AltaLink Looks For Feedback in Okotoks

February 21, 2013 By

Written by Don McCracken on Thursday, 21 February 2013

The Big Rock Transmission System Development between Okotoks, Black Diamond, Turner Valley, and High River is in need of an upgrade to service the rapidly growing area.

AltaLink held an open house in Okotoks Wednesday night to show off the proposed sites of substations as well as planned transmission lines.

The east-west route is largely along either Highway 7 or 402nd Avenue.

Scott Schreiner with AltaLink was asked if the Highway 7 route isn’t intuitively the better one. “It’s a long process, what we need to do in this process is look for all options. Looking at it from a mapping perspective and from a preliminary perspective a lot of the options that you see as preliminary routes rack out pretty evenly. Now is the time for us to get input and get some feedback.”

He says they determine the best route through environmental, agricultural and residential research and by holding consultations with all landowners along the route or adjacent to any of the proposed routes.

This spring and summer they hope to notify and consult with stakeholders about refined routes. They hope to file an application with the Alberta Utilities Commission by the fall of this year and if approved works would go from the fall of 2014 to winter of 2015/2016.

An information centre will be open in High River Thursday February 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ramada Inn, there’s another open house in Okotoks on Tuesday February 26 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Foothills Centennial Centre and another info centre at the Griffith Memorial hall in Black Diamond from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. February 27.

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AUC – Alberta Utilities Commission – Decision 2013-053

February 21, 2013 By

AUC – Alberta Utilities Commission – Decision 2013-053

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Alberta Premier Allison Redford heading south to meet with US governors

February 21, 2013 By

4:06 pm, February 21st, 2013

BRYN WEESE | QMI AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alberta Premier Allison Redford is heading south this weekend to talk Keystone and energy with American governors.

Redford, who is flying to D.C. Friday, will meet with dozens of her U.S. counterparts when she attends the National Governors Association winter meeting.

And according to Canadian Embassy officials, the embassy is hosting a reception for some 25 to 30 of the governors Saturday. Redford and Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doer will be there, too.

“(T)his is an opportunity for the premier to meet with a broad range of governors from across the country,” Doer said in a statement e-mailed to QMI Agency. “This will allow her to further our common advocacy work on the Keystone XL pipeline, but also to talk about broader issues of U.S. market access and North American energy independence.”

Talk of Keystone’s prospects has shifted recently from near certainty to more questionable since President Barack Obama began talking more frequently of his desire to tackle climate change in his second term.
The governors, including both Democrats and Republicans, are to meet with Obama on the weekend as well.

Last weekend, thousands of environmental activists gathered here for large protest urging the president to reject the $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline.

When she was first elected, Redford travelled to Washington but was criticized for not lobbying harder for the pipeline, that would ship crude from Alberta to refineries in the southern United States.

An excess of oil in Alberta is reportedly pushing prices down and robbing Redford’s government of much-needed revenues.

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Alberta misses the mark on oil-price predictions, critics charge

February 21, 2013 By

KELLY CRYDERMAN

CALGARY — The Globe and Mail

Published

Last updated

After a dramatic jump in Alberta’s projected deficit this year, critics are slamming the Reford government’s forecasts for oil and gas prices as far too rosy – arguing it is an unwelcome departure from the practices of past governments, which managed volatile commodity revenues by preparing for the worst.

Premier Alison Redford’s government is scrambling to explain the gaping discrepancy between the energy price projections in its budget 12 months ago and the third-quarter update earlier this week that showed a shortfall this fiscal year of up to $4-billion.

Reliant on oil and gas for about 30 per cent of its revenues, the Alberta government places almost all of the blame on lower-than-expected land sales and prices for natural gas and oil that came in at less than predicted. For instance, in its budget last February, it pegged the price of North American crude, a benchmark for revenue projections, at an average of $99.25 for the fiscal year, but had to revise its expectation in the update to $91.82. A wider-than-expected gap between Alberta’s abundant heavy oil and other North American crude has compounded the problem, it says.

Energy price predictions by Alberta governments have not always been spot-on. However, the Official Opposition says the Progressive Conservatives have lost their way from the Klein-era budget forecasts, which regularly predicted revenue on the low side.

“Year after year after year, they managed to get surpluses. They were obviously doing something different than this current government is doing,” Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said. “They would go out and get a number of forecasts from the most credible analysts, and then they would choose the lowest amount.”

For instance, in the 2006 budget – the year premier Ralph Klein left office – the government chose an oil price near the low end of an average of energy price forecasts from banks, analysts and national forecasting agencies. Forecasters, on average, pegged West Texas intermediate at $59.92 U.S. per barrel. The Klein government used $50 a barrel as its budget estimate.

This strategy was criticized by groups who wanted the Klein government to spend more on health, education and social programs. A report from the left-of-centre Parkland Institute in 2006 said revenues were underestimated in almost all of Mr. Klein’s 13 years in office.

In contrast, the Redford government’s oil forecast the February, 2012, budget was just a notch lower than the average of all the estimates.

Ms. Smith said the Klein strategy was better because a more conservative forecast meant surpluses instead of deficits when oil or gas prices confounded predictions. “That’s the approach that you have to take when you have such wild variations over the course of a year.”

However, Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner said no one expected Bakken oil production in the United States, which competes for pipeline capacity with Alberta exports, to ramp up as quickly as it has in the past 12 months. He said there is a different mix of energy revenues compared to the Klein days, when natural gas ruled – and the province is now much more dependent on revenues from the oil sands. He said the government has not changed the way it forecasts the price of oil.

“We took the mid-range, which is what we’ve always done,” Mr. Horner said in an interview on Wednesday.

Ms. Smith said she would like to say the government will make better predictions in its new budget coming up on March 7, but she doesn’t believe that will be the case.

Last year, energy companies were forced to change their projections too. By May, 2012, Suncor Energy Inc. officials said they expected to sell oil for $10 to $15 per barrel less than their earlier WTI forecast of $95 per barrel.

Michael Moore, an energy economics professor at University of Calgary, said that in any resource based economy, the swings of commodity prices are outside government control. He said the Redford government is like any other jurisdiction in North America: “They’re using the most optimistic projection that they can.”

Judith Dwarkin, chief energy economist in Calgary for ITG Investment Research, said forecasts are never realized, but “the onus on [the government] is to be realistic.”

Ms. Dwarkin added “the deficit is a function of both spending as well as revenues … this is just a piece of the picture.”

To Wildrose, the reason the government numbers last February have not matched reality is “an overhyped and overinflated” platform in last April’s election. Facing damning polls and a raft of political controversies, the Progressive Conservatives pulled out all the stops, promising no deficits, no new taxes – but also pledging oil-sands technology research, dozens of new schools and 145 new family health-care clinics.

So far, resource revenues are $2.4-billion under forecast.

“I would have to say that nobody in the industry, nobody in other governments, saw this revenue issue coming as fast and as hard as it has come,” Mr. Horner said.

Filed Under: News

Alberta Premier Alison Redford needs to take the charge on Keystone talks

February 21, 2013 By
By ,QMI Agency
First posted: | Updated:

Why is Brad Wall the most visible premier in efforts to get the Obama White House to approve the Keystone XL pipeline? Why is the Saskatchewan leader more publicly active than Alberta’s own Alison Redford?

Last month it was Wall, not Redford, who joined together with 10 U.S. governors to send a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to approve the pipeline from Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s bitumen deposits, across six states to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Last week it was Wall, not Redford, who wrote the American ambassador in Ottawa, David Jacobson, asking Jacobson to explain Obama’s remarks about climate change in last Tuesday’s State of the Union address and what they mean for the approval or rejection of Keystone.

Federal Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, too, has been very vocal in his support of Keystone and in explaining what Canada is already doing to prevent climate change, the fear of which is a big reason American leftists oppose Keystone.

Admittedly, Redford’s staff insist she is working hard behind the scenes to get the U.S. State department and the White House to sign off on the project. They point out that since becoming premier nearly a year-and-a-half ago, Redford has visited both Washington and Chicago (Obama’s hometown) to promote the pipeline. They insist she is “pursuing other avenues,” meaning that she continues to advocate for Keystone away from the media spotlight.

But, like justice, advocacy must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. If Redford will not be Keystone’s most vocal political advocate, it could be possible for White House advisers to wonder why the president should risk his own political support when even Alberta won’t stand up the line.

I remain confident that ultimately Keystone will get approved. American electoral politics now are different than they were before the 2012 presidential election.

Then, Obama needed the votes of environmentalists (who are disproportionately young) to ensure his own re-election. Now, his goal and that of his Democratic party are to re-win control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 midterm elections.

Local issues are much more important in Congressional races than in presidential ones and Keystone and the jobs it will create are more important locally than the theory of global warming and climate change. From now until 2014, Democratic objectives favour pro-Keystone forces more than anti-.

For instance, while environmentalists may have helped Obama get re-elected, they will have less to offer towards recapturing the House of Representatives. There, unions will have more impact, and the major construction unions are all in favour of Keystone. (So too are two-thirds of Americans.)

I believe the White House will impose one or two more hurdles on Alberta and Canada before giving the go-ahead, maybe a new set of emissions targets or a carbon tax or agreeing to re-enter UN climate control treaties after Canada pulled out of the Kyoto accord at the end of 2012.

But like Kyoto, I also suspect whatever new regime the White House may come up with will be more symbolic than real. Under Kyoto, more than three dozen countries agreed to binding cuts in their carbon emission, but by the end of last month few had achieved them.

Alberta (perhaps surprisingly to most Canadians) already imposes a carbon tax on the province’s 700 largest emitters, which includes the oilsands. At $15/tonne for emissions over government-set maximums, the tax seems to have encouraged more carbon-lite practices by industry without having driven up retail gasoline prices or inflation.

President Obama could choose to reject the pro-pipeline to the advice of his cabinet and departments, but it seems unlikely his will stand with environmentalists and against voters.

[email protected]

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Alberta Premier Alison Redford takes a sick day

February 17, 2013 By
First posted: | Updated:
Premier Alison Redford called in sick moments before she was to speak to a room full of Alberta’s mayors and councillors Thursday morning.

Redford was set to address the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association Mayors Caucus at an MLA breakfast alongside Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths.

Addressing a packed room of politicians ­­- some who drove across the province to attend the breakfast ­– Griffiths apologized on behalf of Redford and explained she was feeling under the weather and overworked.

“I was in Fort McMurray with the premier just the other day and I know she’s been going non-stop,” Griffiths said. “She deserves a day off.”

Griffiths said that they spent Wednesday finalizing the March 7 provincial budget and attending several committee meetings, which may have left Redford too tired to attend the breakfast.

“This morning she woke up and the day just got the best of her and she just needs a day of rest,” Griffiths said. “I think she’s all right. The flu’s been going around but I’d imagine she’ll recover very quickly.”

Responding to queries over Twitter, the premier’s communications staff said Redford fell ill overnight. Griffiths again confirmed on Twitter that Redford was “very ill.”

Taking over for Redford, Griffiths repeated that the provincial government won’t balance the budget on the backs of municipalities but that there will be some tough decisions.

Redford previously came down with the flu on Nov. 5, 2012, when she was too sick to attend the fifth anniversary of the Safe Communities initiative at Edmonton’s Westmount Junior High School.

[email protected]

@SunMattDykstra

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Why do we need a property rights advocate?

February 12, 2013 By
Tuesday, 12 February 2013 02:01 Letter to the Editor
Although uninvited, Ian Donovan and I attended the ribbon cutting of the office of the new property rights advocate, Lee Cutforth.
I stood beside the premier, Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, Mr. Cutforth and MLAs Ian Donovan and Greg Weadick.
The premier was courteous and remembered my name.
She said all the right things and sounded like she meant them.
Although I didn’t ask these three questions about the new advocate’s position, they’ve needed answering for a year:
1. What does this say about our province when property laws are so weak, vague or absent that we need an “advocate”?
2. How did we manage so well for so long prior to laws 2, 19, 24, 36 and 50; in other words, since our most recent two premiers?
3. At what task force meeting last year did anyone ask for a property rights advocate? (All I ever heard was, “Scrap the bills and start over, with input from the stakeholders affected.”)
And if you’re wondering why we didn’t get answers during Question Period in the Legislature, it’s because it’s called Question Period for a reason.
It’s not called Answer Period for a reason, too.
Gary Bikman
MLA Cardston/Taber/Warner
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Property Rights Advocate office opens-No help for Landowners!

February 11, 2013 By

Everyone,

Last Wednesday, Feb 6, 2013, the Alberta Government announced the opening of the Property Rights Advocate office.  Lee Cutforth will be the newly appointed Property Rights Advocate.

This is not a surprise, as we all knew this day was coming.  The Alberta Government announced in 2012 that it would be introducing the Property Rights Advocate (Bill 6) much to the dismay of Alberta Landowners Council and Landowners across the province.  Here is an excerpt from an email that we, ALC sent you March 20th, 2012.

        “As we expected, the PCs have started their propaganda blitz.  We have noticed that the Ministers and MLAs are still professing that  the Land Bills are good for  Albertans, and that the “property rights advocate” as introduced in Bill 6 would alleviate any problems that Albertans would encounter.  In the St. Paul Journal Article,  Minister Diana McQueen says that advocate’s role is very strong in their role to advocate for landowners.  The truth is that Bill 36 (Bill 6, even with the amendments) still takes away the ability for landowners to have access to the courts or compensation.  The “property rights advocate” is nothing more than a “grief councilor” with no real power to help landowners.  The Property Rights Advocate would simply be representing the government and their legislation, and filing an annual report to the legislature.   This will do nothing to protect landowners, and the only solution is to repeal these Bills.”

_______________________________________________

 Below are our comments about Wednesday’s announcement by the Alberta Government that it has opened a new office called the Property Rights Advocate at an annual cost of $1 million.

 Why has the government opened up this office?

   -Many rural Albertans, farmers and ranchers are upset with laws passed by the government that either take away or reduce their property rights.

   Eg. Carbon Capture and Sequestration Laws (Bill 24) and the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (Bill 36).

 What will the new Property Rights Advocate and his office do?

   -Not much-he has no powers-all he can do is confirm your rights have been taken, he can’t do anything to fix it or stop it.

   -It appears to be an effort by the government to show that they are concerned about property without actually doing anything to address the new laws that created the controversy in the first place.

Is creating this office a good idea?

   -No, because it’s a waste of tax dollars.

   -It would make more sense for the government to fix the laws it has passed rather than create a new taxpayer-funded office to protect landowners against those laws.

   -It would make more sense for the government to respect property rights than to pay a new high level official to pretend to advocate for Albertans whose rights are taken.

 _____________________________________________

To jog your memory, we have attached a few articles from March of 2012, when we first heard about Bill 6 (Property Rights Advocate) and another article from Dec 10th, 2012 from the Edmonton Journal. 

On Wednesday, Feb 06, 2013, Lawyer and ALC policy chair, Keith Wilson was interviewed on Calgary’s QR 770 about the opening of the Property Rights Advocate office.  To listen to Keith Wilson’s radio interview (entitled Audio-QR770 Radio Interview Wilson re Property Rights Advocate, Feb 2013) go to this link from our website:

http://www.albertalandownerscouncil.com/bill2.htm

______________________________________________

DONATIONS

With the government having brought in Bill 2 last fall—a new law that takes away our rights when energy projects are coming onto our own land—it is clear that we still have work to do.  We at Alberta Landowners Council wish to continue on with the fight.  We are a non profit society and rely on the help of our fellow concerned and affected Albertans to keep fighting.

We need to keep landowners connected and informed.  We need the government to now that we are not going away.  Your donation will help us do this.  You can donate on-line by going to the ALC website or you can send a cheque to the following address:

Alberta Landowners Council

55017 Range Road 262,

Sturgeon County, Alberta,

T8T 1A4

 Thank you,

Alberta Landowners Council

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March20,2012-St. Paul Journal-Bill 6 is no fix to bad laws

February 11, 2013 By

March20,2012-St. Paul Journal-Bill 6 is no fix to bad laws

Filed Under: News

March 20-St. Paul Journal-Not convinced by MLA’s stance

February 11, 2013 By

March 20-St. Paul Journal-Not convinced by MLA’s stance

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