| Environmentalists concerned about loss of environmentally significant public land
The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) says the government is in negotiations to transfer two sections of environmentally significant public land southwest of Fort Macleod to a wind energy company so it can erect wind turbines on the land.
The environmental group says it’s inappropriate for the government to trade away the public land, which contains rare native fescue grasslands. The land is part of an area that was determined to be environmentally significant by the Alberta government and the former Oldman River Regional Planning Commission.
Michel Proulx, spokesperson for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD), the provincial government department that oversees public land, says he can’t comment on the matter.
"As we speak, it’s still public land. That’s all I can tell you," he says.
However, Evan Berger, reeve of the Municipal District of Willow Creek, where the public land is located, says Sustainable Resource Development told those in attendance at an M.D. regional planning meeting that it was in the middle of a land swap in which the public land southwest of Fort Macleod would be traded for another chunk of environmentally significant land in southern Alberta.
Cliff Wallis, former president of the AWA, says the government should be required to inform Albertans about any transactions involving public land. He says the AWA only became aware of the land swap because the wind energy company in negotiations with the government has sought approval for new wind turbines on the land in question from the Municipal District of Willow Creek.
"Our view is that we’re quite supportive of wind farms," says Wallis. "But we’ve told the provincial government that we in no way want to see wind farms built on environmentally significant grassland when it’s a scarce and diminishing resource. We have lots of marginal farmland and other types of disturbed habitat where we could put these structures."
Wallis says even if other environmentally significant land is gained in a public land transfer, it’s still not appropriate. He points to a recent public land transfer near Bow Island, in southeastern Alberta, where land that provided habitat for endangered burrowing owls and rare plants was traded away for land in the Badlands, which Wallis says wasn’t under any threat of development.
Open houses on new plans for Fish Creek
Fish Creek Provincial Park will unveil plans for new pathways and bridges at a open houses on February 7 and 11.
The park suffered an estimated $7.5 million in damage after major flooding last summer. Flooding wiped out 40 per cent of the pathways and seven bridges.
The February 7 open house will take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hull Child and Family Services office (2266 Woodpark Ave. S.W.). The February 11 open house will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Fish Creek Public Library.
Third Way wrong direction, say unions
Alberta unions representing health care workers are criticizing the Klein government for moving forward on its so-called "third way" reforms of the public health care system.
On January 26, the Conservative caucus unanimously approved a plan for health care reform, which includes allowing doctors to practice in both public and private health care systems and allowing patients to pay through private insurance or their own cash for some non-emergency medical procedures.
Both the Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) and the United Nurses of Alberta say the government is moving in the wrong direction with health care.
In a media release, AUPE president Dan MacLennan says the "third way" reforms will lead to a two-tier health care system and will lead to increased health care costs for employers, which would decrease their competitiveness. |
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