Forget oil – the new gold in rural Alberta is gravel.
The sale of a central Alberta ranch rich in gravel to the province’s infrastructure department has the local county worried it will no longer have access to gravel.
“I’d hate to have the government tie the gravel up and we have to go to the mountains to get gravel,” said Vern Hafso, deputy reeve of Beaver County.
Last year the provincial government bought Cathton Ranch, a 5,800 acre spread located next to the University of Alberta’s 7,900-acre Kinsella ranch north of Kinsella.
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The university will use part of the newly acquired ranch for research, but the areas that are rich in gravel will be used to feed the dwindling supply of gravel in a province that has an insatiable appetite for crushed rock.
Hafso said the county is worried an existing deal to buy gravel from Kinsella Ranch will be superseded by the province’s need for gravel if the government and university swap gravel and grazing lands between the two ranches.
“We have access to some of the gravel on there, if the government projects don’t deplete all of our gravel,” he said.
“People tell you there’s lots of gravel out there, but it’s getting harder and harder to find…. Gravel is like water. It’s getting scarcer and harder to find.”
Hafso met with Alberta premier Ed Stelmach, the county’s local MLA, to seek assurances it won’t lose access to gravel on the ranch.
Hafso said the premier made no promises but agreed the county should be assured access to the gravel on the newly expanded ranch land.
Larry James, executive director of realty services with the infrastructure department, said the department bought the land primarily for the University of Alberta but also because the land is an ideal source of gravel.
“There’s a lot of gravel out there, but there’s a lot of land too, so hopefully we can work gravel and cows together.”
