Government will continue to protect Alberta’s water
By Letter to the Editor on April 17, 2021.
Editor: Water is important to our communities, our families, and our livelihoods. In southern Alberta, years of drought and a dry climate mean that access to water for all of its purposes is at the front of mind for many. Southern Alberta communities are rightfully interested in making sure that they have enough water to meet their needs.
Alberta has a strong system for allocating water that ensures communities, irrigators and industry all have the resources they need to thrive. In the upper Oldman River basin, which covers the MD of Ranchland, the MD of Pincher Creek, and the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, an amount of water is reserved for use by the Oldman River Basin Water Allocation Order.
This resource is protected under the Water Act, and we have committed to consultations with the affected communities.
I recognize that there is ongoing confusion about the Oldman water allocation order, and claims that the allocation has been changed without input from Albertans.
This is simply untrue.
In November 2020, Alberta Environment and Parks held early conversations with municipalities to get input on the proposals to set aside 20 per cent of the original unallocated order volume for aquatic environment needs, and replace specific water volume limits for irrigation, industrial, and other purposes with one overall limit for all listed users.
To be clear, these proposals do not, in any way, increase the water available for water allocation for any specific uses. No increase is being proposed for any specific industries – that includes coal.
In fact, these early conversations with municipalities are about ensuring there is enough water available for the health of Alberta’s fish and other aquatic species, an issue that is not addressed in the current water allocation order.
The Oldman water allocation order remains in place, and the existing sector-based water use limits are unchanged. In fact, no changes to existing water licences could be made unilaterally under the Water Act.
We recognize that Albertans have an interest in the availability and management of water for our communities and our environment.
Alberta has a long and proud history of responsibly managing our valuable water resources to ensure healthy, secure and sustainable water for our communities, the environment, and the economy. This will not change.
The quality and availability of our water is important. Alberta’s high standards and strong process for allocating water remain in place, and water for southern Albertans will continue to be protected for our homes, our businesses, and our environment.
Hon. Jason Nixon
Minister of Environment and Parks
-1
I always give governments 2 years before making an opinion of them. The UCP is now at the 2 year point….just shy by 13 days since election 30 April 2019.
Here is the comment- I have never witnessed in my 72 years of life a worse Provincial Party! I thought the mix of Wildrose and PCs would turn out to be a better PC party but in fact you are far far worse. You have a Napoleon as your leader, you pick fights with a Health System in the midst of a Pandemic (brilliant) You pick fights with Teachers when at best they are trying to determine how to even teach IN A PANDEMIC. You change the curriculum in the midst of a Pandemic to ensure they really stay off balance(doubly brilliant). You flip flop in COVID lockdowns and still can’t figure out what you are doing wrong. You enable new coal companies, then suggest open consultation and do the opposite as stated by the Energy Minister and now backfill her lie with a future one.
Alberta is at a crossroads here. We have a choice of being an NDP Province which I personally find detestable because of their pandering of everything Union and a job for life even if incompetent, demonstrated weekly by the intelligence coming out of our Universities! Or, we remain UCP which, I never thought I would say, is WORSE.
So we need another party because Napoleon and his henchman are just not doing it. In fact you are so bad at Governing, you will surely drag down O’Toole federally thereby fixing our wagons again with Liberals as a parting gesture! The UCP has ensured I will likely have to burn my own vote for the first time in my life! To ensure you understand that I am not a closet NDP, I donated to the UCP party to defeat Notley and her gang of unionists, until I realized you were worse. I have waited 2 years to allow you plenty of time to get organized and all you have shown is you really are even inept in organizing a bad sh*tshow!
So your headline of Gov will protect our water is truly hollow, you have given us no reason to trust you !
The UCP has one choice, toss Kenney, reorganize and demonstrate you are capable of governing because if you continue down this path, you are gone, that is a given!
Well said Dennis, My sentiments exactly.
My sentiments as well.
I despise the UCP and NDP equally, but I would rather have the NDP over this provincial government.
Hmm. I can’t believe I actually said that and meant it. Now I have to barf again 🙂
Well then, if Nixon is to be believed re: our water quality and allocation, there will be no open-pit coal mining on/in our eastern slopes. But, since the UCP’s, et al, credibility is kaput, this blathering by Nixon is, for many of us, the expelling of hot air.
he had his fingers crossed as his executive assistant typed this message hoping everyone would believe it. as for the 20% increase in water allocation seems to me it is freeing up water for mining granted be order in council.
Spoken by anyone other than Nixon and possibly Shandros, the words could perhaps ring true.
Fact is, this man has no credibility whatsoever – as with Shandros.
The words are meaningless.
Brilliantly said Dennis! I agree 110%. This ideology of this party has been seriously twisted. Every one of their policies procedures just makes you shake your head and say “what ?????” They are dangerous and delusional. They are so blinded by their own mantra they cannot see, feel or hear what the average Albertan is going through. Mr. Nixon is wasting time, and oxygen by opening his mouth and talking. Like his comrades he does not recognize or realize how hypocritical and unbelievable he/they sound.
Reposted as separate reply.
Well I guess Dennis finally woke up. Nice to see. Why don’t you teach Johnny what a fool he is.
This coming from the guy who had dead conservative friends you bad mouthed who were a lot smarter than these guys and you have finally acknowledged it. Why did it take so long for you to wake up? It didn’t take us two year.
The fact that what Notley was doing to fix the mess she inherited was fully supported by every lawyer, accountant, oilman, banker and former MLAs we have spoken with and has nothing to do with not bashing union workers who make up a huge portion of our work force. We need everyone of them paying their high taxes to get us out of this mess as lawyers point out.
This a repeat from a post I’ll link to add the end of this post. I’m repeating it here to make sure FC and Dennis sees it:
FC said, “We still have guys like Johnny and Dennis going along believing every lie the UCP feeds them and somehow that makes them a lot smarter than the rest of us. In other words Johnny and Dennis are losers”
You consistently go out of your way in almost every post to viciously insult other people.
In the past you have also accused me of being a “UCP loser”, yet since my first day of joining this forum, I’ve claimed my disdain for ALL political parties and our political system as a whole….so has Dennis.
You need to understand that just because someone agrees on a party policy, does not necessarily mean that they support everything that party does. Nor does it mean they support that party as a whole. On the flipside, just because someone disagrees on a party policy, does not necessarily mean that they support an opposing party.
This has been explained to you in the past by myself and Dennis, yet you still continue with your erroneous accusations.
https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2021/04/17/canadas-covid-bill-will-be-stiff/
The only fool here is you. I give every gov 2 years in power before criticizing or complimenting. We had 2 years of the Notley theatrics that resulted in nothing for the 10’s of thousands that were unemployed by the Oil Sector. Then she was able to snow you with parading windmill/solar which was being built ANYWAY. So Notley achieved nothing.
Kenney has achieved nothing, has pretended to achieve something and has handled himself poorly throughout the 2 years, even with COVID excuses/issues.
So, I have done exactly what I said I would do, which is give the benefit of the doubt to ANY party that takes power for 2 years and 2 years only, then I comment.
What you have to say is irrelevant and quite frankly BS to me. You run off about dead politicians, but do nothing about the Live Ones. I believe in being fair to any party freely elected by the people and allow them some “runup time”. That time is over, you assume the NDP is better, which because of the Low Bar the UCP has set, is not difficult to exceed, but they are still a political waste! Unless of course you are a member of a union!
the constant knocking of unions is misplaced. though not nearly perfect, what other protection does a worker have? you must know the history: people overworked for poverty wages, dangerous conditions, child labour…people organised into what we call unions and associations to overcome the despotism. an ongoing mantra is: unions may once have been useful, but not any more. well, if one believes that to be true, look at what corps have done, in addition to moving labour out from under us and selling us out. wherever they set up shop the tendency is as minimal as possible workplace safety standards, and, as minimal as possible wages.
How you protect your job is to bring a unique asset to it, its called “you”. If any doofus in the world can do your job, then you better be good at it. Unions have done nothing for the blue collar worker and to assume they have means you have not been following the work profile of the average worker.
With the advent of the cellphone and the need to be on it 24/7 employers now force the individual to far exceed the 40 hour work week intended. So much so that the employer owns you!
So if unions were so good, how did that happen? I would suggest that the worker and the union they think represents them have evolved to a point where one is not needed. Hopefully that’s not the worker!
Agreed.
Unions used to be a great thing. The amount of worker abuse that occurred before unions is appalling. Now however, like many things, they have gone awry. Furthermore, given the thorough rights of workers that we have via law, unions have become redundant. Ironically, it was the unions that fought for said worker’s rights laws. Once the laws were put in place, the unions realized that they didn’t need to exist. Instead pf gracefully walking away, they saw dollar signs and created a corrupt business which includes being in bed with a political party.