The Alberta government should consider selling public land as one way to end conflicts and ensure better conservation, says a new report from the Fraser Institute.
“People generally take care of their own property better than if it is simply left,” said Mark Milke, one of the authors of Ranching Realities in the 21st Century.
Land conflicts started in Alberta before the province joined confederation but escalated as the population grew.
Those leasing crown owned land for grazing are expected keep it in good shape, but they also face in-creased demand from recreationists entering the land with all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles and resource companies harvesting timber or drilling for oil and gas.
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“With private property, it is quite clear: you have the right to decide who comes on to it, you can sell it, you have the right to profit from it,” he said. “On lease land, the boundaries are ambiguous.”
Putting the land up for sale has merit, said Larry Sears, president of the Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association.
Saskatchewan has already sold 500,000 acres of publicly held land and recently offered another 600,000 acres.
“It would give the leaseholder a lot more equity if he is able to privatize and would give the province a lot better bang for the buck,” Sears said.
Not everyone is in a position to buy, and decisions would have to be made by individual ranchers and their lenders.
“Times have changed from 10 or 12 years ago to where there is a pretty rosy outlook in the cow-calf business,” he said.
“There is some revenue that could be dedicated toward that.”
A public land sell-off is one way to amalgamate holdings and provide security to leaseholders.
“It would not make a huge difference in the way it is managed,” he said.
“The grasslands are not going to change, but security of tenure would improve dramatically.
“Security and private property rights are very important to achieve some of the goals that people want.”
Lease terms are limited in Alberta, which Milke said reduces incentives to invest in the land’s future productivity.
The normal lease length is 10 years but can be for up to 20 years, and all leases can be renewed, assigned, mortgaged, transferred or reinstated.
