Buying a Better Environment? Market-Based Instruments Project Backgrounder Now Available In Alberta, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) enables the use of MBIs for conservation and stewardship purposes. However, while theoretically favorable to MBIs, there is limited practical experience with these tools in Alberta. Throughout 2016, the...
The Environmental Law Centre (ELC) has been involved with the Land Use Framework (LUF) and Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) from the beginning. Its activities have included commenting on several cumulative effect management frameworks and conducting research on this topic. The following feedback on the draft...
When we think of protecting Alberta’s landscapes there are a variety of tools that are quite well understood and used: parks on public land, conservation easements on private land. The Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) greatly added to the conservation tool box by providing a variety...
Earlier in the year, prior to the provincial election, several amendments to the Municipal Government Act (MGA) were passed with a stated intention that additional amendments would follow this fall. However, given the change in government, the introduction of additional MGA amendments is being postponed...
Where will the province's regional plans be going with the new government? It’s anyone’s guess at this stage. Regardless, environmental information relevant to our region will continue to be collected by a variety of organizations (include government and non-government organizations). This information should inform our environmental...
Controversial spin-off industries expose gaps in regulation Click Here for some media coverage about a dispute over the storage of fracking sand in Penhold, Alberta. Here is some more coverage of the same debate. The sand contains crystalline silica, which is known to cause deadly lung ailments...
The Oldman Watershed Council (OWC) interviewed Adam Driedzic, Staff Counsel at the Environmental Law Center (ELC), for the film "Oldman Goes to Hollywood", a visual story of change and stewardship in the watershed. Adam spoke about the impacts of land use on water and emerging pressures on...
Earlier this month, the Alberta government introduced its proposed amendments to the Municipal Government Act (MGA) in the form of Bill 20: Municipal Government Amendment Act. These amendments follow from several months of public consultation conducted by Municipal Affairs (details can be found on the...
Our lives invariably cause a level of pollution: we drive, we use chemicals to clean our clothes and our homes, we use a seemingly never ending stream of plastics in our workplaces and homes. Who pays for the pollution that results? The resource extractor, the...
The National Energy Board (the “NEB”) recently began its public engagement initiative relating to pipeline safety [the information about the cross-country engagement initiative in this blog post was gathered from the NEB’s website at www.neb-one.gc.ca ]. The NEB seeks public input on pipeline safety and...
We are not all hydrologists or hydrogeologists and this is likely a good thing (otherwise we might all tell jokes like this: “What's the difference between a truck driver and a hydrologist? One has mud flaps, the other has flood maps.” (anon.)) When it comes to...
South Saskatchewan Plan Avoids the Hard Choices In September 2014 the Government of Alberta released the first South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (SSRP) made under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA). On January 17, 2015 I was honored to present some thoughts on the implications of the SSRP...