When will enough be enough

[cakadu]

I was driving to Edmonton today and happened to take the route from Sylvan Lake to Highway #2. They are twinning Highway #11 from Red Deer to Sylvan Lake and construction has started up in earnest again. Right beside the road construction - they could have thrown a rock and hit the derrick - was a drilling rig. Then on the highway the land has been cleared for whatever new businesses are going into the Burnt Lake business park and with all the wind, the dirt was blowing across the highway and at times it was creating pretty poor visibility.

Producers are told time and again that they should move towards zero or minimum till and forego conventional tillage practices in order to avoid having the top soil blow away, yet these types of activities are growing in number and frequency. What is wrong with this picture???? I know that we can't control what anyone else does, only what we do, but why is it that producers are continually being urged to adopt beneficial management practices and do what they can to protect the watershed and the upland only to watch other industries go down the path that they have chosen. This is beginning to make less and less sense to me.

What makes it okay to have less than 3% look after what the other 97% are doing? To top it all off, as landowners we are pretty much expected to do this out of our pockets and from our strong commitment to the land.

Drilling activity is reaching unprecedented levels. Do we have any idea of what the long-term cumulative effects of all this drilling are going to be? When you start fracturing all those layers, what is going to happen over time?

Cowman, you might know this one - has there ever been any other point in history where there has been this much drilling activity with no end in sight?

I know I'm on a bit of a rant here, but I wonder when we will finally determine and realize that enough is enough? Will we be able to mitigate the damages? My one desire is to leave this world a little better than I found it and I wonder how that will be accomplished given what we are doing. What kind of world are we leaving for the grandkids and the greatgrandkids? Wouldn't it be nice to see them have the opportunity to make the same kinds of choices, or have any choice, in what they can do? Maybe we'll quit when water reaches $100 a barrel.

[WoolyBear]

Being from Manitoba, farming without an oil well on the farm, and living with an NDP government here makes me just a little envious of what goes on in Alberta. But in regards to the $100 water...... life will go on when the oil runs out.

[cakadu]

The proverbial grass is always greener I suppose WoolyBear. Living without an oil rig in sight would sometimes be welcomed. I don't know what it would be like to live under an NDP government having been under a PC rule in this province for most, if not all, of my life but I truly wish we could see what it would be like to have another party govern for a while.

I am fully aware that life will go on without the non-renewable resources to go after - my concern is what we are doing and continuing to do in the name of greed - before we reach that point. It is not readily apparent to me that there is any kind of strategy in place for that eventuality. The thinking and strategies are definitely short-term.

When you still have fish inhabited streams and lakes, potable water, trees and wildlife to look at and fresh air to breathe, are you still going to wistfully look to the West of you? That is worst case scenario I know, but given our reliance on non-renewable resources and our quest to get them is that so far outside the realm of possibility? The statistics on reclamation are shocking and there is no one there keeping a watchful eye on ensuring that the reclamation orders are being filled.

My idea of a great place to live does not include seeing derricks like trees on the horizon. I'm not naive enough to think that the drilling will stop or that we can put a stop to it because as cowman has said, they will eventually get it. Let's do it in balance and with regard to cumulative effects and knowing where we are before we keep rushing down that slippery slope.

[cakadu]

Linda, try driving on the Parkland Highway west of Edmonton through Parkland County. Someone in their wisdom decided to site a LANDFILL adjacent to the highway....the stench is worse than any hog barn in the province and the garbage and debris that has blown into the ditches, hanging on trees and fences is a disgrace.
This land was valuable farmland and certainly would have been in great demand for country residential, given the fact that Edmonton has grown nearly to Spruce Grove which in turn, has grown almost to Stony Plain.
The entire mess is an eyesore and whomever is responsible for the decision to put a landfill at that location should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves !!!!

PS: Are you by any chance going to be near Red Deer the evening of the 16th ?

[food4u]

We have lived in a NDP province all our lives and you just have to look ( to your east) at the difference in the city of Lloydminster to see what a NDP govt is like. All kinds of money for studies and burocracy and little for the actual projects. (eg) ALL kinds of money(last count--18 plus millions to clean a slough in Regina) but no money to finish irrigation projects that have been on the books since the 60's.

[cowman]

Linda: Without a doubt we are going to see the greatest push ever in the next couple of years to recover the shallow gas in Alberta! Also, an engineer told me the companies are punching holes like crazy near Verdun Manitoba, for shallow gas!
The shallow gas/coalbed methane will in no way keep up to demand. Frankly they never went after this gas because it just wasn't viable economically.
Alberta, at least in the Calgary/Edmonton corrider is undergoing a boom like we've never seen before. Unfortunately that also brings some major problems? All municipalities are struggling to keep up the infrastructure needed to support that growth and quite frankly our provincial government takes the money and doesn't put much back? Where has all the money gone? I suspect incompetence or maybe shades of "adscam"!
The questions of landfills is one that is going to come back to haunt us in a big way! My own personal belief is we need to look to Europe for solutions? In Germany landfills, in the traditional sense, are almost a thing of the past! Recycle, bio digest, and incinerate to produce steam....only makes sense?
However in Alberta, everything comes down to the almighty buck and no one looks beyond the next 6 months!
Personally I hope we never see an NDP government. They might have a few good ideas, but they never outweigh all the stupid ones? If you think we have a bloated beuracracy now and are completely over regulated with goofy rules....just wait till you get those idiots in there!

[cowman]

Mark Norris is out selling himself as the potential successor to Klein, one of his issues is more money for municipalities for infrastructure.
Municipalities both rural and urban are faced with huge pressure on their existing infrastructure, and huge demands for enhanced recreational facilities etc. Many communities are also facing the increased need for additional seniors housing as well. The growth of Alberta has not come without cost.

[cowman]

As I think about my own question "Where has all the money gone?" I wonder if our various governments have over spent themselves with so many different programs that they don't have enough money to keep up the infrastructure?
How much money does Alberta Health Care require in a year? How about Alberta Education?
Now while the majority of people might think these "sacred cows" are not possible to live without, the fact is at one time we just just fine without them, and contrary to popular belief they cost one hell of a lot less than now! The fact is there is no free lunch in this world and one way or another we all pay! Personally I like the idea of spending my money where I want to?

[cakadu]

I'm just going to throw this out there and see what you guys think. What about the fact that they just keep throwing more money at problems and the money just doesn't get where it needs to go. It doesn't really matter which sector or industry you look at, it seems to be the same regardless.

Instead of the money going to fix roads, get more teachers, make it to producers to make appropriate environmental changes, fish & game to hire more officials to watch out for unsustainable environmental practices, auditors to ensure that reclamations are carried out - what have you - the money goes to create yet more layers to administer and deliver programs, grant money etc. Instead of hiring more teachers, school boards have administrators, assistant administrators, superintendents and the list goes on. They hire more people to deliver the programs, which eats up a good chunk of the money. Instead, if they just got the money to where it needed to go, the good things the money had been intended for could just possibly get done.

As far as the pressure goes, isn't it somewhat akin to a chicken and egg thing?

[cakadu]

Cowman, I don't know if municipalities have overspent on infrastructure but I do know that many municipalities both rural and urban are finding a lot more pressure on their existing infrastructure: Water and sewage treatment plants; landfills; streets and roads plus the ever increasing demand for recreational facilities.

I feel sorry for the municipalities that do not have high assessment because their citizens are demanding the same services that those in the 'have' municipalities get.

As far as health and education funding goes, I know that our local hospital is continually renovating to add more offices for administration while the long term care doen't have enough beds to address the waiting list.

The school board locally finally listened to the parents and opted out of building a new junior high school adjacent to the proposed indoor soccer field . There was ample land available adjacent to the existing school in the area where other schools are located.
The Catholic school board however, has decided to build their new school joined onto the soccer field, the reason cited in this weeks paper by some of the parents is that doing so will ensure the community has strong leaders tomorrow !!!
Go figure that reasoning out....particularly when the rural and urban tax base is expected to pick up the tab for the soccer field....and of course the annual maintenance costs as well, plus likely a staff to operate it.

[cakadu]

I would also think that municipalities, whether richer or poorer, must consider how much it is going to cost to maintain the infrastructure versus the revenue that they will get from it, new developments etc. I have read several times that for each dollar spent on infrastructure, it costs another $1.15 to maintain it. Is that enough to be offset by the revenues? Municipalities make an awful lot of tax money off of acreage owners, so is it any wonder that they want them going in? It seems to me we need to be really careful about what we ask for because once there is pavement over it, we will have a hard time getting it back, if at all.

Increased growth does not necessarily mean that well-thought out planning goes right out the window.

[cowman]

I hear you both on these issues and I do realize it is incredibly expensive to build roads, landfills, water and sewage systems, policing, and firefighting! And in reality I believe our municipal governments have done a fairly good job with the money they have.
I do believe the feds and province have not done their part in sharing the wealth with the municipal governments to keep up the infratructure? For example, take the federal "road tax"? How much do Albertans pay per year at 10 cents a liter? How much of that money has come back to the province for infrastructure?
The Klein government gets the royalty checks from the oil. How much of that comes back to the municipalities for needed infrastructure? I do know that this year they have thrown some cash out there, but they were pretty tight with it the last decade or so?
I remember Ralph Klein talking about medicare and education a couple of years back and it is one of the few times I actually agreed with him! He said "How much is enough? If we spend 50% on health and education...is it enough? Or 70%? Sooner or later we have to realize we can't keep spending more and more on these two programs." And yet if he talks in any way of trying to deliver these services cheaper he gets branded as a complete fascist or something!....and in the meantime Quebec quietly goes about delivering private health care and not a word is said?

[cowman]

Linda, municipalities do not MAKE a huge amount on acreage development if the municipality builds the infrastructure including water lines, etc. In my county the internal roads in the country residential parcels are the responsibility of the developer but the municipality mantains them once they are in place. That is a significant cost, snow removal takes twice as long in a residential subdivision as it does plowing a straight length of road, etc.

Industrial, commercial and machinery and equipment and power and pipeline assessment is the money maker for municipalities