MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – Alberta ranchers want to scrap a controversial provincial government review of grazing lease policy.
More than 850 ranchers filled a ballroom at a local hotel Oct. 7 to tell politicians the proposed changes won’t work.
In spite of assurances from review committee chair Tom Thurber that the report is only a proposal, the ranchers made it clear they are already feeling its repercussions.
They told Thurber and provincial agriculture minister Ed Stelmach that uncertainty over the security of tenure and loss of equity tied up in leases is straining relationships with bankers.
Read Also
Teamwork and well-designed handling systems part of safely working cattle
When moving cattle, the safety of handlers, their team and their animals all boils down to three things: the cattle, the handling system and the behaviour of the team.
Norm Bauer, of Hilda, said: “Your committee’s proposals regarding signing fees and rentals will bring the value of grazing lease contracts to near zero. You will cause the evaporation of $300 million equity from the balance sheets of rural Albertans.
“Yes, it is an interim report but it already is being felt in the economy of rural Alberta,” said Bauer.
The report released in May recommended the province as landowner get more money from surface revenue and transfer fees.
“I can just about guarantee you there will be changes in these major areas,” said Thurber.
An Alberta grazing leaseholders association has been formed to protest the proposals. It said the report is a betrayal of the agricultural community and is biased against leaseholders.
“You have lost the confidence of ranchers,” said Joyce Westerlund, of Oyen. “Stop this report. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t finished. It was a mistake.”
The first of several areas of contention is transfer fees.
When a rancher transfers a lease to someone else, the government charges a fee based on the location and productivity of land. In many cases the rancher adds an additional charge to the lease based on improvements made to the land. The ranchers are worried the government will claw back this money.
Another controversial issue is the money paid as compensation by energy companies to ranchers for access to land and to cover damages incurred.
The report suggests reducing the level of compensation because it is often seen by the public as generating “windfall profits” for ranchers.
The proposal suggested the money be cut back to $300 per well site with the remainder going to the government.
The ranchers say most renters receive up to $1,200 per well site per year. This works out to $1.90 to $3 per day to compensate the rancher for loss of access, loss of animal production and damage to property, including animals that are hurt or killed and land that is ruined because of spills by energy companies.
Payments are “peanuts”
Greg Noval of Canadian 88, a Calgary-based seismic company, told the rally that the energy industry pays between $20 and $30 million a year for access to these lands.
“It’s peanuts,” he said.
Public access to leased land is another concern. Leaseholders want trespass laws clarified and strengthened. Rancher Pete Armstrong said these lands should be renamed crown lands under agricultural grazing disposition.
“They are not public lands,” he said.
In the Special Areas of southeastern Alberta more than half of the five million acres are leased to ranchers. But Thurber said the Special Areas were exempted from the review.
Jack Horner, of Pollockville, who is leading a defence fund for the Special Areas, said policies directed at other parts of the province do affect them.
Grazing lease regulations are part of a broad review of all legislation ordered by the province in 1993.
All legislation has been opened and acts are being rewritten to update laws that have been on the books for nearly a century. This includes legislation like the water act, irrigation act, municipal government act and environmental protection.
The leasing report will go to the agriculture committee and then the caucus before it comes to the legislature for a vote.
