With the release of another draft for the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP) from the provincial government recently, so too has another volley of criticism been released from opponents.
LARP is the first of seven regional plans across the province and includes the MD and Town of Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche and reaches to the northern boundary of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
“It's shocking what they've come up with," said local Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw. “Instead of just extinguishing property rights, if you don't comply with the regional plan, it can actually force a government bureaucrat to dictate a management plan so you are consistent."
Once the plan starts to be implemented and people in the area find out what the impacts are, “I think there is going to be an uproar."
Land and business owners under the LARP will be “directly managed by a government agent if they do not operate within the limits set out in the LARP," the Wildrose caucus stated in a press release.
“This sounds like something straight out of a Soviet handbook," said Paul Hinman, Wildrose Sustainable Resource Development critic, in the press release.
The Wildrose statement refers to regulations that state “if a minister thinks you have gone afoul of the plan, even if it is something you have a licence for, 'an appropriate official or officials in the designated minister's government department must initiate a management response consistent with the framework'."
One Progressive Conservative leadership candidate has called to repeal the Land Stewardship Act, former Bill 36, which enabled the drafting of the regional plans through the Land Use Framework.
“There is no other word than 'robbed' to accurately describe what the government is doing to the people of Alberta through land sterilization policy initiatives," a news release on Aug. 31 reported Rick Orman saying at a news conference.
The financial hit to Alberta due to a quadrupling of size of a holding reservation in the LARP could reach $480 billion, Orman said, referring to an unnamed financial analysis.
“I would never have believed a conservative government in Alberta could just tear up agreements, sterilize oilsands leases and back out of forest management agreements, mining agreements and agricultural agreements," Orman said.
The Sierra Club Prairie, an environmental lobby group, called the latest LARP draft an “insult" to environmental and First Nations groups, “as it did little to incorporate previous recommendations," in a press release.
“Despite major efforts by both local citizens and First Nations to put forward recommendations for a land use plan that will benefit both the environment and the economy, we see the Government of Alberta disregard these requests and ignorantly turn pristine Boreal ecosystems into dollar signs for corporations," said Eriel Deranger with Sierra, in a press release.
