaucracy which serves the prime minister and cabinet.

The Government Operations Centre, an arm of Public Safety Canada, emailed out daily reports detailing planned protests across the country.

On its website, the centre says it provides an “all-hazards integrated federal emergency response to events.”

A notice emailed later on Oct. 17 gave a rundown of planned protests and whether they posed a threat of violence.

“Other than the events at Rexton, N.B., so far calls are for peaceful action,” the notice said.

“Most of the protest activity to date under the Idle No More banner or related environmental or First Nations issues activities have been peaceful.”

Monitoring social media

The daily updates were compiled using media reports and information from the RCMP. But much of the information was derived by monitoring social media postings from the protesters themselves.

One update noted that the “creators of Idle No More in Lethbridge, AB, said via Twitter that they wasted no time in getting a group together to march down the city’s main drag Thursday afternoon.”

It also noted reports of “small demonstrations in New York City and Washington, D.C. outside the Canadian missions,” as well as in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

Another document outlined the “key messages” for the RCMP when fielding questions about its handling of the New Brunswick blockade, which protesters argued had been heavy-handed.

“Our members demonstrated incredible professionalism as they worked to resolve the situation,” one bullet point in the document said.

“Some in the crowd threw rocks and bottles at them and sprayed them with bear spray. Setting police cars on fire created a dangerous situation for all present and at that point our members were forced to physically confront some in the crowd who refused to obey the law.”

By Sunday, Oct. 20, three days after the arrests, a government update said “the number of protests continues to decline.”

“Less than five are planned for today according to the Idle No More website with one protest planned for Saint John, New Brunswick on Monday,” the email said.

‘Misunderstanding First Nations’

Susan Levi-Peters, one of the protesters and a former chief, said the emails reflect how Ottawa is more focused on trying to control aboriginal people rather come up with solutions.

“Canada has to have a better relationship with First Nations people,” said Levi-Peters, who ran for the NDP in 2011.

“I think Ottawa is misunderstanding First Nations people. And they’re getting more educated. I think Ottawa is in a shock because they don’t know how to treat them anymore.”

The shale-gas protests died down after Texas-based SWN Resources wrapped up its exploration work and left the province in December.

Last month, two men involved in the events of Oct. 17 were sentenced to 15 months in jail.

Germain Breau, a 21-year-old of the Elsipogtog First Nation, was found guilty of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and four counts of pointing a firearm.

Aaron Francis, a 20-year-old of the Eskasoni First Nation, was convicted of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Both men were also given two years probation following their jail time.

An email to Public Safety Canada asking whether it is standard procedure to closely track social media, media and RCMP reports drew the following response: “The GOC provides strategic-level coordination on behalf of the Government of Canada in response to an emerging or occurring event affecting the national interest.”

© The Canadian Press, 2014

By Mabell, Dave on August 14, 2014.

Dave Mabell

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

[email protected]

It’s one of those “only in Alberta” situations.

An American billionaire is poised to buy one of the province’s vital energy facilities. But, as Lethbridge MLA Bridget Pastoor points out, nobody seems to care.

In neighbouring provinces, publicly owned BC Hydro and SaskPower operate their province-wide electrical systems and pay a hefty dividend to taxpayers every year.

In Alberta, where there’s no Crown corporation operating a public grid, private companies build power networks and pay dividends to private investors instead. Now the biggest operator, AltaLink, is being bought by one of billionaire Warren Buffett’s businesses, Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

“Are we all too busy to pay attention, or are people OK with this sale?” the longtime Lethbridge MLA asks.

AltaLink is owned by Quebec-based SNC Lavalin. Pastoor questions whether its sale to an international company – for an impressive $3.2 billion – will benefit Albertans.

She asks, “Will we continue to pay for building transmission lines when we don’t get the rewards that those dollars should create?”

That’s what Lethbridge residents are asking her, she says. In other provinces, taxpayers own the new lines their monthly bills underwrite.

This latest development, Pastoor says, follows a series of fees and price spikes that began when then premier Ralph Klein deregulated the province’s electrical system. Despite his rosy predictions, no other province followed Klein’s lead.

Calls to Pastoor’s constituency office increased, she says, after the Lethbridge Herald ran an op-ed piece on Warren Buffett’s purchase by Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin. But so far, the Progressive Conservative government has had little to say about the deal.

The Alberta New Democrats have called for federal officials to cancel the sale, however, and all three contenders for the premier’s job say they’re watching the deal closely.

Meanwhile AltaLink’s competitor, Alberta-based Atco, has warned of “serious consequences” if federal and provincial authorities allow the sale. The utility’s president, Nancy Southern, has maintained critical facilities like transmission lines should remain in the hands of Canadians.

But speaking for AltaLink, president Scott Thon says the change in ownership should have little impact on everyday Albertans.

“For Lethbridge consumers, we won’t see anything change as a result of the sale,” he says.

Across southern Alberta, the company delivers power generated by wind power and thermal coal to community-level distributors including Enmax and Fortis. New investment will make its network still stronger, Thon points out.

“Berkshire Hathaway Energy has a strong track record of owning and operating world-class utilities,” he says.

The American company’s massive investment in Alberta infrastructure will ensure AltaLink has the capacity to keep on building new transmission lines as the province’s population and economy continue to grow, Thon adds.

“Our company is pretty excited about the sale,” he says. “We’re lucky to have a steady, strong investor.”

AltaLink traces its roots to 1911, he says. It began as Calgary Power, building a hydro dam in the Rocky Mountains and stringing a transmission line from there to the city. The company’s name changed to TransAlta in the 1980s, as it grew to serve a larger area of the province. Following electrical deregulation, it split to create one company for power generation (TransAlta) and another for high-voltage distribution.

The province’s north-south transmission grid, dating from the 1970s, is currently being reinforced, Thom says. About 90 per cent of the transmission towers on AltaLink’s part of the project now in place, and contractors will soon be stringing cable along the line north and south from the Edmonton area.

For Alberta consumers, he explains, the $800-million cost will translate into an extra 80 cents on their monthly power bill.

In the Lethbridge area, AltaLink recently completed connection with the massive 300-megaWatt Blackspring Ridge wind farm near Carmangay – currently, the most powerful in Western Canada.

The Alberta Utilities Commission approved upgrades to the electrical transmission system on July 29, part of which nears Didsbury.

The AUC recently approved a new Johnson substation approximately seven kilometres northwest of Didsbury to tie into existing lines that will help ease the burden on the existing system by building two kilometres of 138-kilovolt transmission line. A new substation will connect the existing 166 L line from Didsbury north to Wetaskiwin to the new western Alberta transmission line to be built to service the province’s existing electricity needs.

The construction in the Didsbury area will start in September and last until roughly April 2015.

“It’s a reinforcement project. The Red Deer-area transmission project is really meant to reinforce a system that’s been in place since about 1960,” said Peter Brodski, manager of external relations for AltaLink. “Obviously the population growth in the Red Deer, Didsbury, Innisfail (areas) … has grown considerably where we’re looking at greater demands on the lines so these (upgrades) are meant to reinforce the system, create more reliability for people using it, and also take into account the increase in use that the power system in the Red Deer area is under.”

The Didsbury population, according to AltaLink, has more than tripled in the last 50 years.

The Didsbury-area project is part of a larger improvement project that will see the rebuilding of three existing sections of line in the Red Deer, Joffre and Benalto areas. AltaLink has had numerous consultations with area residents and other interested parties in the last three years.

The company says its representatives will continue to consult with residents as the upgrades progress.

THE CANADIAN PRESS
Published Monday, August 11, 2014 9:26PM ADT

The Canadian Press

Read more Articles from The Canadian Press

alberta needs to maintain multiple transmission facility owners to encourage competition

Leigh Clarke

SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT,

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT, ALTALINK

Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin recently wrote a column about the pending sale of AltaLink to Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE). Mr. Anglin’s piece is strong on opinion but light on facts.

We want to be very clear. The sale to BHE will not increase the transmission charge on electricity bills for Albertans. In fact, that’s one of the critical tests of the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) process currently underway. It is the mandate of the AUC to ensure that no harm comes to ratepayers, whether by increased cost or impacts to reliability, as a result of this sale.

Under BHE ownership, there will be no loss of control over AltaLink’s transmission system. We will continue to be regulated by the AUC and the Alberta Electric System Operator will continue to operate the grid and identify new transmission projects to support our province.

The AUC isn’t the only formal review of this transaction. On July 25, Industry Canada announced its approval of the Berkshire Hathaway Energy application to purchase AltaLink. Its test was to ensure an overall economic benefit to Canada resulting from the sale. Some of the conditions of Industry Canada’s approval included maintaining Alberta jobs at AltaLink and confirming BHE’s commitment to reinvest 100 per cent of AltaLink’s earnings back into the business, in Alberta or elsewhere in Canada. And BHE, like SNC-Lavalin does today, will pay Canadian income tax on its earnings in AltaLink.

Mr. Anglin also misunderstands the difference between being a publicly owned company and a publicly regulated company. Transmission, distribution and gas pipeline utilities have always been privately owned in Alberta – always – while being publicly regulated. Opponents to this deal suggest a single company can effectively build and maintain our provincial electricity network, but creating monopolies has never been in step with Alberta’s entrepreneurial spirit. Alberta needs to maintain multiple transmission facility owners to encourage competition and drive down costs for consumers. It’s a formula that has served Albertans well for more than 100 years.

Mr. Anglin seems to be advocating for the conversion of Alberta’s utilities to Crown corporations so that ratepayers can share in the proceeds of the sale. However, if the value of AltaLink’s business had gone down, I’m confident he wouldn’t be asking ratepayers to pick up the difference. That’s happening in Ontario where ratepayers have paid billions of dollars during the last 15 years to pay down the debt from its Crown utilities. That’s not what Albertans want and it’s not what our province was built on. While billions of dollars of investment have been required in AltaLink to keep pace with Alberta’s exceptional growth, none of this investment has added any debt to the Government of Alberta’s balance sheet.

We’re Albertans, too. And as a utility charged with supporting Alberta’s growing economy, we will ensure the transmission system is reliable, affordable and under Albertan control. These are the facts.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
Published Friday, August 8, 2014 2:20PM EDT
Last Updated Friday, August 8, 2014 6:35PM EDT

CALGARY — Calls grew louder Friday for a full public inquiry into former Alberta premier Alison Redford’s expenses with the Opposition Wildrose party adding its voice.

Leader Danielle Smith said an RCMP review of the auditor general’s report released Thursday is not enough.

Merwan Saher concluded Redford and her office used public resources, including government aircraft, inappropriately and for personal and partisan purposes. He blamed an “aura of power” around Redford and her office and the perception that their influence should not be questioned.

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“That is something that requires a full public inquiry into all of the matters that the auditor general looked at for the premier’s office — the misuse of government airplanes, whether or not expense accounts are being abused and, of course, the hidden travel expenses,” Smith said.

“If we are going to get to the bottom of how this aura of power emanating from the premier’s office causes multiple staff members in multiple different department to ignore the rules, to find work-arounds and to be terrified of standing up when they see wrongdoing, we need to know how many departments this is implicating.”

The provincial NDP and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have already called for a public inquiry. The government has sent Saher’s report to police and the justice minister says he has arranged for prosecutors from Ontario to help RCMP decide whether any charges are warranted.

Smith said an inquiry needs to be done before the next provincial election slated for 2016. She asked the three candidates running to replace Redford as Progressive Conservative leader and premier to commit to calling one.

NDP critic Deron Bilous echoed that call.

“All three PC candidates have publicly committed to openness, transparency and respect for public dollars. Now it’s time for them to put their money where their mouths are,” Bilous said.

“The only way we will get to the bottom of this issue and find out who was involved is if we allow an independent body to go through the information and come to an impartial conclusion.”

Redford resigned from the top job in March as a caucus revolt brewed over her leadership style and lavish spending. A vote for a new party leader is scheduled for Sept. 6.

On Wednesday, before the release of Saher’s report, she resigned her seat as a Calgary backbencher and in a letter acknowledged mistakes were made during her time in office. She said she would not be commenting further.

Len Webber, a member of the legislature from Calgary, quit the Alberta PC caucus last spring just prior to Redford resigning as premier. At the time, he called her a “bully” and “not a nice lady.”

Webber, who is now seeking a federal Conservative nomination, hasn’t changed his view and is feeling some vindication.

“I’m glad I spoke up,” he said Friday. “It’s nice that justice has been served to this point and I guess we’ll see now if the RCMP will charge her with anything.

“She put all this upon herself so there isn’t a lot of sympathy on my part. She dug her own grave and I’m just glad she’s no longer in.”

Saher outlined various misdeeds in his report, including a practice of “block booking” government aircraft to give the appearance that planes were full “so that other passengers could not ride on the same flight” with the premier and her staff.

Saher said Redford and her former chief of staff denied any knowledge of the practice, but that it’s clear the idea came from her office.

Redford also used government planes to attend Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta functions, the auditor said, sometimes scheduling government-related activities for the same times.

On two occasions, she used the planes for trips that Saher found were more personal than business-related — a family funeral in Vancouver and a weekend in Jasper. Her daughter travelled on both occasions, as well as on 48 other flights, a few times with friends and a couple of times without her mother. Saher called the flights for her daughter a “personal benefit.”

Saher also delved into the premier’s trade mission to India and Switzerland earlier this year that the government said cost $131,000. Adding other fees, such as advance planning, security and travel for other staff, Saher found the trip actually cost $450,000.

He further found that Redford was involved in a now-cancelled plan to add a premier’s suite to a government building under renovation near the legislature, a residence dubbed in the media as “sky palace” when it was revealed earlier this year.

The RCMP acknowledged receipt of a copy of the auditor general’s report, but said there’s no guarantee a full investigation will occur.

“Based on a review of the information provided, the RCMP may or may not initiate an investigation,” said RCMP Sgt. Josee Valiquette.

“If it’s determined an investigation is not warranted or there is insufficient evidence to support charges, the RCMP will advise the complainant,” she said.

“In the event an investigation results in the laying of criminal charges, the RCMP would confirm the investigation, the nature of the charges laid and the identity of the people involved.”

By Lethbridge Herald Opinon on August 8, 2014.

The dog days of summer do not appear to be the dog days so much anymore.

Eleanor Roosevelt had a great saying: “Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas.

So small mind it is today. Re: The airplane travel: Alison Redford flew with ghosts, Ralph Klein flew with friends, and both were wrong.

Besides that distraction, the legislative activity here in the city and in the province has been active. There seems to be no end to issues that are piquing people’s interest (actually ticking them off) but one topic that, at this point, is fairly consistent is the sale of AltaLink to Berkshire Hathaway, which is one of Warren Buffet’s billion-dollar companies. Joe Anglin wrote a fairly comprehensive op-ed on this anticipated sale in The Herald Tuesday, Aug. 5. The calls to my office are increasing.

Our citizenry banded together pretty quickly, forcefully and effectively when there appeared to be trouble in our backyard, i.e. what was labelled as urban drilling, but we don’t seem to have the same passion for this sale of our transmission lines to the Americans. Are we all just too busy to pay attention, or are people OK with this sale? Warren Buffet has promised a couple or so million dollars for social projects in Alberta – I believe that is yearly – but millions are basically his coffee money, and they probably use those numbers as round-offs!

Despite the previous comments, I am still doing my homework; will this sale down the line (pardon the pun) still remain beneficial for Albertans? Will we continue to pay for building transmission lines when we don’t get the rewards that those dollars should create? These and many more are the questions people ask me. In my mind, it is part and parcel of the privatization and deregulation of the electrical utilities.

The National Geographic issue in July 2010 had a very good article on this subject and a grid map for all of North America, which included a line from Alberta to California. Several websites which may be of interest are: http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org, http://www.nationalgeographic.com2010/07, and http://www.wise-intern.org/journal/2013/

documents. They do have perspectives from an American view, but can be relevant for Alberta and the future. In the article there is the suggestion of solar power from the Sahara desert being used in the Scandinavian countries via a grid system. However, wherever there is an abundant supply of solar, would it not be better to produce it there?

My understanding is that there is more money to be made in owning the grid system than in the actual production system. I certainly stand to be corrected.

I had the opportunity to drive up the Allison Creek road, and the logging roads off of that road. It is north of Highway 3 and west of Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass. It was hot and not a breath of wind and that is when I really started to think about water and the headwaters where it comes from. I am certainly no biologist, but I know a little. And even I noticed that the headwaters in the Forest Reserve is a busy place with random camping, off-highway vehicle traffic, grazing, petroleum development and logging.

Last week the province declared that both bull trout and cutthroat trout are now designated as “threatened” because populations have shrunk to dangerously low levels. The Allison Creek area is their living and breeding grounds. I was astounded to see that what appeared to be a logging road had slumped and there was erosion of the bare slopes and the road surface was allowing mud to seep directly into Allison Creek which contains cutthroat trout. There was evidence of attempts to fix this problem, but they appeared ineffectual and amateurish. In fact, there were places the mud was seeping under the barriers or just rerouting around the ends of these barriers as the water ran down towards the stream. At one point a culvert was draining the ground water but the runoff still drew some of the mud directly into the creek. The mud/silt changes the bottom of the creek bed as it mixes with the existing stones and can become almost concrete-like in its substance. And for obvious reasons, that is not good for our fish! No wonder they are decreasing.

Our government is in the middle of land-use frameworks for different regions. But, in my mind we do need to monitor more carefully how close logging roads are built to streams, where the quad and snowmobile trails are, and the reclamation of the land following the cutting of trees for the forestry industry. I intend to bring this to the attention of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

At the risk of evoking another roast about too many mussel articles, I was very pleased to see on the front page of yesterday’s Herald the information about sniffing dogs capable of detecting quadra and zebra mussels in boats. I have being championing this fight for a couple of years now and am pleased with this great step forward. There will be a number of demonstrations in various boat launches throughout the province and I will be at the one in Beauvais Lake on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

My office will be closed for part of Aug. 21 so that I and the staff can lend a hand and volunteer to help and back up the Lethbridge Bid committee for the 2019 Canada Winter Games when the selection committee will be in our city. The more the merrier: please join everyone at the Galt Gardens and show that selection committee what Lethbridge is all about and that we can deliver the best-ever games.

Whoop-Up Days is coming: parade, pancake breakfasts, exhibitions at the Exhibition Grounds and of course the midway and lots of fat, yummy food. Enjoy our week of great community mingling.

Enjoy the rest of the summer and, as always, my phone number is 403 320-1011.

Bridget Pastoor is the Conservative MLA for Lethbridge East. Her column appears monthly.

By Simmons, Garrett on August 8, 2014.

Trevor Busch

southern Alberta newspapers – TABER

A government-approved medical marijuana grow-op isn’t about to put down roots in Taber. But that doesn’t mean the municipality might not be viewed as an attractive location for a medical marijuana production facility in future.

With no current regulations within the town’s Land Use Bylaw 4-2006 to govern the creation of such a facility, during a town council meeting late last month administration suggested time is of the essence for the municipality to insulate itself from any potential legal ramifications involved with the industry, should interest exist in future.

“The reason we’re bringing this forward is there’s absolutely no proposal for any medical marijuana facility in the community right now,” said planning manager Cory Armfelt. “However, as part of municipal best practice, we have been warned by other municipalities that we don’t want to be caught without any sort of regulation, and our legal professionals have indicated that you just can’t say no. You basically need to provide an opportunity to receive an application, and then you can certainly say no, once you have a framework in place to say no.”

Council voted unanimously to pass first reading of Land Use Bylaw 9-2014 to amend Land Use Bylaw 4-2006, and scheduled a public hearing for Aug. 18.

“What we’re doing here is that we are requesting that this become a direct control of the municipality, so any application to move forward would be coming for council’s decision,” said Armfelt.

Effective April 1, the process for medical patients legally obtaining medical marijuana changed. All marijuana now used in this manner will need to be obtained from commercial growers licensed by the federal government. According to administration, “As the federal government has made this enterprise legal, communities are not in a position to debate the merits of the treatment or to ban these operations,” but can regulate development permit conditions and locations.

“I attended a session last fall where they discussed the medical marijuana issue, and it is of concern,” said Coun. Laura Ross-Giroux. “We can be sued for discrimination if we turn down somebody without a good bylaw behind us. I think this is a really good example of a proactive bylaw that we really should address right now.”

Administration considers integrating a definition and regulations around medical marijuana into Land Use Bylaw 4-2006 would be proactive and allow the town to be prepared should it receive an application for a medical marijuana production facility in future.

Administration is proposing any medical marijuana production facility be evaluated in the Direct Control (DC) district. This option would give council control over decisions regarding location and operations of a medical marijuana production facility.

“All of these facilities need to abide by federal regulations,” said Armfelt. “I’ve looked through it. I don’t know if Taber has a site right now that is serviced that could meet all those federal regulations, with regard to buffering, and security is obviously a very big one. In any event, this is why your administration is recommending that we move through some sort of regulation so there can be an official decision made through appropriate channels.”

The Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations Act contains very specific details on the security, operating and inspection procedures required for these kinds of facilities. Applicants have to demonstrate they meet these regulations set forth by the federal government, prior to municipal approval.

According to the bylaw, any facility involved in this kind of activity must include equipment designed to remove odours and pollen from the air where it is discharged from the building as part of the ventilation system, and maintain an appropriate buffer distance from any residential area.