Way back in the 13th century a bunch of lords in England got together to challenge the power the King had. You see, back in those days the King was well, for all intents and purposes... he completely controlled everything that happened in England. The thought was that the power should be spread out amongst the people and what we call the rule of law or Magna Carta was born.
What does that have to do with Alberta you may ask?
Lawyer Keith Wilson was in High River last week to speak in front of 300 property owners to alert them that since the Stelmach government passed Bill 36 we are living once again in the “Dark” ages. We all know property rights are not enshrined in our constitution, unlike the United States or Australia. The western provinces wanted them included when we brought the constitution back from England in 1982 but Trudeau ignored our request. So property rights have always been a touchy subject out here.
The government passed The Land Stewardship Law or Bill 36 as it is commonly referred as. This carelessly crafted piece of legislation gives the 24 men and women in cabinet ultimate say on what happens on your land or any crown land throughout Alberta. Well they are the government right? If we don’t like what they decide there must be some recourse right? Certainly they wouldn’t have the power to “extinguish” leases, permits or land titles held by citizens or corporations without compensation? Well the alarm bells are ringing. As pointed out in Mr. Wilson’s presentation we are in a situation that essentially gives cabinet star chamber power.
The legislation has been written to circumvent any court action. You simply can’t challenge any of the decisions they make for your land going forward, it’s actually retroactive as well. This kind of legislation would be useful when dealing with cranky landowners if you were putting in a big power line from Edmonton to Calgary. The government is quick to say they would never use these powers they have given themselves. My question is then why do you have them? In my opinion even if these powers are exercised once for whatever reason it would be an attack on our democracy. These kind of things happened in Russia under the control of the politburo.
It goes further. They can control local municipalities and they even have the power to withhold moneys to these local governments if they don’t follow the order in council.
Let’s just pretend for a minute they don’t agree with the Town of Okotoks and their population cap, or the MD of Foothills’ resistance to joining the Calgary Regional Partnership. Well with this new legislation they can tell those municipalities what to do or else. I have a view local government should have the say on its own future — not a group of 24 people in Edmonton.
Again, the Province may never do these things but it is completely unhealthy to be able to exercise these powers.
The fact that Eddie and his gang have gone into full damage control on this issue is a clear sign mistakes have been made. Mr. Wilson is packing them into halls nightly all over Alberta, and the current government is quite aware of the outrage over this. We don’t like heavy handed bullying tactics, we have experienced such things under the federal Liberals when they were in power recently.
They promise they will rework the bills, but I have to say at this point I want to see them repeal this legislation. Albertans are not foolish, we respect each other and expect good governance.
