Alberta’s first property rights advocate is out of a job.
Lee Cutforth, a Lethbridge lawyer, learned last week that his contract would not be renewed. It expires Dec. 10.
Provincial justice minister Kathleen Ganley said in an email that her department is in the process of finding an interim advocate.
“We are taking this opportunity to consider the office’s role in supporting property rights before making any final decisions,” said Ganley.
“We want to ensure government is running efficiently and cost-effectively, without duplicating services. We thank the outgoing advocate, Lee Cutforth, for his service to promote respect for property rights.”
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Cutforth said he has had no communication with the minister’s office, other than notice of his contract’s termination.
The property rights advocate office was created by statute so legislation would be required should the government decide to terminate it.
“As disappointed as I might be that I’m not being renewed, I have absolutely no regrets about taking it on,” said Cutforth about the job. “I think it was a wonderful opportunity to establish the office.”
The office was created three years ago in response to widespread concerns over Progressive Conservative government legislation regarding property, land stewardship, electrical lines and carbon capture.
The legislation became an election issue and was considered a key reason that the Wildrose party made electoral gains in 2011. A task force created by the government of the day recommended establishment of the advocate office to handle property rights queries, provide advice to land owners and make recommendations to government for potential change.
The office is based in Lethbridge, with a secondary office in Edmonton.
In addition to handling queries, Cutforth made 10 recommendations to government over his three-year term. Two were rejected, two were referred for further study and five others await a response.
A recommendation against privatizing the land titles department was accepted.
“That was an easy one to accept because they didn’t have to do anything,” said Cutforth.
As for the others, “I think they’re all worthwhile. I think they’re all doable and who knows? Maybe in time …. You’d always like to see things move along a little quicker but I think in many respects my job is to bring it to the legislature’s attention and then it becomes their job to debate and implement.
“I think the real value of this office was in the annual report where I was able to make recommendations on how to improve and how to alleviate problems for landowner interests, and so to make that contribution to public policy discussion was tremendous.”
A recommendation in Cutforth’s 2014 report, which has yet to be reviewed by a government committee, called for the abolishment of adverse possession, also known as squatter’s rights, in provincial legislation.
The legislation allows a person to claim ownership of land if they have been in open possession of that land for 10 or more years.
Cutforth said adverse possession affects the integrity of the land titles system because it allows unregistered interests to take priority over registered ownership.
When first appointed, Cutforth said he faced comments that the job was politically partisan.
“I believe I was able to work through that to get those critics past the talking points and I think a lot of them did come around and recognize that I was being impartial and keeping this office out of those kinds of partisan wranglings,” he said.
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