Bill 36 Land Use

[farmers_son]

Coppertop brought up Bill 36 in another thread. For certain Bill 36 is deserving of a lot of attention and has huge impacts for primary producers. I have been so preoccupied with Bill 43 that I have not had a lot of time to study Bill 36 and hope others can fill me in.

[smcgrath76]

Meeting schedule is at
http://www.landuse.alberta.ca/documents
/Public_Consultation_Poster_May_8_2009.
pdf

[coppertop]

Regional Advisory Councils will
determine the land zoning, then their
plans must be approved by the Minister.
There are a lot of unknowns in this
legislation, although I fully support a
provincial over arching land use
framework which hopefully will remove
some of the local politics in land use
zoning. I would personally like to see
the regulations that will accompany the
Land Stewardship Act prior to having it
implemented.

[Kathy]

After a cursory view of Bill 36, I can say that it makes Bill 19 look like a cute little puppy. Bill 19 is the tail of the dog; Bill 36 has the real teeth.

Bills like #36, are designed to be passed under mass confusion. The Bill alters and modifies various other Enactments including the Municipal Government Act and Public Lands Act.

The powers of the Minister (depending upon what act applies) can be transferred to a non-elected authority or "director" as is the case of the "7 Planning Regions".

Bill 36 removes the powers of local communities and puts all the power in the hands of bureaucrats hiding behind closed doors. In other words, it will work like Special Areas [or as I call it "Little Cuba"].

The "Advisory Councils", like we have here in Special Areas, have no real authority as everything must be approved by the Minister. However, these "regional advisory councils" shouldn't have any authority as it stands. The more local the power, the more responsive to local needs. Bill 36 is a load of horse crap and should be shoved back down the throats of those that propose it as "benefitting" Albertans. What a joke!

Comments in the brochures which were freely handed out at the "open house meetings" were along the lines of: the guiding principle in all situations should be to reduce the human footprint, also... these 7 regional plans are Cabinet decisions and are not appeallable. In fact, these regional plans are not questionable, reviewable or liable to any other court [or so that's what they like to think].

Under Bill 36, all contracts between any Alberta government/authorities... are subject to unilateral modification or cancellation at the Regional Directors discretion.

Lands will be rezoned without your consent. There is no power to appeal a decision... other than to appeal the amount of compensation you will receive for having Big Brother dictate your lands future use.

I no more believe that Bill 36 was drafted by Alberta lawyers, than I believe in Santa Clause. This is a UN/Agenda 21 plan that will enable strict control of land use [and thus human activities].

Since the MLAs of Alberta no longer listen to the people of this province anyways, they have decided to give control of the Province's future to the paper pushers and their corporate, globalist control freaks.

If you aren't upset about this Bill, then you don't deserve to own land.

Finally, I'll add that when my hubby attended the open house in Hanna, the government brochures were on the table and passed out freely; the copy of the Bill, however, was UNDER THE TABLE and he had to directly ask for it. The bureaucrat then slowly took a copy from its hidden local, and gave it to him. He commented, that "you [Les Czar] must have had some experience with drafting legislation before?".... My hubby responded "No, but we've had alot of experience fighting against them."

Clearly, this is not a Bill that the government MLAs understand. Like our Advisory Council in Special Areas, they have laid the majority of their faith in government bureaucrats to do the 'detailed work' for them.... It is time to put a stop to this unhealthy reliance/dependency.
Contact your MLA right away, and ask him/her to explain the Bill to you - then tell them to try reading it for themselves.

[coppertop]

Kathy, the Bill has not become
legislation, so any copy your husband
received is only a draft. I have the
same copy and have read it. Minister
Morton brought forward nine amendments
to the Draft Bill last week in the
legislature.
There were various reasons why the
Province embarked on the Land Use
Framework. I am sure in Special Areas
you don't notice the self serving issues
that arise in many jurisdictions. Local
planning and local zoning is the flavor
of the day as far as local councils go.
In a council made up of Developers and
individuals involved in the Real Estate
industry you will see wide open
development, often at tne expense of the
environment and the agriculture
industry.
I have been involved in municipal land
use issues since 1992, and have seen all
too often a few developers control the
zoning in Municipal Development Plans
and Land Use By-Laws, so I am in total
agreement with an over arching document
of some form.
The Minister may make decisions with or
without the Regional Advisory Councils
being appointed and that is one thing in
the draft Bill that worries me, as does
the make up of the Regional Advisory
Councils. Having people with a vested
interest such as developing recreation
areas, or drilling sour gas wells
sitting on a Regional Advisory Council
that will deal with surface and sub-
surface zoning concerns me.
The Regional Plan and the Land
Stewardship act will not remove all the
decision making from municipalities, but
municipal plans must come in line with
Regional Plans, then the municipality
has the approving authority under their
own statutory documents.
Today Bill 50 was tabled in the
Legislature, it won't be passed in this
sitting of the Leg., but will apparently
be out for consultation over the summer.
One thing it will ensure is that we will
all pay more for power because the
province is going to build power lines
paid for by the public. That ought to be
enough to get Joe Anglin up in arms !!!
Particularly if the Province is going to
dictate where power lines go, vs leaving
it up to the Public Utilities Board.
Lots of contentious legislation on the
docket this sitting !!

[smcgrath76]

I agree with the concept of an
overarching big picture approach to
land management in the province. I
even agree with seperation by
watersheds. The piece meal historic
approach we have taken has created a
patchwork ecological disaster zone in
the province. There are some areas of
the bill that concern me, not least the
balance of power and who is in the
decision making seat.