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News by Maureen McNamee Conservationists ask Klein to help save at-risk legislation Three of Alberta’s major conservation groups want Premier Ralph Klein to intervene in a reported dispute between the environment minister and the resource development minister over the future of Alberta’s proposed protected area legislation. The Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Federation of Alberta Naturalists made the plea after learning that Environment Minister Gary Mar walked out of a committee meeting on the Natural Heritage Act (NHA), refusing to accommodate demands by Minister Steve West to keep oil and gas development in protected areas. As no further meetings are scheduled, the act may not make it to the legislature before the end of this sitting, and possibly the next election. "We don’t know where it stands right now, but we can certainly guess," says Dr. Richard Thomas of the AWA. "As always in Alberta, the energy interest runs the show." He explains that one of the major problems experienced by environment groups is that protection of Alberta’s natural heritage has never been given the same value as the oil and gas or forestry industries – despite the fact that public consultation has shown that Albertans oppose industrial development in parks and other protected areas, and scientific evidence backs up the need for conservation. The groups also point out that the solutions to existing industrial dispositions were laid out two years ago when phase-out tools, such as lease swaps or royalty credits, were agreed to by Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) in a 1998 agreement with conservation groups. Thomas says that the province has failed to establish a protected areas system through programs such as Special Places 2000, and it’s time to consider what biodiversity provides, such as oxygen. "We depend on biodiversity for our survival. It think it’s high time we took the more modern approach." He still has hope that the NHA will be dealt with this session, but remains unsure that Mar, the latest environment minister, will make real progress on the issues. "Walking out of the standard policy committee meeting... that’s a positive sign. And yet, in the next breath, he’s thinking about a constitutional challenge to the feds when they produce pretty anemic endangered species protection legislation," Thomas says.

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