Recently, a number of open houses were held around southern Alberta to give concerned landowners an opportunity to discuss the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (formerly known as Bill 36)  and offer feedback regarding property rights in particular to the government representatives in attendance.
While the two sides, government vs. landowner, have been at loggerheads over the legislation, it seems there may be progress happening. At previous meetings, the government seemed to be unwilling to change the Bill or repeal it altogether and start afresh, the landowners questioned its legitimacy and expressed their concerns about losing their property rights and not having any routes for appealing or for compensation should a piece of land come into dispute.
The trust by landowners for the provincial government has certainly been tarnished, if not completely shattered and while the property owners see progress being made with this latest round of open houses, rebuilding the trust is going to be a long haul....a much longer haul than the brief few months leading up to the next provincial election.
But, the dialogue between the two parties has opened up a bit and to many, that is progress. At least at this point the government is listening and has expressed a willingness to take the concerns of the people back to Edmonton. Of course, the government has not gone so far as to meet the landowners’ wishes of repealing the Bill and starting fresh, which may be the most simplistic way to do it. The people who turned out to the open house, and the majority who attended previous meetings and information sessions were primarily those who work in the agriculture industry. Their jobs are their lives and they are probably the best stewards of the land out there. It is their expertise that should have been sought out in the first place and perhaps, some (not all, however) of the current issues could have been avoided.
Ted Morton, who was the Minister of Sustainable Resources at the time and was the mastermind behind the Land Use Framework maybe should have looked to local landowners instead of modeling it after a framework that has proven to be equally unsuccessful in the United States. Hindsight really does have 20-20 vision, doesn’t it?
After loud outcries from the public over Bill 36 and those regional plans that fall under the Land Use Framework (ours being the South Saskatchewan Plan), the Alberta government changed some of the wording and amended the Act. To those who have been paying close attention, the word changes did nothing to change the meaning of the legislation.
At this point, many of the landowners were feeling like they were being played for fools and the amended legislation did nothing more than get them even more angry and concerned about the motives behind the Land Stewardship Act.
Hence, the open house. Premier Alison Redford really had little choice than to address the issue head-on and treat the local landowners with the respect they deserve.
The open houses may have seemed merely to be information gathering sessions, but they were much more than that. They were meant to mend a few fences in gaining back the trust of the people. They say wheels turn slowly when trying to get action from government. Well, the government is going to be learning that the wheels in rebuilding trust turn equally as slow. But, one step forward is better than two backwards.

Approximately a year ago a bill was passed in the Medicine Hat area to ban smoking in cars with minors.
Despite the unenforceable nature and laughable concept, the bill still managed to pass with supporters regarding it as a victory for the anti-smoking movement. To most people, the bill seemed to be an unrealistic move.
Now, a year later, a move far larger is being attempted.
A recent article in the Medicine Hat News states that parents are beginning to see the dangers of smoking through the amount of cigarette butt presence in public places.
The parent featured in the article stated that not only was his 18-month-old picking up discarded butts, but that a little girl had even gone so far as to put one in her mouth.
Now these parents are banding together to push city council for a ban on smoking in all parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor public spaces.
But is this entirely necessary? Does Alberta, or Medicine Hat in general, need to outlaw smoking one bylaw at a time?
Stats Canada states that on a daily basis, approximately 340,000 people in Alberta are exposed to second-hand smoke in vehicles or public places.
Although this number is down slightly from the year previous, some people still see the effects smokers leave behind.
What must be asked is, is such an infringement on other peoples’ rights and criminalizing a very common activity the correct steps to be taking.
It seems that many of the lobbyist’s in favour of the proponents of this suggested proposal are far more concerned with stopping people from smoking than they are in preventing the main issue; which just happens to be about the unsightly nature of cigarette butts and the possibility of children coming into contact with the remnants of smoking.
Instead of forcing people to comply with an anti-smoking ideology through legislation that criminalizes an otherwise common and relatively harmless act, maybe instead the public should look at other ways to fix the problem.
A letter was written to the editor of the Medicine Hat News giving a long-term solution.
The city of Yellowknife has a campaign running called “Bin the Butts”, where smell-proof cigarette bags are given out for free. These bags encourage smokers to use this bag when ashtrays are not around.
Ashtrays have been taken away from public areas in order to prevent smokers, but this is a harmful solution.
As the public has seen, cigarette butts litter the ground. Driving down the street a person can see at least one butt being tossed out the window.
Smokers are going to smoke, bylaw or not.
Maybe the non-smokers, and even the smokers themselves, need to encourage “harm reduction”.
The proper disposal of cigarette butts should be promoted, opposed to just downright banning all aspects of the simple act.

After the last two winters, many people in southern Alberta are enjoying the moderate temperatures over the past few weeks. Despite the many days that had wind warnings in place throughout the region, most people have not been complaining about not having to bundle up warm or having to shovel sidewalks and motorists are certainly happy with not having to navigate on icy roads with poor visibility, conditions that hampered travel over the two previous winters.
The drier the normal conditions have been taking their toll, however, as numerous grass fires erupted throughout the region last week. While none were attributed to human actions thus far, the fires were a good indication of just how dry things are out there and how quickly a fire can spread when the wind is blowing. Unusual for January, yes, but not completely uncalled for.
The recent fires showed us that caution and common sense are vital if one plans to start a controlled fire, whether it is a small fire in a burning barrel or one to get rid of those weeds and tumbleweeds that the wind blew in. It would take just one ember to fly out of a burning barrel to spark a fire when the foliage in the surrounding area is as tinder dry as it has been lately.
Careless actions can have costly consequences. Loss of property, livestock, pets, or loved ones would not be worth the risk.
Also, when a grass fire spreads, it spreads fast when the wind is blowing and if the wind shifts, so will the fire, which puts the safety of the volunteer firefighters at risk, as well. A grass fire in rural Alberta will bring out firefighters from multiple departments who come out to lend a hand in extinguishing the blaze. They put their life and limb at risk for the safety of others. When a fire is blazing down a coulee, they are going in there and trying to put it out.
There is also the cost to the municipality to consider, as well. Somebody has to pay for those pumper trucks, equipment, and volunteer firefighters to come in from other jurisdictions to help out. Depending on how large the fire and the equipment needed, those costs can be extremely high.
Luckily, there has not yet been any fires this winter that have been caused by human action. People have been using common sense and haven't been igniting that garbage in the burning barrels.
Those tumbleweeds can sit in the yard a while longer. Sooner or later, the snow will come, the winds will diminish and the conditions will be more suitable for sparking a controlled fire. Until that time arrives, caution and common sense are key.

All anybody ever wants is a healthy family; to be able to feel safe with the knowledge that children, and their children, will grow up disease free.
Luckily, due to the explosion of technology in the last 100 years, people have had access to better medicine to treat, and prevent, many horrible diseases that have harmed humanity in the past.
Recently, perhaps the most important medical breakthrough of these last 100 years is being questioned.
This is due to a combination of “junk” science, people’s lack of knowledge, and their willingness to believe anything that will help them feel slightly better about the bad things happening in their lives.
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published an article in a leading medical journal, The Lancet, describing a possible association between the MMR Measles Vaccine and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Later on, investigative journalist, Brian Deer, discovered direct conflict of interest involving Wakefield and a law firm, which was attempting to bring together a class action lawsuit against the makers of the MMR Measles Vaccine.
Beyond this, other members of the scientific community reviewing the studies and conducting their own, have found the information in the original article published in The Lancet to be false and without importance.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
Due to this corrupt action and the eager willingness of uninformed parents to believe in what can only be considered holistic medicine, vaccination rates in the United Kingdom, and many parts of Europe, dropped considerably after the publication of Wakefield’s article.
From 1998 to 2006, there was almost a 700-per-cent increase in the incidences of measles and other related childhood diseases.
This related entirely to parents neglecting to vaccinate their children due to fears of autism.
In the time since the publication of Wakefield’s article, the incidents of children becoming permanently scarred, and even killed, because of childhood diseases has increased in some areas of the UK and Europe by as much as 500 per cent.
In North America, this trend in stupidity has also begun to catch on.
Celebrities, such as former porn star, Jenny McCarthy, and the father of her child, Jim Carrey, have chosen to take a stand against vaccination because of their belief that vaccinations will cause their child to become autistic.
Although all of the anti-vaccination arguments have been scientifically proven wrong, the best way to view the subject is to think that even if a person believes the study is factual, they still need to take a look at the numbers.
Wakefield said in his medical study the rates of autism were somewhere in the range of one and every 100 vaccinations.
Even assuming these numbers are correct, it is a relatively small number in comparison with all the lives vaccinations save.
Before vaccinations were a common practise, rates of child mortality could be as high as 60 per cent.
With the trend the world is experiencing; leaning towards organic foods and holistic medicines, it should not be forgotten that sometimes people have to remember to use common sense when facing off against hysteria.
People have to look for evidence that supports the claims made by others.
If not, preventative measures will quite often lead to worse results than those in which they were planning to prevent.
If a person does believe vaccinations are a cause of autism, which they aren’t, then just do the math.
It is much better to have a healthy living child, with autism, than to have no child at all.