Unfortunately, the premierís response to her own property rights task force comes as no surprise to us.
After meeting with hundreds of Albertans in January, the task force released its report detailing what it heard, over and over, from residents.
The concerns centred on compensation, access to the courts and lack of consultation before decisions with huge implications are made.
The overwhelming message from residents, as reported in many newspapers across the province, was to repeal the Land Stewardship Act, Electrical Transmission Act and Expropriation Act.
The Province chose to ignore that request. Instead, it introduced Bill 6: The Property Rights Advocacy Act. The new advocacy office will be designed to give advice to landowners, ensuring they have options- including the courts.
Leave it to the Province to create an office to help protect Albertans from laws the government passed. We can only imagine how much this office will cost taxpayers and how little of a difference it will make.
Is the government too concerned about saving face to take the advice of average Albertans? Or has it spent too much money promoting and defending the laws to justify scrapping them?
We also wonder if the response was pre-determined and the whole task force was merely a pre-election ploy to convince voters in rural municipalities that the PCís deserve their vote.
Itís frustrating. Farmers and concerned residents took time out of their busy schedules to attend the meetings only to have their concerns fall on deaf ears.
Sadly, it seems the only chance rural residents have of getting their voice heard is to vote the governing party out of office.
