Drilling Activity and Notification

[cowman]

Linda: As of January 1st the "honorarium" for councillors was raised 3% to $30,900. I believe the per diem of $150/day was also raised 3%? And I'm not sure if they raised the per kilometer rate, or if it stayed at 50 cents/k? For every committee a councillor sits on they get the per diem, mileage to attend, appropriate meal allowance for the time spent in committee. I believe breakfast is set at $11 and lunch/dinner at $15?
Apparently this isn't enough inducement to attract a lot of people to run as it is kind of a thankless job. No matter what you do, someone isn't happy and some people are completely unreasonable! A newly elected councillor told me he couldn't believe the learning curve he had to go through or the time he has to spend learning the ropes.
Red Deer County has made some real bonehead moves in the last few years that have cost us all a ton of money? The Bill Mearns affair, the annexation of Springbrook, the winter gravelling program, faulty engineering of new roads, wasting money on a Reeves Task Force on Land use(when they had no intention of listening to what the people said), the gong show of privatization(which actually led to more paper pushers)and last but not least the "Taj Mahal"...a completely unecessary and extravagant expense!
And no, I have no intentions of running for council! My councillor has been in for 18 years(almost always by acclimation) and is about the only one with a brain! Hoping the new crop of councillors turns out to be better managers.

[cowman]

Just adding a wee bit to the above: The county had a policy of winter gravelling for about the last three years. The rationale behind it was they could hire cheaper trucking in the winter! The public works manager they hired had never dealt with gravel roads! Now all the old grader operators knew this was completely retarded but he wouldn't listen to them...his attitude was he knew more than anybody else....after all he was getting the big bucks, right! So what happened? The gravel went on, it never got a chance to set in the frozen ground, and the first snowfall the snowplow pushed it into the ditch! Next time you are driving Red Deer County roads notice all the gravel in the ditch? After the first year it was very evident that it didn't work but when you sit in an office all day, I guess you never notice that? And besides, you wouldn't want to admit you were totally wrong and really didn't have a clue? So on it goes for another couple of years until the phone calls...and an election...finally brought reality home?
Then we have roadbuilding? Lowest tender for fill? Doesn't seem to matter that the fill won't pack! So you rebuild the road two, three, or more times! Is this cost effective?
Of course the contractor told them right from the start that river silt won't pack...but what does he know? Probably never attended any engineering school like the county engineer! On and on these things go! The contractors are happy as larks...the goofups keep happening and the work has to be done again and again! Unfortunately the councillors have not been on top of this or they need to cover their butts, because they hired these highly paid "experts" who really don't have a clue?

[cowman]

armchair public works superintendents are always interesting to listen to !!! Winter gravelling is done in this area as well, mainly because it is impossible to get on the roads for a lot of the spring due to their being soft and then if there happens to be a wet summer the gravelling program is set back further.
When one consideres the number of kms that are scheduled for gravelling each year winter gravelling makes sense in some municipalities.
As for gravel in the ditch, if the grader isn't scraping the hell out of the road the gravel in the ditch should be at a minimum, and one thing for sure it will all come back on the road whenever shoulder pulling takes place.

In our area we had lots of old grader operators and unfortunately one of them was on council for a number of years. He fed a complete line of BS to the public in his area and the poor gradermen faced continual complaints for doing the job they were hired to do.
On the other hand, some of the retired gradermen were brought in to train new operators and it worked very well and still is.

As far as honorariums are concerned I don't know if Red Deer gets a base salary plus honorariums or not, but most counties are not on the salary system. The councillors get paid per meeting and if they don't have many committees they certainly don't make much.
The fact is that there are a number of municipalities that do not have a huge assessment base and their councils work for a lot less than those in the more affluent jurisdictions.
Some municipalities are sending some if not all of their council members to the annual Federation of Municipalities conference, and this year it is in Newfoundland.
When I was on council I attended it the year it was in Banff, and for the most part I felt it was a waste of time. Most of it is geared to eastern municipalities !!!

Councillors that have served for many years certainly deserve a lot of thanks from the ratepayers and if they are receiving a fair reneumeration now, they damn well deserve it because you can bet that for many of those years they worked for a lot less !!!

[cakadu]

Emrald, they get the salary PLUS whatever honorariums there are for sitting on committees etc. They receive $2500 per month and other than the regular - you can't miss "x" number of meetings in a row, there are some that don't make some of the meetings and they are still paid.

I don't know if a councillor that goes along to get along will be worth the money that they are paid. It's also interesting how campaign promises never materialize and the same old same old creeps in again.

If the councillor sits for years, then at times they are worth it. I am also a very firm believer in the fact that after some years, you NEED new blood for the simple fact that you can have 20 years experience, 1 year at a time, if you get my meaning. Like anything, you need turnover in order to keep on the innovative side and willing to accept and adopt new ideas and ways of doing things.

Cowman, the auditor said that the money spent on the county building was legitimate - how much of that building was needed is anyone's guess. What I don't particularly care for is that they are spending big dollars to expand the parking lot when it was built only 2 years ago. That seems like a bit much, but then we aren't sitting at the table when the decisions are made.

I do think that councillors need to have the backbone to stand up for what they believe in and more importantly, for what their constituents believe and want. When reading the county news, I am surprised to see that all the MPC decisions are going through with relatively little, if any opposition. I wonder what happened to we can't have this going in here...or I'm not afraid to speak out. It's funny how things change yet still stay the same.

[cakadu]

The most important thing any councillor must learn and adhere to is that the decisions they make are for the good of the entire municipality not just their own division.
I agree that new blood makes for new ideas but the worst nightmares that happen are when an entire council turns over at one time, the experience of good councillors is necessary as new folks are on the steep learning curve.
In my own municipality there were five new out of seven councillors. None of the new ones have any experience on MPC and didn't know the MGA from a hole in the wall. Thank goodness we have one councillor that served as both a member at large and a council member on MPC for years or we would have some real messes in planning and development.

It does sound as though your previous council voted in some pretty plush reneumeration packages for themselves or was it the newly elected council that approved it ?

[cakadu]

No, it was the old council that voted that in. A 46% raise that had a number of ratepayers in the county up in arms. Two councillors of that group did not run again and one incumbent councillor was replaced after it went to judicial review - at our expense. So 3 of the 7 didn't have anything to do with the increase, but 4 of them did. I wasn't aware that they had given themselves a raise this year - kind of cheeky in some respects, given that there are many ratepayers who haven't seen a raise in years, let alone almost 50% in less than 3 years.

I agree with you that you cannot have a complete turnover as there has to be continuity. Dare I say some succession planning could/should also be built in. It's too bad that it is a more or less thankless job because it would be good to have people that were learning and waiting in the wings so to speak to take over the reins at some point. But then again, that would likely prove to be a little overwhelming for some who "covet" the seat and believe it to be theirs for as long as THEY want it.

Aint' politics grand - at any level?

[cakadu]

waiting in the wings to be a municipal councillor could be very interesting. If the person waiting is aligned with the current councillor and the majority don't agree with the current decisions then the one waiting likely won't be elected.
Apathy tends to elect councillors in rural areas, people think that good old so and so is a shoe in and stay nome then are disgusted when someone that hasn't got the brains of a turnip gets elected !!!
Being an effective rural politician takes a major time committment, and well qualified individuals with a lot of family committments may find that they just cannot devote the required time to one without short changing the other.

[ghoar]

Yes, lots of topics that need to be re-visited in Alberta. Hence the announcement last week of the "Coalition for Alberta's Future". For information, form a landowner's group, attend the Ponoka/Lacombe coalbed methane information meeting April 27th 6:00 pm Ponoka Moose Lodge, and organize a similar meeting in your community.

[sagewood]

I can sympathize with your worries and concerns regarding the CBM and shallow gas drilling. Down here (just north and east of Calgary) we too are being overrun with oilies and their hard ball tactics. The thing that the oily land men never tell you that is you have the right to be represented in any meetings with their land agents. I have used a wonderful land agent by the name of Paul Vasseur. Paul is from Three Hills, however, has worked all over Alberta representing land owners and proudly states he has nev er represented an oil/gas company. Paul spent 12 years with the Farmer's Advocate office, so knows the province and certainly is current with all the new regulations and devious habits of the o & g companies. The other things that the oilies never tell you is that you are not obliged to pay for representation--the invoice for that work goes directly to the oil/gas co. who you are dealing with. Even if you do not have the wells directly on your land, you are still impacted and still have the right to have conditions set out to lessen the impact on you and your land. Paul's email is flyingv@telus.net..you can certainly give him an email and see if he is working in your area. (phone 403 443 7392) The sad part of the prolifertaion of wells is the fact that they need to be connected by a pipeline (or several lines) and compressors, as shallow gas or unconventional gas is very low in pressure.

By all means get out to a landowner's group--the old 'divide and conquer' routine is a favorite with the oilies. I have managed to keep them mostly off of my home section by putting out stronger conditions. To this point in time their operation in this area is 'on hold'. As was stated previously by someone--they will eventually get here and they will get their wells drilled, even if it is just by a 'right of entry' order. So if you must have them on your land, get the most yearly compensation that you can get and be sure to get absolutely everything in writing. You will have a stack of business cards a foot high when you are done with these people as they have a staff of a thousand for every little job--and then they change jobs at the drop of a hat to go to a more lucrative position and someone new and wet behind the ears takes over.

I spoke to a machinery dealer at Eckville yesterday and he said he lost a good and young mechanic to the oilies as they offered him $700/day--little hard to compete with that in agriculture. Perhaps all these oilies should try eating and drinking their oil/gas. But I digress...take all the time in the world before signing any document with the oilies and by all means--get representation to help you. You can also invoice the oilies for the time that you spent negotiating, phone calls, visits etc., so start a journal of dates, times, activities--even if it is having to check and close gates etc. each day--mark it down and then send them an invoice. The oilies seem to think that they are the only ones who should get paid for their time.

With regard to any flaring or venting in your area, you can insist that they use a complete burner that burns efficiently, quietly and is not affected by wind. Flares are 99% unefficient if there is wind--gee do we get wind in this province..and then as you say, we are supposed to bear the brunt of being good stewards of the land but the o & g companies get away with air pollution with impunity. The best burners that I have heard about are with a local company Bekaert CFB Technologies--24 hour phone (403)399 9927 Kris Kinear is a contact name. The carcinogens that come off a flare or vent stack is truly frightening. The Ab. government will be truly amazed in the next 20 years about the number of cancer related conditions in their entire population.

Just one more thought, but if you don't want more than one well per quarter, have that as a condition in your original agreement and also state that the one footprint is only for the drilling of one well and no more. The oilies don't like it, but it will give you and your heirs some peace of mind. And don't let the 'easy' money fool you--banks and lending institutes are now looking sideways at all this activity on the land and are demanding environmental studies done before giving out a mortgage as they are well aware of the liability if there is environmental damange to the land and the cost to clean it up. The cost would choke most landowners if the o & g bunch are not made to clean up their own mess..but again, I digress...don't cave in and stand up for what you want..good luck...

[sagewood]

Escellent advice. With regard to pipelines, when they are abandoned the EUB will often allow them to remain in place after they are purged. I have a real problem with a pipeline being allowed to remain in place when it crosses a stream or other water body. The fact is that these abandoned lines are likely never checked again and they could be corroding and causing all kinds of environmental issues.

[cakadu]

Thanks for the information sagewood.

Emrald, if these pipes are potential risks to the groundwater, then who will become responsible if there is a problem?

We will know that society is serious when the same demands and risk assessments are placed on other sectors, whether voluntarily or madatory. Agriculture is voluntarily doing it - shouldn't some of the other resource sectors be doing so as well? I know forestry has some pretty strict rules - why not for oil and gas? The rules are there, but they certainly aren't enforced.

[cakadu]

Linda, I am positive that even though the petroleum company may get an abandonment certificate they would still be responsible of there were any adverse effect in the future.