Monday, December 23

Rural

Environment, Government Finances, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics, Rural

2021 Top Stories

Politics During 2021 Alberta’s political oxygen was consumed almost entirely with COVID-19- a topic Abpolecon.ca kept in the background.  The third, fourth (Delta) and fifth (Omicron) waves rolled over the province and Kenney’s government was consistently found wanting. Not only was 2021 defined by the premier’s mishandling of COVID - the “best summer ever” but the NDP consistently out fund-raised the UCP. On top of these failures was a sexual harassment suit, an ill-timed UCP Christmas reception, and 22 constituency associations demanding the leadership review be bumped up to March (the effort was denied by the party Executive). By September Kenney was regarded as a “dead man walking.”  In December, former Wildrose leader and UCP leadership contestant Brian Jean resurfaced as UCP candidat...
Rural
Rural

Rural

Land lease delinquencies The Alberta Surface Rights Board is reporting an four-fold increase in non-payments to rural landowners whose land (or portion thereof) is leased to oil companies.CBC Calgary reported that  Gerald Hawranik, the Board chair, was predicting 1,600 to 2,000 complaints at the start of 2016 and is now predicting the number will be much higher and a $3 million compensation judged earlier to be sufficient will be exceeded substantially.  (more…)