After addressing one of several controversial bills about land use and property rights Premier Alison Redford announced a task force Friday to get feedback on the others.
Speaking at the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, Redford said the province wanted to hear from landowners on the issue.
“We are listening to Albertans and we need your feedback to craft common sense solutions.”
Environment and Water Minister Diana McQueen will head the new task force, which will also include local MLA and Infrastructure Minister Jeff Johnson, as well as several other ministers and MLAs.
Redford said she was confident McQueen would lead an open, accessible process that would hear from Albertans.
“Her particular focus is to speak to communities that feel particularly affected in very public meetings.”
Redford said while the government is reviewing the Land Stewardship Act and other bills around land use, she doesn’t view the task force as devoted solely to those pieces of legislation.
“We believe the issue needs to move beyond a particular piece of legislation.”
The government introduced a series of amendments last week to Bill 19, a controversial bill that dealt with government powers for assembling land for major infrastructure projects.
Redford said that bill has some clear problems and simple solutions and the government has identified the fixes.
“Bill 19 had a very particular concern that was heard loud and clear by government.”
Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, who has been particularly vocal on property rights, said the government has been wrong on property rights for some time.
She pointed to town hall meetings St. Albert lawyer Keith Wilson conducted over the last year.
“I think there is a very simple solution to fix the other three bills. I think the consultation has been done. Mr. Wilson has conducted well over a 100 of these town hall meetings.”
Wilson said he was surprised to hear about the task force, given the premier and many cabinet ministers just spent so much time hearing from Albertans on property rights in the Tory leadership race.
He said Bill 36, the Alberta Land Stewardship act, is beyond repair, which he suspects the cabinet minister will hear on their task force.
“I just think it should be repealed,” he said. “I think it is a fundamentally flawed concept.”
Wilson said there is nothing wrong with hearing from Albertans, but to tie up so many cabinet ministers on this initiative when the answers seem clear seems like a questionable use of their time.
“It seems to me a far better use of their time would be to take action on the legislation now.”
Wilson said he is also worried a broad consultation on property rights will lead to the panel hearing from Albertans on dozens of issues and it will be hard to focus on something specific.
“I don’t know how much will come of this that will be useful.”
The panel is planning to hold meetings in December and January and will have a website for Albertans to provide their input on the issue directly, but none of those details have yet been announced.
