AIRDRIE, Alta. – Farmers and ranchers will be compensated for environmental stewardship if Ted Morton has his way.
The Alberta minister of sustainable resources is planning a study to find out how private landowners can be compensated for taking care of wildlife habitat, wetlands, forests, fisheries and watersheds.
“Right now landowners provide all sorts of public goods and get virtually no compensation,” Morton said at the Action for Agriculture annual meeting in Airdrie March 16.
A land use framework policy is planned, but Morton said Alberta’s dramatic growth is not going to stop and the government is not going to tell people where to live.
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“It is naïve to think we are suddenly going to stop it,” he said.
His department, which manages public land and forests, is looking at providing conservation easements to allow preservation of traditional agriculture use and wildlife areas.
That includes meeting with municipalities and landowner and conservation groups to find ways to allow agriculture to continue while still allowing other forms of development in fast growing communities.
Preserving agriculture does not mean subsidies.
“It is unlikely the provincial government is going to engage in long-term subsidizing of long-term uncompetitive agriculture practices,” Morton said.
When it comes to land use planning, Morton wants to see a regional approach because it cannot be managed at the municipal level.
Nor can one municipality dictate what should be done, he added. As well, he does not want the direction to come from the provincial government.
