In your editor’s notebook (Opinion, Jan. 27) you imply that Alberta’s landowners were not paying attention to the legislation passed by the Progressive Conservatives.
Many of us certainly were.
In response to landowner lawsuits against the government, the courts ruled regulatory bodies like the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board had to be fair and impartial in their deliberations and proceedings.
Predictably, as in all single party authoritarian states, Alberta’s ruling party responded by passing retroactive legislation throwing out the legal victories.
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Even though Alberta’s landowners launched a vigorous and thoughtful opposition to this legislation, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives used their legislative majority to pass these draconian laws.
The passage of Bill 50 and the other odious pieces of legislation do much more than just remove civil and property rights.
These new laws are a deliberate statement of contempt for due process and the courts in Alberta from the ruling Conservatives.
The result is that careful planning, which involves many different interests, and the debating of evidence before an impartial and competent tribunal, has been thrown out in favour of a system where the lobbyist with the closest connections to the ruling party wins.
AltaLink is moving forward under this draconian new legislation to build what many feel is an obsolete transmission line at public expense. The public has no legal recourse to question the need for this expense.
There is no evidence that Alberta needs this line, only decrees from the Conservative cabinet that it is critical infrastructure.
The message of Bill 50 and the other new laws is: “believe us or else.” It is ironic that the rest of the world is moving away from this sort of authoritarianism but Alberta’s Conservatives are embracing it.
Ken Larsen,Benalto, Alta.
