Incumbent PC MLA Ray Danyluk carved out a lonely piece of real estate as the lone supporter of contentious new land use bills at the Candidates Debate last Tuesday.
The three challengers for Danyluk’s job were unanimous in their criticism of proposed land bills 19, 24, 36, and 50 — and each candidate other than Danyluk said they would repeal those bills if elected.
The bills, especially Bill 36 — an amended bill that would have given cabinet the power to appropriate private land for infrastructure and development projects — were criticized as giving the government too much power to take land away from private landowners.
“Now, cabinet can take away your property rights,” said Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw during the debate. “And Bill 36 took away those rights.”
But Danlyuk accused the Wildrose of fear mongering and inaccuracies. The MLA said that Bill 36 has already been amended twice with bills 10 and 6, and that focusing on the out-of-date legislation is misleading.
“Don’t listen to scare tactics and fallacies,” Danyluk told the Post after the debate. “Like I was saying about Bill 36: don’t look back to a bill that has been amended —that’s inaccurate.”
Danyluk said that the two amendments to Bill 36 “corrected” some of the problems with the original legislation. He then invoked his ancestors to bolster his credibility on property rights — to some groans from the audience — saying that his grandfather first came to Alberta in 1896.
But Liberal MLA candidate John Nowak countered with his even deeper Alberta roots.
“My great-great-grandfather named Fort Edmonton and married a Cree woman, so my credibility is even higher,” Nowak said to applause. “And I think government should provide a service, not take away rights.”
Alberta NDP candidate Philippe Johnson also got into the act, saying his grandfather served as a member of agricultural boards and was one of the first farmers in the province to grow canola. Like Saskiw and Nowak, Johnson sharply criticized the PC government’s land-use bills and the perceived power they could shift to cabinet.
“We’re against centralization,” Johnson said. “Ray Danyluk might want to say that he wants to protect farmers, but the PC-government is not doing that. It’s not right —and these new land bills would lead to more things happening behind closed doors.”
Although controversial and the subject of more than one pointed audience question accusing the government of scheming to steal private lands without proper compensation or access to the courts, Danyluk stuck behind the PC-government’s new land use bills – saying they provide a planning framework for a fast-growing province.
“The province is growing by 100,000 people a year,” Danyluk said. “And these bills are about protecting water and conserving land. It allows industry to develop land, but it makes sure it’s done in a planned way. The people have asked us to have a plan.”
