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.”
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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.
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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
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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