PCs misleading Alberta landowners about loss of land rights

Press release

Alberta Landowners Council wants landowners to know the truth before they vote

APRIL 20, 2012—Morinville, AB The Alberta Landowners Council says the PC candidates must be feeling the heat on property rights and the controversial Bills 24, 36 and 50.
The council points to a number of PC candidates taking out paid advertisements in local
newspapers and candidates emphasizing property rights in all-candidate forums.

“The paid ads include claims about the candidate’s admiration of property rights as well as emotional descriptions of their family histories involving land ownership,” says council president, Colleen Boddez.

Boddez cites ads taken out by Barrhead-Westlock PC candidate Maureen Kubinec as well as
Stettler-Drumheller MLA Jack Hayden. The PC candidates are also claiming at all-candidate forums that ‘the three ‘Cs’ of consultation, compensation, and the courts’ fix the problems with the land bills that have upset so many Albertans.

However, the Alberta Landowners Council says the PC assurances are simply not
accurate.“They are also bragging about creating a new government position called the property rights advocate under Bill 6. Yet our legal review confirms that Bill 6 gives the new advocate no powers—none,” notes Boddez.

Keith Wilson, a land rights lawyer and the council’s policy chair found that Bill 6 does not contain any legal provisions to address the harmful effects of Bills 24, 36 and 50 on landowners and resource users.