Keith Wilson , B.A., LL.B . Wilson Law Office January - 2010

1. Property Rights: Where did they go?Impacts of New Alberta Legislation on Landowner-Business Rights Keith Wilson, B.A., LL.B. Wilson Law Office January - 2010

2. New Legislation Impacting Landowner & Business Rights • Bill 50 – Electric Statutes Amendment Act • Bill 19 – Land Assembly Project Area Act • authorizes the Provincial Cabinet to freeze land for extended periods of time – restricts compensation • Bill 36 – New Alberta Land Stewardship Act • new powers for Provincial Cabinet to extinguish existing rights (land titles, freehold mineral titles, development permits, etc) • new central-planning by Cabinet that trumps local municipalities and other agencies • Bill 24 – Carbon Capture and Sequestration Act • government expropriates an element of land rights

3. Prior to Bill 50 – Electric Utilities Statutes Amendment Act • Prior to Bill 50, the AUC process provided due process to ensure that only lines that are truly needed would burden landowners and ratepayers • The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) and the utility company were required to appear at a public hearing to prove that the line is needed • AESO and the utility company’s claims of need would be tested and their witnesses cross-examined

5. What does Bill 50 do? • Legally, Bill 50 moves the decision on “need” from the AUC public hearing room to the private Cabinet room • Bill 50 attempts to shift decisions on need from being ‘regulatory’ decisions, into ‘political’ decisions • Bill 50 means that instead of going to the AUC to argue ‘need’, you are now required to go to your provincial politicians • No other province, no US state, and no other developed country has done what Bill 50 does

6. Why is Bill 50 problematic? • it removes the checks and balances – creates opportunities for abuse and unneeded projects being built at taxpayer expense • $16.5 Billion in new transmission lines have been approved by the Cabinet without any hearings on whether the lines are even needed and no cost controls

34. What can be done to stop the Bill 50 lines? • convince the MLAs to stop and rethink Bill 50 – repeal it • Participate in the AUC hearing: • convince the AUC to turn down the Bill 50 lines on the grounds that the proposed line is not in the public interest given its economic and social costs

35. What can be done to stop the Bill 50 lines? • Section 17 of the Alberta Utilities Act states:  • Public interest • 17(1)Where the Commission conducts a hearing on an application to construct or operate a transmission line under the Hydro and Electric Energy Act, it shall, in addition to any other matters it may or must consider in conducting the hearing, give consideration to whether construction or operation of the proposedtransmission lineis in the public interest, having regard to the social and economic effects of theline and the effects of the line on the environment.

36. Expropriation Principles – Expropriation Act • if your land is needed for a bona fide public purpose, the landowner/business owner should be made whole • providing a service to other Albertans – should be treated with respect and not out of pocket in any respect • Expropriation Act sets out compensation principles and processes to ensure fairness and equal bargaining position

37. Expropriation Act – Compensation Principles

38. Bill 19 – Land Assembly Project Area Act • allows the Alberta Government to freeze large tracts of private land for potential future use as roads, electricity transmission lines, pipeline or utility corridors • Order prevents you from making changes or improvements to your property without getting permission from the Minister of Infrastructure, Ray Danaluk • typical freeze is for 30 years or more but can be indefinite – no time limit for the freeze • Cabinet order is filed against your land title and served on your bank and other interest holders

39. Bill 19 – Land Assembly Project Area Act • Step 1 – notice and consultation – max. 2 years • Step 2 – Cabinet places Project Area Order on your land – indefinite time period • Step 3 – Cabinet decides that it will be using your land for the public project – triggers right to buy out at market value only: Expropriation Act principles do not apply

44. Land Use Planning Before Bill 36 • locally elected municipal councils make decisions on land use planning • based on the idea that: • local people most affected will make better decisions using local knowledge • better access to decision makers – greater accountability • Municipal Government Act – mandatory public notice & public involvement in municipal development plans & land use bylaws

45. Bill 36 – Minister Morton New Alberta Land Stewardship Act • new centralized model for land use, economic, environmental, and social decision-making developed by Minister Ted Morton • Cabinet will approve regional plans that establish: • the Cabinet’s “economic, environmental and social objectives” • the Cabinet’s plan for activities on all private and public land for the next 5 years – 5 year plans • the Cabinet’s policies for sustainable development “by taking account of and responding to the cumulative effect of human endeavour and other events”

46. Bill 36 – Minister Morton New Alberta Land Stewardship Act – New Powers Sec. 11- Cabinet’s regional plans can amend or “extinguish” existing rights, including property rights, development rights, resource extraction rights, mining rights, water licenses, grazing leases, and any dispositions, approvals or permits issued by the Alberta Government Sec. 19 - no right to compensation if government approvals, land titles, development permits, subdivision approvals, mineral leases, water licences, etc are amended or extinguished Sec. 13 - no right to appeal Sec. 15(1) - binding on municipalities and all Albertans Sec. 15(3) - no right to make claim against government Sec. 15(4) - role and authority of Courts removed by the Act

48. New Alberta Land Stewardship Act – Extinguish Rights? 11(1)  For the purpose of achieving or maintaining an objective or a policy of a regional plan, a regional plan may, by express reference to a statutory consent or type or class of statutory consent, affect, amend or extinguish the statutory consent or the terms or conditions of the statutory consent. 1(aa) “statutory consent” means a permit, licence, registration, approval, authorization, disposition, certificate, allocation, agreement or instrumentissued under or authorized by an enactment or regulatory instrument;

49. New Alberta Land Stewardship Act – What Types of Statutory Consents can be Extinguished? Land Titles Act 1(k) “instrument” means (i) a grant, certificate of title, conveyance, assurance, deed, map, plan, will, probate or exemplification of will, letters of administration, or an exemplification of letters of administration, mortgage or encumbrance, (ii) a judgment or order of a court, (iv) any other document in writing relating to or affecting the transfer of or dealing with land or evidencing title to land; Cabinet’s regional plans can extinguish land titles & freehold mineral titles

50. New Alberta Land Stewardship Act – Extinguish Rights? 11(1)  For the purpose of achieving or maintaining an objective or a policy of a regional plan, a regional plan may, by express reference to a statutory consent or type or class of statutory consent, affect, amend or extinguish the statutory consent or the terms or conditions of the statutory consent. 1(aa) “statutory consent” means a permit, licence, registration, approval, authorization, disposition, certificate, allocation, agreement or instrumentissued under or authorized by an enactment or regulatory instrument;