The Government Wants Your Land

[farmers_son]

See:
http://www.infrastructure.alberta.ca/3584.htm

Land Assembly Project Area Act

Land Assembly Project Area
2(1) If in the opinion of the Lieutenant Governor in Council one or
more areas of land are required for a public project and the land is
intended to be acquired by the Crown over a period of time, the
Lieutenant Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the
Minister, may by order designate that area or those areas of land as
a Land Assembly Project Area.

Landowners need to be very concerned about this new act. While Government has always been able to take your land and pay you "fair market value" this new act gives the governemnt far reaching powers to take your land on the whim that they might want or need the land 20, 30, 50 years in the future.

In other words, your land is your land until the government says it is not your land. What gives with this government? This government has been in power for about 40 years (I grew up with this government) but they seem more like strangers every day.

[per]

Makes you wonder if Bill 15 is to give the energy industry the tools to circumvent the LUF. Or to give the LUF the power to run in whatever direction it wants. The bottom line is that the government assembles land in a similar manner for roads etc. already. This will streamline the process and give us less power and completely remove our ability to do anything other than what is already happening on that landscape. One thing about it, there won't be much cat and mouse game, they can play their cards years in advance and we will not have any due process. Should go well with Bill 56.

[smcgrath76]

This bill is of concern. One of the steps we are currently undergoing is to investigate whether or not a conservation easement might make the process a bit more sticky for government and oil...

[cropduster]

Farmers_son...is your MLA a bag of sand named Hayden??Was on Rutherford telling everyone how good this is for Alberta!Do you think it`s worth a phone call,at least??

[grassfarmer]

Seems the Alberta government is doing the hard sell on Bill 19. When was the last time MLAs got this interested in something in a rural area?
A press release from my friend and Rimbey rabble rouser Joe Anglin;

"(Rimbey, AB) Bill 19 -- the unnecessary draconian piece of legislation introduced on March 2, 2009 to streamline the expropriation of private property in Alberta is in trouble. On Tuesday night March 10, 2009 three PC MLAs of the Alberta government attended a public forum in Warburg, AB to defend Bill 19 and debate Alberta Green Party Leader Joe Anglin. Unable to convince even one attendee to support the Bill at the Warburg forum, Stelmach’s PC government was not deterred. On Saturday March 14, 2007 four PC MLAs attended the public forum in Ponoka, AB with the same purpose in mind. At this rate, in a couple of weeks, Anglin expects the entire PC caucus to attend his public presentations. Anglin says Bill 19 is getting no public support at the public forums, and the MLA’s tasked to follow him around the province have the unenviable job of trying to convince the public that what they are reading in the Bill actually means something different than what is printed.

Bill 19, if passed, technically elevates any Minister of Cabinet, to the position of Judge, Jury and Executioner. Bill 19 is not necessary because the Alberta Government already has the power to expropriate land as required. Under the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure the Alberta Government already has a process in place to acquire land for roads, pipelines and utility corridors. Why Bill 19, and Why now?

Literally written into the Bill, the Bill states: if in the Minister’s opinion, a person has contravened, or the Minister is of the opinion a person is going to contravene an order made under the act, [see Sec 7] the Minister may serve that person with an enforcement order that carries a penalty of a $100,000 fine and/or two years in jail.

Bill 19 is fundamentally wrong because it gives unprecedented power to a Minister of the government to circumvent the Expropriations Act in the confiscation of private property. Rural property owners do support the creation of utility corridors and the building of roads and infrastructure, but giving this kind of absolute punitive power to a cabinet Minister is not just undemocratic, it is a violation of a citizen’s right to due-process of law."

[farmers_son]

http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/edmonton/story.html?id=1366468

Land bill enrages Alberta owners
Bill 19 would enable province to freeze farmers' property without compensation

Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal

Published: Sunday, March 08, 2009
A new bill that will make it easier for the province to assemble land for major public projects has lawyers and landowners seething.
News of Bill 19, the Land Assembly Project Area Act, is spreading like wildfire across the province where landowners are already skittish of interlopers as a result of experiences with the oil and gas industry.
"If I said it looks like communism, would you know what I meant?" asks Dalton Trenholm, 71, who scrutinized the bill Saturday after downloading it on his computer. "There is nothing in here that will stop the government from putting in whatever it wishes - and that's what concerns me."
Trenholm, past president of the North Central Surface Rights Association, said landowners are scrambling to try to understand the bill and its ramifications as debate on it begins in the Alberta legislature this week.
Lawyers say the landowners have good cause to be concerned.
"Hugo Chavez has arrived at the Alberta legislature," said lawyer Keith Wilson, referring to the controversial Venezuelan president with a penchant for nationalizing private corporations.
Wilson said the bill punishes people already making a sacrifice because their land is in the way of required public development.
"If they don't fix it, people will be outraged," he predicted. "There will be legal challenges and charter challenges."
Lawyers say the bill allows the government to slap a development restriction on anyone's land for an indefinite period without compensation.
"It just scares the bejesus out of me," says lawyer Jennifer Klimek. "The fact that some government can sterilize my land while they decide what to do with it is just wrong."
Liberal critic Hugh MacDonald says the bill appears to give the government the green light to snap up any land it wants for anything from a pipeline to an irrigation canal or transmission line.
"Essentially this is enabling legislation to enable the minister and cabinet to do what they want, when they want, regarding land acquisition," he said.
Wilson said landowners who want to expand their farms or businesses could be prevented, without compensation, from doing that for years -- maybe decades or "even 999 years."
"You will put your life on hold," he said. "You will be living through uncertainty. Who will buy your house or your land if it is under a control order? If, at the end, the government decides not to go ahead with the project, you get no compensation. If it does go ahead, all you get is market value."
Wilson says it's not so much what is in the bill that's problematic -- it's what is missing. He says there should be a limit on how long the province can restrict development on the land and a clause that allows the government to renew for another time period, but at each renewal, the landowner should receive additional compensation.
Lawyers say the bill is so one-sided it looks like it was drafted without any consultation with landowners.
Terry Bokenfohr, whose family has farmed northwest of St. Albert for more than a century, says the bill appears to be "heavy-handed."

[smcgrath76]

Another worthwhile question is, "if my land is expropriated am I paid the value on the day of expropriation or the day of development?" There should hopefully be a large difference between the two if this bill works as far into the future as it reads.

[wilagro]

As it reads you don't have a hope to recoup ANYTHING that you think is equitable...they hold ALL the cards and will TELL you what you get...other than the toe of their jackboots.

This legislation gives government far more power than it currently has. It should be KILLED, not modified. Tell your MLA this and see what he says.
-

[Kathy]

Conservation Easements:

NOT a good idea! If history repeats itself, which it will.... ranchers who have placed their faith in conservation easements will see their land used, anyways, for whatever purpose the government wants.

In Colorado, for example: when the Pinon Canyon military base was set up (248,000 acres), the military promised not to expand. They encouraged "conservation easements" and said this would prove to the people they had no intensions of expansion in the future.

Well, a decade later and the military and their "conservation easement" division, has come back to the rancher and stated that the assessments done on their property were too high, and thus fraudulent. They want all their money back. Oh, and if you can't pay the money back,... they will take the land.

Alberta MLA Ted Morton is in favour of conservation agreements... that should tell you something.

The people of CO were given 50% of the assessed value for their property (ie: development rights). The assessments were agreed upon by both parties, yet today it is only the rancher who is at fault/fraudulent.

Conservation easements will be used by the NGOs that obtain them to sell carbon credits to industry. Thus removing the potential for the landowner/rancher to negotiate this income.

Take a lesson from our neighbors to the south.... and do not put your faith in a conservation agreement.

The only conservation project that works, is maintaining control of your property - not giving control over to a face-less NGO.

Pinon Canyon military base wants to expand to eventually take control of the entire SE corner of Colorado. Even though Congress has passed legislation banning funding for this 12 step plan, the military is moving ahead by "stealth".

[per]

posted Mar 17, 2009 13:04
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Conservation easements are a tool that might or might not help. The rights of the mineral holders and the people trump the rights of the surface owner. A CE can help by adding another layer or advocate for the land. The value of a conservation easement is independently assessed and approved by Canada Revenue Agency in order to take advantage of the tax implications and their Ecological Gifts program. It can only be overturned by order of the Minister and that has not happened in Canada. (to the best of my knowledge) There are some very conscientious Land Trusts in Alberta and as a tool to preserve the integrity of the environment they should not be discounted because of the Military case in Colorado.

[smcgrath76]

My thoughts are that some of these tools are useful and need to be promoted with the public. Make a big splash about the value of the land placed into an easement for example. That helps to get the public aware and onside and with a farm population as small as it is, represents the only way to get political attention and representation. We have to do a better job of getting the voting public onside.

[wilagro]

Well you could march into your local MLA's office and rattle his chain.Get enough people to go with you and he/she might think for a change before they consider such a change in their land procurement legislation.

[per]

Wilagro, your strategy is necessary right now. Sean, yours would be useful to you on an individual basis in the future. I can point to concrete examples of industry avoiding Conservation Easements. The public pressure is very powerful plus you have the resources and expertise of the Land Trust in your corner and as an interested legitimate party at the table.

[smcgrath76]

wilagro...
It wouldn't be the first time (not even in the last few months). I think in terms of government, they could really work on some listening skills.

[dfarms11]

If anyone is interested, there is a meeting this thursday (the 19th) in the Round Hill Comunity Hall discussing Bill 19 with area MLA George Rogers attending. The meeting will start at 7:30pm.