Alberta’s new land use framework will provide a balance between the province’s environmental, social and economic needs, says sustainable resource development minister Ted Morton.
Alberta’s growing population and increased energy activity have created conflict among energy companies, rural landowners and recreational activity that the draft land use framework hopes to ease.
“The purpose of the framework is to manage growth, not stop it,” Morton said several times during a May 21 news conference.
The new framework creates six large regions based on the province’s watersheds. Each region will develop its own plans to reflect the area’s uniqueness, but all will be based on provincial guidelines.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
The land use consultation began in 2006 as Alberta’s population started to boom. In the past 25 years the population has increased to 3.5 million from 2.3 million and is expected to reach five million by 2025.
Albertans will have two months to comment on the draft plan before it is implemented. The government expects it will take four more years before the plan is established in legislation.
Don Johnson, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, said his organization has taken part in the consultation and would like to see the recommendations implemented quickly.
“It seems to me we’ve had extensive consultation over the last couple years,” said Johnson, who welcomes the draft agreement that was initially expected in January.
“I’m pleased to see it, finally.”
Few organizations have as much at stake over land use planning as rural municipalities, whose regions take in 98 percent of the province.
“Having good guidelines in place makes good sense to me.”
Johnson said municipalities were originally concerned the province would revert to the old regional planning commission boards that were disbanded in 1995, which limited development within counties and municipalities.
“The minister has assured us we’re not going back to the old planning commission.”
Instead, a new cabinet committee will be established to oversee regional plan development along with a land use secretariat. Regional advisory councils will be established for each region. Members of the councils will include provincial, municipal, industry, nongovernment and aboriginal representatives, as well as other planning bodies within the region. Once approved by cabinet, regional plans will become provincial policy.
Johnson said it’s important that municipalities and counties be represented on the advisory councils when developing policy.
The framework also proposes finding ways to reduce the loss of agricultural land.
Assistant deputy minister Morris Seiferling said the province has no strategy to deal with urban encroachment and acreage development, and he wants guidelines.
The plan also encourages farmland protection by offering landowners credits or financial incentives to keep their land in pasture or as agricultural land.
If the province wants protected areas, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the landowner to bear the cost, Seiferling said.
Johnson said protecting farmland from acreage and urban sprawl is an important step, especially along Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary where the pressure to expand is high.
“If it’s good arable land, we don’t want it subdivided,” he said.
Each region will use a “cumulative effects approach” when managing the impacts of development on air, land, water and biodiversity. Critics have complained that past land development projects were approved without looking at how the group of projects or development collectively affected the area.
The province will also develop a recreational strategy for public land in and out of provincial parks.
“It’s not about kicking everybody out of the Eastern Slopes but how do you manage the activity within them,” Seiferling said.
