Grassland selloff

[Kathy]

The government of Alberta is double-speaking; first, they say that water management is a major reason for the Land Stewardship Act and now they want to allocate more water for irrigation on NEWly plowed land. Can they have their cake and eat it too? Can they deprive us of our land rights and property yet offer up a new oasis to the highest bidder?

Smells of a plot to grant a friend this property,
OR,

- "there's oil under that there land, maybe even GOLD or Silver".... and once the land is sold for "agricultural purposes", and the land "privatized".... the "development" of the other resources under it can be accomplished much easier. Time will tell!

[FarmForProfit]

smcgrath76

Do you know how to post pics? Just
curious cause the old boy just got our 90
ish year old barn roof redone with green
tin and I'm curious which looks better.
I'll try to figure out how to post a pic
to compare.

[per]

Happy Trails, the discussion goes to government policy under the Land Use Framework to preserve the exact type of land they propose to sell. Either the native land has an Environmental/Ecological value or it doesn't. SRD certainly believes that something more sensitive than this tract must be saved from ourselves. The question would be which bit of native grass provides EGS worth something and which does not. This notion of selling native grass is inconsistent with the governments own policies. I certainly have land I wish was still in native grass and had never seen the plow. Hard to put it back once you break it and it will still be there when it is really necessary to put it to a different use.

[ASRG]

If there is suddenly this great "demand" for more agricultural land why wouldn't the government put this 16,000 acres up for tender in either lots of quarters or sections? Why one huge block?
The original sweet heart deal was for $800-$1000/acre. Who has $10-16 million laying around? Wouldn't it make more sense to let a lot of people have a kick at the can....instead of one big Tory backer?
The second question is who will build and pay for the irrigation infrastructure to get the water to the potatoes?
How does the government go against the very "advisory panel" they appointed under the Land Use Framework? If Mel Knight can over rule anything they "advise"....why bother having them in the first place? Are they nothing more than phony window dressing to sell ALSA?
This deal smells to high heaven and should be immediately cancelled!

[gaucho]

makes me think that today's PC government is more a kin to an autocratic central African republic.... no care about tomorrow as long as we can pull out ,use, abuse, extract every resource for today's society and screw the generations to come.... stupid to the last drop, blade of grass and tree. These grasslands are no different than clearing more forested areas to grow Canola in Northern Alberta. There is enough cleared land and land that is not being managed or grazed to its potential.... Maybe its time to think about what we want to leave for the generations not born. maybe the Premier needs to get a few calls and so to the media.