If there was a popularity contest in Alberta’s County of Flagstaff, Paul Schorak would not win.
The chair of the County of Flagstaff Development Appeal Board has received hundreds of angry phone calls since the board announced it is upholding a previous decision to approve an 80,000-head hog operation south of Hardisty.
“There is frustration, disappointment and anger in the calls I’m getting. This issue has divided the community,” he said.
“I’d rather be out for a walk.”
Schorak said it was clear to the five-member appeal board that a majority of the 94 presentations to the board were opposed to the project, but emotion wasn’t allowed to be a factor in its decision.
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“If we were allowed to do that, we could have reached our decision in an hour,” he said. “We’d love to make a decision the other way.”
Lawyers at the hearing made it clear the board wasn’t allowed to stray from its guidelines. Its mandate was to decide if Del Bergum, the county’s development officer, followed the municipal development plan, local land-use bylaws and the Alberta Code of Practice when he approved Taiwan Sugar’s application for the 14 barn, five-lagoon operation.
“We took that advice to heart and we had to make our decision within those guidelines.”
Lana Love, spokesperson for the Flagstaff County Family Farm Promotional Society, said she doesn’t buy that argument. She said the bylaw’s discretionary use clause allows the development officer and the appeal board to veto a massive development, especially in the face of overwhelming opposition.
“To say that they had a very narrow focus is not right,” said Love, who farms about 1.5 kilometres from one of the proposed barns.
The group has 40 days to decide if it will appeal the decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal.
“We can’t stop now. We have to fight this to the end.”
She said the group will meet with its lawyer to review the 21-page decision for some technicality on which to base its appeal.
“If there’s a legal technicality, we’ll fight it.”
County of Flagstaff reeve Ken Skoberg said the past year has created wounds in the community that will never heal. He places most of the blame on DGH Engineering, the Winnipeg company hired by Taiwan Sugar to build the barns.
“It is very important, to the point of being imperative, to ensure the developer has the support of the community,” Skoberg said.
“It falls directly on the shoulders of the developer.”
The provincial government also needs to accept its share of blame for not having regulations in place governing intensive livestock operations, he said.
Paul Hodgman, manager of public affairs for Alberta Pork, said the project’s approval is good for an industry that needs pigs, but added the community paid a terrible price.
“The community ends up fractured when it’s over. We need to do something better. We think the province has got to take a role in it.”
Only one hog barn – in the northern community of La Crete – has been approved in Alberta in the past year. The rest have been appealed. With few government regulations, local residents are worried there will be no monitoring or enforcement if manure from a lagoon leaks into the groundwater or if other rules are breached.
Schorak said while the appeal board had limited flexibility, it did add more conditions to the permit to address fears and concerns raised at the public hearing.
“It was obvious to everybody there that there was a feeling there wasn’t any teeth in the regulations.”
The appeal board added a condition that the county has the right to issue a stop work order if permit conditions are broken.
It also added a condition that the company must continue to conduct research and development work on the best way to get rid of the 200 million litres of manure the project will generate each year. If new technology is developed, the company must adopt it.
A southern Alberta hog operation recently completed a pilot project on separating solids from liquids in manure. The liquid is purified and circulated back in the barn.
“That’s the kind of research we want Taiwan Sugar to pursue.”
Skoberg said the new conditions give the county some clout to ensure Taiwan Sugar is following the permit’s conditions.
“We’ve got some fairly strong conditions on the permit and we’re going to enforce them.”
Clarence Froese, spokesperson with DGH Engineering, said it will go ahead with the January construction start date even though there is a risk the Alberta Court of Appeal will overturn the permit and force the appeal board to rehear the evidence.
“Our legal opinion is that the Court of Appeal is not likely to allow the appeal board to be reheard,” Froese said. “We take comfort that due process has been followed and it will not meet with success.”
The company has applied to the Foreign Land Ownership Board to have the land transferred from local farmers to Taiwan Sugar. It expects the land transfer to be complete by Christmas.
Froese said his company has learned in the past year that there may not have been as much community opposition if more time had been available before the permit application was made.
“If we’d been afforded the luxury of a little more time prior to the permit process being started some of the things may have been lessened.”
