MLA Grant Hunter presents to the Select Special Committee on Real Property Rights at the Medicine Hat Lodge on Tuesday Morning.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Hearings on provincial property rights did not attract much of a crowd in Medicine Hat on Tuesday, but a legislative panel studying the issue says it has had strong response and has the mandate to suggest strengthening laws surrounding the contentious issue.
For more than a decade worries about expropriation, rural representation and grazing leases manifested in southeast Alberta, with major protest movements opposing provincial measures in packed meeting halls.
This week, only two registered speakers attended a special committee hearing in the Hat seeking public feedback on the issue, while two other members of the public and two non-committee MLAs attended the session at the Medicine Hat Lodge.
“I’m surprised that no one’s here, I guess it’s kind of an online world now,” said Joyce Stuber, a rancher who addressed the committee with concerns about power line placement, interactions with oilpatch and utility companies, and the process of transferring grazing leases.
Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes attended and made an impromptu presentation, arguing for expansion of property rights laid out in a private member’s bill he originally sponsored in 2020 calling for greater ability to sue for losses due to expropriation.
“The United Conservative platform made a promise to act on property rights,” the now-independent MLA told reporters. “I’d ask that they live up to their promise.”
The Select Special Legislative Committee on Property rights is mandated to investigate and make recommendations about particulars of expropriation and ensure remedies are sufficient. It is also studying whether Alberta should give more weight to property rights and whether adverse possession (commonly known as squatters rights) should be abolished.
They are due to present their final report in June, but with only one full sitting of the legislature scheduled between then and the May 2023 provincial election.
Committee members say they have received a substantial number of written submissions and other events have been better attended.
It was set to meet Tuesday evening in Fort Macleod, then Hanna on Wednesday, and conclude public meetings on Thursday in Eckville.
“When people bring concerns to us we have to address those concerns,” said committee chair, MLA R.J. Sigurdson.
“(Property is) a fundamental pillar of our freedom. The bulk of people in this province have their lives invested in it. It’s a concern for this committee and this government. That’s why we started this committee, that’s why we’re talking to Albertans and that’s why we’re putting a report together to try to strengthen landowner rights and real property.”
MLA Heather Sweet, the New Democrat ag critic, sits on the committee and said there’s a general sense of confusion about existing rights and access to information and redress.
“The biggest thing I’m hearing is about how farmers are notified (of project plans and changes) to their land and that they want their voices heard related to gas leases, access of utilities or renters,” she told reporters.
“That’s something we need to take seriously … there are definitely some pieces that we could take action on, whether the government chooses to take action with legislation is up to the government side.”
Ross Ford, a councillor in the County of Warner, told the committee most decisions are best left to the local level, and items such as federal environmental regulations and the Species At Risk Act are “hard to reverse.”
He argues that government needs to consider the full cost, including loss of future income, when it “sterilizes” land with environmental regulations, or even zoning in the case of gravel pits, and adjacent land owners should be considered for compensation for siting things like power lines or solar facilities.
“There needs to be a limit and you need to get things done, but you should be able to look at a map and figure it out,” he said.
Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter also attended, as did former Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner.
