Alta. appeal court nixes pig plan

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Published: December 19, 2002

Plans for an 80,000-hog barn in central Alberta have been dealt a major

blow.

The Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a decision that would have

allowed Taiwan Sugar to build a $41 million hog barn complex south of

Hardisty.

Lana Love, with the Flagstaff Family Farm Promotional Society that

opposed the project, said the almost three-year fight to keep the barn

out of the community was worth the time and money.

“We’re sure glad we did it. It was a big undertaking. There were times

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we weren’t sure it was going to go, but we’re really glad we did it,”

said Love, adding the group was successful because of solid community

support.

“We had people in the county backing the group mentally and

financially.”

It cost the group $120,000 in legal fees to battle the project through

the local development appeal board hearings to the Alberta Court of

Appeal. Legal fees were raised through donations and fundraising.

The Alberta Court of Appeal decision overturns a local County of

Flagstaff development appeal board decision that granted Taiwan Sugar a

development permit for hog barns in two of the five locations needed

for the 14-barn project.

The appeal board directed the development officer to issue residential

permits to Barry and Lana Love and to Paul Alderdice.

With the two residential building permits granted, Taiwan Sugar does

not have the required minimum distance separation between the barns and

nearby homes for the project to go ahead.

“They can’t move the barn site anywhere on that quarter of land to

achieve the minimum distance. I would think it’s a dead deal,” said

Love.

In April of 2000 the Love and Alderdice families each applied to the

county for a single family residential permit on their land. That same

month, Taiwan Sugar’s Canadian representatives DGH Engineering of

Winnipeg applied for a development permit for project.

DGH had made simultaneous applications in the southern Alberta County

of Forty Mile and in the County of Flagstaff. Opposition and an

unreceptive county in the south forced the company to its location in

east-central Alberta.

Two days of development appeal board hearings were held in the County

of Flagstaff. Few of those attending wanted hundreds of hogs for

neighbours.

During the hearings Danny Huang, an official with Taiwan Sugar, said

the company was shocked at the negative reception.

He said the Alberta government had invited the multinational company to

invest in the province, even paying for half the cost of a study to

find the most suitable location for the hog operation.

Some local municipal officials invited the company to the area, which

is rich with water and feed grain.

After the Development Appeal Board granted permits to Taiwan Sugar, the

Flagstaff Family Farm Promotional Society appealed to the Alberta Court

of Appeal in November 2001, which announced its decision Dec. 9.

Taiwan Sugar has two avenues of appeal. It can take the decision to the

Supreme Court or reapply for the hog barn to the Natural Resources

Conservation Board, which took over siting and regulations of Alberta

hog barns at the beginning of the year.

Representatives of DGH Engineering did not return phone calls.

Love said even though the fight was long and expensive, she recommends

a similar approach for other communities opposed to large scale

development.

“I just think it’s worth fighting for. You can’t just sit back and let

big corporations come in and push you off your land. It’s so wrong

they’re allowed to do that in the first place. People should be

encouraged to just fight this thing with everything they’ve got.”

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