Bill 19, It Won't Go Away

Why is the Minister of Infrastructure Lying to Alberta Landowners?‏
From: Edwin Erickson (edwin@ericksonforest.ca)
Sent: April 15, 2009 8:34:22 AM
To: edwin@ericksonforest.ca

Why Is the Minister of Infrastructure Lying to Alberta Landowners?

On March 2, Alberta Infrastructure Minister, Jack Hayden, introduced Bill 19, the Land Assembly Project Area Act, to the Legislature. The Bill follows the infamous Bill 46 as the next step in removing property and democratic rights from Alberta’s citizens and landowners.

At a number of public meetings sponsored by private citizens and community groups across the province (in which only ONE among almost 900 people polled in favour of the Bill), Minister Hayden and many of his associate PC MLA’s have been spreading blatant misinformation about the contents of the Bill. On April1, the Minister was a guest on the province-wide Rutherford show on Radio QR77 in Calgary.

Here is a segment of the transcript from that program:

Jack Hayden: No! Power lines are not included in this, and this is one of the big confusing factors that are out there. This is for public infrastructure: transportation and utility corridors. There is legislation in place and a process for transmission of power to be put in place, and that’s all private. This has nothing to do with that.

Dave Rutherford: Does this affect pipelines, private company pipelines, etc?

J H: No, it doesn’t.

D R: Gas wells?

J H: No.

D H: Nuclear reactors?

J H: No, not at all.


One would think that the Minister who sponsored the Bill, and who is mandated to act in the best interests of Albertans, would know and understand the Bill’s contents. However, that does not seem to be the case. Here is the exact wording as stated in Bill 19:

Section 2(2): For the purpose of this Act and the regulations, a project is a public project if the project is any, or a combination of any, of the following:

a) a project related to the transportation of people or goods;

b) a project to confine to a corridor of land pipelines, pipes or other conduits, poles, towers, wires, cables, conductors or other devices, including any ancillary structures.

The discrepancies can hardly be more clear, and this is only one example of the huge amount of misinformation coming out of the mouths of Minister Hayden and his entourage of MLA’s.

The question begs an answer: Why is the Minister of Infrastructure Lying to Alberta Landowners? What is really going on here?

Edwin Erickson,

Buck Lake, AB