Edmonton Journal August 30, 2012

EDMONTON – Premier Alison Redford out-raised and outspent rival party leaders by a wide margin during the 2012 spring election, financial documents filed with Elections Alberta show.

The documents, posted online Thursday, show Redford raised nearly $192,000 and spent roughly $154,000 to get elected in her riding of Calgary-Elbow, more than all other party leaders combined.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith raised just over $57,000 and spent $55,000, while Liberal Leader Raj Sherman raised about $28,500 and spent just over $48,000, making up the difference from savings.

NDP Leader Brian Mason did no fundraising and paid roughly $34,500 for his campaign, a bill paid with transfers from the party.

Bill Moore-Kilgannon of Public Interest Alberta says the extra support for Redford is evidence that Alberta’s campaign finance rules need to be reformed.

“We need better campaign finance rules that actually limit contributors to the people who can vote, rather than organizations like unions and corporations trying to curry favour with government,” Moore-Kilgannon said.

“Some other provinces don’t allow corporations or unions to contribute. Federally they’re not able to contribute, but here in Alberta we see a huge amount of money coming from the corporate sector trying to influence the most senior government officials in the PC party.”

The records reveal the names of people who donated more than $375 to each candidate. Redford’s list of donors includes corporate heavyweights like EnCana Corp., Cenovus Energy, Northwest Upgrading, Telus, and a numbered company tied to AgeCare, a private eldercare company that developed the aging-in-place model the province has adopted.

The disclosures also show Allaudin Merali, the former health executive embroiled in a scandal over his lavish spending, donated $500 to Health Minister Fred Horne’s campaign. Merali recently left his position at Alberta Health Services after revelations that he racked up nearly $350,000 in expenses during his time with the former Capital Health Authority from 2005 to 2008.

Merali’s $500 was among more than $50,000 Horne raised, mostly from individuals rather than companies. He spent more than $86,000 to win what had been expected to be a very tight Edmonton-Rutherford riding.

Energy Minister Ken Hughes raised just over $55,000 for his campaign in Calgary-West. His contributors included Maxim Power Corp., which is building a new coal plant in Alberta, along with several other energy companies and Cathy Roozen, who succeeded Hughes as Alberta Health Services board chair.

Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Minister Diana McQueen raised almost $24,000 for her campaign in Drayton Valley-Devon. Her contributors included a number of energy companies, including $1,000 from Encana, and $500 each from Atco, Cenovus and Marathon Oil. Two forestry companies also donated money.

Atco, Encana, Telus, CN and Cameron Development Corp. were among contributors that helped Finance Minister Doug Horner raise close to $85,000 in donations. Deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk collected donations totalling more than $41,000, including $2,500 from a pair of unions.

By Sheila Pratt, Edmonton Journal August 30, 2012

EDMONTON – Enbridge will construct a new, 400,000 barrel a day pipeline from Fort McMurray to Sherwood Park to carry bitumen as production from the oilsands continues to grow rapidly.

The new pipeline — slightly smaller than Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway, designed to send 585,000 barrels a day to the British Columbia coast — met few objections from landowners at a June hearing in Edmonton, according the Energy Resources Conservation Board, which announced its approval Thursday.

The 385-kilometre line, parallel to existing pipelines from the northeast, is needed to bring increasing bitumen production, specifically from Imperial Oil’s Kearl project, to Enbridge’s Edmonton hub, says the ERCB report.

Enbridge told the board its existing Waupisoo pipeline “would be operating at capacity in the near future,” making it necessary to build the new line, called the “Woodland pipeline extension.”

“The board also notes the need for the project was not challenged and was not an issue raised at the hearing.”

In approving a new pipeline, the ERCB is not concerned with where the bitumen will end up, just with the operation of the pipeline, said spokesperson Bob Curran.

Enbridge was unavailable for comment.

The ERCB approval comes just days before federal hearings resume in Edmonton into Enbridge’s controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, proposed to run from Hardisty, Alta., to Kitimat on the West Coast.

The Woodland pipeline in Alberta has no connection to Northern Gateway, which is a federally regulated project, said Curran, adding that about 7,500 kilometres of new pipeline has been added in Alberta annually in recent years.

Jennifer Grant of the Pembina Institute, an environmental research centre, said it’s important to know whether the bitumen will go into Enbridge’s U.S. pipelines for American refineries or whether the company is ramping up for the proposed Northern Gateway.

The Pembina’s view is that there is enough capacity in existing pipelines to handle current production into the U.S.

Alberta currently produces 1.7 million barrels a day from the oilsands, but a recent report from the National Energy Board said that could increase to 5 million barrels a day by 2035 if all projects go ahead.

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

By James Wood, Calgary Herald August 30, 2012 6:50 AM

The mayor of Fort Macleod says the fight is just beginning after the Tory government abruptly pulled the plug on a long-awaited provincial police college in the southern Alberta town.

The government cancelled the $122-million Alberta Public Safety and Law Enforcement Training Centre on Wednesday, nearly six years to the day after it was announced and less than two months after a construction firm was awarded a contract for the project.

A furious Mayor Shawn Patience said the announcement by Justice Minister Jonathan Denis is a “nightmare” for the community, which spent more than $100,000 on its original proposal and has invested nearly $4 million in service lines to the site of the proposed college.

“We are seeking legal advice as we speak and it will be up to my council the direction we take from here. But this is certainly not the end of the story by any means and I have to say, we elect people to be leaders and we expect them to have integrity, we expect them to fulfil commitments,” Patience said in an interview.

“I hope Alberta is listening here and I’m asking the premier to rescind this. This is a poor decision.”

But Denis said concerns both over costs and the level of use for the facility played a role in the decision.

While Bird Design-Build Construction Inc. was retained to build the college in July, Denis said Wednesday he subsequently received a letter last month from the Alberta Association of Police Chiefs questioning the need for the new facility.

Further feedback from the Calgary and Edmonton police services and the RCMP suggested the facility would not be missed, he said.

“I have to be a steward of the taxpayer dollar and this is a big-ticket item. And when three of your large stakeholders tell you that it’s not going to affect the quality of policing, that has a very big impact on your decision,” said Denis.

“Continuing with this project would not be in the best interests of the taxpayer or law enforcement.”

The government has put just under $2 million toward the project so far and there could be further costs related to the cancellation, according to Denis’s office.

While the decision was primary financial, Denis said it had nothing to do with belttightening efforts by the Progressive Conservative government.

Finance Minister Doug Horner is expected to release a first-quarter financial report Thursday that will show the government grappling with lower-than-anticipated oil revenue.

In February, the government earmarked $19 million for the college in this year’s budget.

Denis also denied political calculations played a role in the cancellation. The Livingstone-Macleod constituency where the college was to be located was held by Tory MLAs until the spring election, when it was won by Wildrose’s Pat Stier.

Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw, the party’s justice critic, said the Opposition supported the creation of the college and questioned how the government could determine the facility’s fate on last-minute input from police services.

“It appears that Minister Denis is entirely incompetent if he didn’t make the proper consultations months ago,” he said. “How on earth is he making his decisions?”

Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman said the college never made much sense but there’s undoubtedly a political dynamic at play.

The facility was continually held out as a promise to southern Alberta residents, only to be yanked as punishment when voters supported Wildrose, she said.

“They’re making the right decision for the wrong reasons,” Blakeman said of the PCs.

Ralph Klein’s government initially announced funding for the project in 2006, but the recession put it on the back burner.

In the summer of 2011, outgoing Premier Ed Stelmach announced the college would go ahead and a sod-turning event with government ministers took place.

According to Alberta Infrastructure, the college was to include classroom space, residences, a driving track, indoor and outdoor firing ranges.

The approximately 28,000-square-metre facility was expected to train 400 police officers and 1,000 peace officers each year, while offering professional development for another 1,200 police, corrections and peace officers.

The province received support for kiboshing the college from Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson, Edmonton’s Chief Rod Knecht and RCMP K Division Commander Dale McGowan.

Hanson told reporters in Calgary he was “relieved” with the government’s decision and said the college was never a “police-driven initiative.”

WITH FILES FROM SHERRI ZICKEFOOSE, CALGARY HERALD [email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original source article: Fort Macleod mayor says town now faces ‘nightmare’ after province pulls plug on police college plans

By Don Braid, Calgary Herald August 30, 2012 6:38 AM

CALGARY — The Redford PCs sure move fast to stamp out some things they don’t care for — rats, for instance, or a police college in an opposition riding.

Cynicism about this shocking decision is inevitable, no matter what the Progressive Conservatives say about police chiefs being cool to the idea (after being quite warm to it not so long ago.)

If this training centre was such a flawed idea all along, why did the government plan it for six years, allot $117 million in the spring budget, and delight local Mayor Shawn Patience less than two months ago by signing a construction contract?

This is no postponement or delay. It’s a cancellation, period. The government is unusually clear about that, although it’s hardly ever clear about anything.

Searching for logic is futile, so we turn to politics.

Voters chose Wildrose businessman Pat Stier in the Livingstone-Macleod riding in April.

The loser was Tory Agriculture Minister Evan Berger, who was quickly hired back by the same department after an astonishing clearance by the ethics commissioner, and now has an office in the riding.

Berger says he hasn’t ruled out running again. His government job certainly gives him a friendly presence in the riding.

And suddenly, there’s a sharp message from Edmonton about what can happen in a riding that doesn’t vote PC. Really, Mother Teresa would be cynical.

Fort Macleod, the birthplace of policing in Alberta, still had the project plastered all over its website Wednesday, complete with photos of Mounties, town officials, First Nation leaders and PC ministers turning sod.

Nobody had a clue cancellation was coming. “I just attended a council meeting in Fort Macleod on Monday,” says Stier.

“They actually passed the final development permit for the project in front of my very eyes.

“And now they cancel it — unbelievable, the worst thing I’ve seen.”

It’s curious, too, that the police college breathed its last breath shortly after AHS announced the unexpected closure of the Little Bow Continuing Care Centre in the village of Carmangay.

As the Herald’s Licia Corbella detailed last week, serious money had recently been spent on the seniors’ residence.

It had passed an inspection. There were all sorts of reasons to believe AHS saw a future for the centre. Nobody expected it to be mothballed.

Now it will be.

The PCs vigorously deny this was a political decision, insisting AHS made the move entirely on its own.

But once again, it happened in a Wildrose riding. Ian Donovan won the Little Bow seat in April, beating PC John Kolk by nearly 2,500 votes.

Trench warfare appears to be developing in many of these new Wildrose areas, and neither side seems to know the rules of engagement yet.

There hasn’t been any real rural opposition to the PCs for decades. In 2004, former MLA Paul Hinman was the only opposition member for many years to actually win a rural seat, Cardston-Taber-Warner.

Now there are 17 Wildrose MLAs, most of them rural. And the PCs, as they pick through new minefields sowed on their traditional lands, seem to alternate between confusion and frontal attack.

There was another blow-up this week, as the Sylvan Lake town council posted a long denunciation of the area’s new Wildrose MLA, Kerry Towle, insisting she hadn’t communicated with council about a road project.

The details are dense, but the local politicians’ discomfort at losing their cosy relationship with a government MLA could not be more obvious.

Even in this context, though, the decision to axe the police college seems spectacularly brutal.

Could there be another factor?

The government’s latest quarterly financial report comes out Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Fort Macleod decision.

There’s revenue trouble, if oil and gas prices are any guide.

Some things will have to give — and the first giving seems to be expected of opposition ridings.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the [email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original source article: Braid: Scrapping of Fort Macleod police college may be a sign Wildrose ridings will be first to sacrifice

By Peter O’Neil, Edmonton Journal August 27, 2012

OTTAWA – Transport Canada is being asked to assess how Enbridge Inc.’s “voluntary” commitments to prevent the dumping of diluted bitumen crude into the Pacific Ocean can be made “mandatory and enforceable.”

The request from the Joint Review Panel considering the company’s $6-billion pipeline project was in response to a Transport Canada-headed government review released in February.

The study said there are “no regulatory concerns” regarding marine safety due to a significant increase in tanker traffic on B.C.’s north coast to deliver crude to and from the Northern Gateway terminal in Kitimat.

Enbridge used Transport Canada’s conclusions to reassure its shareholders, and a senior company official said in March the report proves the pipeline will actually enhance shipping safety on the north coast.

Anti-Northern Gateway groups such as the Coastal First Nations said the report either ignored or minimized factors such as “treacherous passageways, poor weather conditions and human error.”

The JRP, established under the National Energy Board Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, has given Transport Canada until next Tuesday to respond to its request.

That day marks the start of the autumn session of public hearings at which registered participants can cross-examine witnesses, starting with four days of hearings in Edmonton.

“Please provide a detailed discussion on what provisions exist in relevant Canadian marine shipping legislation to ensure that Northern Gateway’s voluntary marine shipping risk reduction measures (e.g. use of escort tugs, installation of radar, transit speeds, and operational limits) are and remain mandatory and enforceable,” the JRP said.

The JRP, Transport Canada and Enbridge all refused to comment Monday on the thorny issue of how voluntary actions could be made mandatory without changes in laws or regulations. However, Enbridge spokesman Ivan Giesbrecht defended his company’s plan to protect the ocean.

“We won’t speculate about future legislation changes, but we can confidently say that our marine safety plan, as it is proposed today, meets or exceeds all applicable Canadian regulations,” Giesbrecht wrote in an email.

The original Transport Canada report, made public in February, was conducted under a process known as the Technical Review Process of Marine Terminal Systems and Transshipment Sites.

It is a non-binding interdepartmental process launched in the late 1970s that included, in this instance, the participation starting in 2009 of several federal departments, as well as the B.C. environment ministry, the municipality of Kitimat, the Haisla First Nations, the B.C. Chamber of Shipping and the Council of Marine Carriers.

TERMPOL looked at the implications of a project that would involve the annual export of approximately 30 million tonnes of crude oil, and the import of 11 million tonnes of condensate, transported by 250 or so tankers arriving and leaving the Kitimat terminal.

The report cited various national and international laws and conventions that shipping companies must adhere to, including Canada’s Marine Liability Act that is based on the “polluter pay” principle.

By Jamie Komarnicki, Calgary Herald August 28, 2012 5:58 AM

“It just may be a very slow process.”

By Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald August 23, 2012

CALGARY — A last-ditch effort to persuade the government to stop clear-cut logging in the Castle wilderness area has fallen on deaf ears, according to groups opposed to the development.

On Thursday morning, environmentalists and business representatives of the Stop Castle Logging Group met with Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Diana McQueen in Calgary to discuss the issue.

“We tried yet again to convince her to stop the logging in the Castle Special Place and protect the area as a wildland park,” said Sarah Elmeligi, senior conservation planner with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and a representative of the Stop Castle Logging Group. “Overall, our meeting has been disappointing.”

McQueen said later Thursday she thought it was a good meeting.

“It was a great opportunity,” she said, noting it gave her a chance to hear from the concerned groups directly.

McQueen said, however, that she hadn’t planned on making any decisions before having a chance to listen to all of the affected parties.

“I am really trying to take a holistic approach to this,” she said. “They are very passionate.

“I understand where they are coming from, but we have to look at all sides on this issue.”

McQueen declined to give any timelines on when a decision might be made.

The representatives said they appreciated the minister taking time to listen to their concerns, but they noted that the government has been listening to the concerns of the Stop Castle Logging Group for decades.

“Now is not the time for listening, now is the time for action,” said Elmeligi. “That’s what we didn’t get today.”

The battle over the Castle wilderness heated up last January when area residents started protesting a decision by the province to allow Spray Lake Sawmills to harvest 120 hectares of forest under the province’s forest management plan for the region.

Environmentalists and landowners argue logging will have a negative effect on the already threatened grizzly bear population, as well as other species, which includes elk, wolves and cutthroat trout.

More to come …

[email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

By Meghan Potkins, Calgary Herald August 24, 2012

A Liberal MLA who called for a boycott of Alberta potatoes over concerns that child labour remains unregulated in the province says he has no desire to damage the livelihoods of growers, while a report suggests safety risks are on the rise for Alberta farm children.

David Swann earlier this week called on snack-food giant Frito Lay, a subsidiary of PespiCo., to boycott Alberta potatoes in a bid to pressure the province to extend workplace health and safety regulations to farm workers.

PepsiCo. said it will continue to honour its contracts with growers, as a new report reveals an increasing risk to the safety of children on Alberta farms.

A report released earlier this month from the Alberta Centre for Injury Control & Research showed the rate of agriculture-related deaths among children increased an average of 5.8 per cent annually between 1992 and 2009.

While the overall number of children living on farms decreased by more than 50 per cent in the past two decades, the rate at which children were killed on farms over the same period has increased.

A total of 69 children and youths were killed over the 18-year period, the majority of them between the ages of 5 and 9 years old.

A majority of the deaths were the result of a child being run over by a piece of farm equipment, typically tractors.

Drownings were the second most common manner of death.

Nearly twice as many children suffered major agriculture-related traumatic injuries over a shorter period — approximately 132 children were admitted to hospital with serious injuries between 1996 and 2009.

The statistics gathered by the centre do not indicate if the children were labourers or residents of the farm, or the type of farm where the incident occurred.

But the report’s authors suggest that the majority of fatalities involved children living on a farm who were not necessarily paid labourers.

Kathy Belton, co-chair of ACICR, said many farm deaths are preventable and that steps can be taken to make farms safer for children and adults.

Belton said an expansion of the province’s occupational health and safety laws to include agriculture workers is “essential” to making farms safer.

She said farming deaths and injuries must be investigated in the same way as other workplace incidents.

“If it’s an industrial (death), there is a full-blown investigation,” Belton said. “If it’s a farm death — if a farmer is out there digging an irrigation ditch and he dies — there is no investigation because there is no legislation.”

“We need to look at farming differently in this province.”

A spokesperson for the province said the ministers of agriculture and human services will discuss the report when they meet next month.

“Our government believes that education and awareness are still the most effective way to deal with the practical realities of Alberta farming. Minister Hancock has indicated that the government is looking at all aspects of agri-business and agri-industry to determine if we have the right regulations, or whether we need to change regulations with respect to worker safety, worker compensation or other occupational health and safety standards,” Cathy Housdorff, a spokesperson for the department of agriculture, said in an e-mail.

“The two ministers will be discussing the report as well as other items when they meet next month.”

In an open letter to producers, Swann said the point of the boycott was not to hurt growers but to pressure the government.

The Calgary MLA admits he received complaints from farmers about the boycott.

“I’m not trying to damage our agriculture industry. I’m trying to get the attention of government,” he said.

There were 16 agriculture-related deaths in 2011. Two were children, according to the province.

[email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

If you have not already heard, this week the Redford Government announced that it is moving forward with Bill 36.

The Cabinet released its new Regional Plan for north-east Alberta.  This is the first of seven regional plans that will be approved by Cabinet.

 We had hoped that the government was rethinking its approach to imposing Cabinet-controlled central planning but it is not—full speed ahead for Bill 36.

The final regulations for the new Regional Plan say that Cabinet Ministers must order their bureaucrats to prepare management plans for any landowner or business that is not meeting the new social, environmental, and economic “targets” and “limits” set by the Cabinet.  (Regulation sections 11, 26 and 33)

 These sections also say that you must comply with the lawful directions of the bureaucrats.

This first Regional Plan may not have a large impact on landowners and ranchers because most of the land in the north-east part of our province is Crown land.

 It will be a completely different impact when the Redford Government rolls out its next Regional Plan—the one for the South Saskatchewan River basin.  Almost all of the land in that region is either private land or Crown land under grazing leases.  Irrigators will also be impacted.  The Cabinet can use its powers to rescind water licences, feedlot approvals, grazing leases, development rights and every other form of statutory consent that southern Albertans rely on  to keep their businesses, farms and the economy going.

 The big oil companies that have had their Crown leases rescinded (torn up) by the Cabinet under the new Regional Plan regulation are now trying to get compensation from the government.  Remember that Bill 36 strips you of your right to compensation—and right to appeal to the Courts.  You now need to seek an audience with the Minister, plead your case for compensation and are at the mercy of the Cabinet.  Prior to Bill 36, Alberta law prevented the government from rescinding your water licences, grazing leases, and other statutory consents.  When the government did have the power of rescission, there were binding obligations to pay fair compensation.  Not anymore under the PC government.  They control everything now and your rights are gone.

Soon we will get to see what the Cabinet’s plan is for southern Alberta.  Soon all landowners will be under the thumb—and the whims—of the Cabinet Ministers and their bureaucrats.  Central planning is here.  Respect for property rights, the rule of law and our market driven economy are gone.  We now officially live in a European-style nanny state.

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 Canadian Property Rights Conference 2012

Leading experts on property rights will be speaking at a conference in Ottawa on September 14 to 16.

The Alberta Landowners Council’s policy chair, lawyer Keith Wilson, is one of the invited speakers.  We are proud of all he has done for landowners in Alberta, and it is obvious that others also want to hear what one of Alberta’s most influential people has to say. (voted by Alberta Venture Magazine as one of Alberta’s most influential people)

If you are interested in attending the conference, further information and registration details can be found at this link:  http://propertyrightscanada.org/index.php/speakers