Sask. minister raps Alberta water use

Saskatchewan's Environment minister has fired the opening shot in the war of words over the use of water on the Prairies. John Nilson says Alberta industries have been using water indiscriminately.

He was reacting to a report by two scientists that the Prairies will likely face drought conditions within the next two decades, and that Alberta's booming economy is using up too much water. They singled out the oil industry as a heavy user of water, particularly in the development of the oilsands.
FROM APRIL 4, 2006: Expert sees Alberta water shortage looming ( at foot)
They also pointed out that water shortages in Alberta will be bad news for downstream areas in the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

"In Alberta, they have been using water indiscriminately in a number of industries," Nilson says.

"It's time to sit down and look carefully at what they are doing. In Saskatchewan, we have been doing that."

Nilson acknowledges there has been some work on reducing water use in Alberta. But, he says, more conservation is needed to ensure rivers flowing into his province don't run dry.
Alberta Energy Minister Greg Melchin denies there's any problem.

"I don't think it's fair to describe Alberta's use in the oilpatch as indiscriminate. There is a very heavily regulated structure as to how much water they can use. No, there is some very good use of water."

Melchin points to the reduction of water use by up to 40 per cent, in recovering oil from wells, as proof the industry is trying to conserve the resource.

At the same time, Melchin agrees that Alberta must do more to conserve water. He is pledging a 30-per-cent reduction in use by 2015.


Expert sees Alberta water shortage looming

Last updated Apr 4 2006 10:48 AM MDT CBC News

The Canadian Prairies are likely to face a severe drought within the next couple of decades, and Alberta should be limiting the number of people who move there, according to a report by two Canadian experts on water.

Dr. David Schindler, an ecology professor at the University of Alberta, says future droughts will likely be far worse than the ones that turned the prairies into a dust bowl in the 1930s.
He says Alberta's booming economy and rapid growth have made it the province most vulnerable to looming water shortages.

Schindler co-authored the study with W.F. Donahue, and it was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their study indicates that water levels in the rivers of Alberta have declined 20 to 84 per cent in the last 100 years.

Waterways in central and southern Alberta have seen the biggest declines.

Schindler says Albertans get most of their water from these rivers. But, he says, it's also bad news for the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or anywhere else downstream, because it means a lot less water for them. He says river beds are already drying up downstream.

Alberta's environment minister, Guy Boutilier, recognizes there's a problem. He says people in Alberta will have to reduce water use by a third within the next seven years.
Boutilier says Albertans need to start turning off the taps now.

"So that 30 per cent improvement is something that I'm looking [to get] help by citizens, and also working in partnership with government."

Boutilier says he recognizes that, if water use isn't reduced, it could lead to fights between Prairie provinces as the irreplaceable resource dries up.

Schindler says Alberta should be limiting the number of industries and residents that are allowed to move there.

The report says, "Continued development [in Alberta] has caused rapid immigration from other parts of Canada and abroad, and even more rapid increases in freshwater use."
Schindler warns that the drought in the 1930s was relatively mild when looked at in historical context.

He says dry periods before that occurred several times a century, and typically lasted several decades.

He says, if climate reverts back to drier conditions and global warming continues, parts of the Prairies that are already dry will probably begin to resemble the near-desert conditions in the U.S. West.

My Bio

Norm Greenfield was born in the Vancouver area and currently lives and works out of Calgary, with an urge to return to Vancouver or set up a stake in Edmonton and enjoy the new scenery.

Needless to say, he would be interested in hearing from anyone looking for an eclectic mind and collection of life experiences. He has worked and learnt in the field of corporate, marketing and political communications since the mid-70’s.

He has worked in every facet of the communications field, including with politicians, policy consulting, political policy research and development, marketing communications firms, demographic/database communications, printers, newspapers, radio and television stations, as well as photographic labs and photographers, with a brief stint with the Vancouver Coroners department while going to college.

Currently Norm is working in the media and government relations areas, as well as corporate communications, and his client base consists mainly of green technologies, organic and local farming organizations, new and digital media companies, e-learning, and social issues groups. As one of the few that will tell the world, Norm is also a Registered Federal, B.C. and N.B Government Lobbyist.

Along the walking path on between South Glenmore Park and the Glenmore Landing

? Barry Erskine:

Along the walking path on between South Glenmore Park and the Glenmore Landing, about halfway, there has been a stand of trees mowed down to about two or three feet tall. It is just west of the point where when you head west from Glenmore Landing you reach the fork in the road. You can either use the lower pathway, and people are and do despite the lame attempt to keep them from, or go along the upper pathway. The stand of trees that has been mowed down is about 100 yards west of that point.

It would seem that they have been cut down for no apparent reason by the city. Can you find out why the trees needed to be mutilated like this? There are no power line, no disease in them that I could see from my many times passing them, and encroachment on the path.

If there was a loitering problem in the trees, could a culling of them have been done instead of mowing them all down?

As well there is a 10’ piece of all power pole sitting at the edge of the pathway with creosote on it. Do you know why we would leave something like that so close to the city’s water supply

Heritage Park is about to embark on an expansion project

Ric McIver:

Heritage Park is about to embark on an expansion project that will cost an estimated $45,000,000. Since the park is a city entity, the citizen’s will back stop their loan, or provide the cash to the park en masse.

To that end, do you not think it is time that the appointments to these boards by city council are done in public so we can see who is spending the $45,000,000?

If not, can you explain to me why I should not be able to know why and who is being appointed to that board by the city? If I am not supposed to know, then why should they be using city taxpayer’s money for their expansion?

If the issue of their names being made public and their backgrounds, then I would like to know why I am allowed to know who you are, and know who your adversaries will be in the next civic election? The argument I get from some at city hall is that this would mean that those with the best qualifications might not put their names forward to be considered for these civic boards. By allowing me to know who you are before I vote for you, does that mean I do not get the best people to chose from for my next council member?

You spend my tax dollars, close to $2,000,000,000 of them.

Catholic School System and Gambling

What I do not get is the hypocrasy of the Bishop during his current foot stomping episode over the Seperate School Board allowing Catholic schools to use proceeds from gambling to fund the extras.

Does this mean the Catholic Church and all of its various social service agencies are not getting any tax dollars for funding. If they are then some of that money is from gambling, some is from booze, and some is from corporations that manufacture arms and other material for war.

If the Catholic Church really wanted to live by its own moral code that is fine.

In this case I agree with the Bishop, but he is being hypocritical, and this more about a pissing match with Ralph Klein than the morals of the church.

If it were about morality then the church should take over the collection and imposing of taxes on their flock for the school system and raise the rest on their own, from their own flock.

Some of us are tired hearing about how moral the Catholic Church is and how much they want the government to do their bidding when they cannot get their own members to follow their doctrine. This of course is when it suits them.

They are all too ready to stand out of the way and let the government and taxpayers bail them out on issues such as the abuse of natives in the residential schools.

No label required

Robert Wager may very well be right when he writesthat, 'Requiring labels for genetically modified foodswould be difficult, expensive and would offer nohealth protection for consumers.'The bigger issue here should be, whether I as ashopper should be able to know what the food I ambuying is and contains, and how it was made.If Wager is right that, 'All food products ofbiotechnology (GM food) are examined extensively,...long before the product reaches the market,' then whyhide the fact from the consumer that the food stuffthey are looking at buying is a genetically modifiedfood stuff?Unless there is something to hide?

Basement Suites "Should they be legalized?"

Diane:

i thought you mike like the following in consideration of your upcoming townhall meeting on basement suites.

Currently, since there are no building codes specifically designed for Basements suites in Alberta, Municipalities have by default, been applying building codes which were originally designed for Duplexes and Apartments instead - which in most cases, means that Municipalities do not have the power to approve basement suites, since they cannot meet these codes
For some people, this is a bit of a “square peg in a round hole” type approach, which has lead to some impossibilities in terms of compliance.

For example, duplex and apartment building codes require an 8 foot ceiling, and a separate furnace in each living unit. Since most houses built decades ago, were not required back then to build 8 foot ceilings in the basement, most basement suites today have ceilings somewhat lower than 8 feet, and thus it is impossible for a homeowner to comply with this requirement (or the two furnace requirement).

Consequently, because municipalities do not have the tools in their toolbox ( appropriate building codes which would allow approval) this forces the municipality to refuse approval of the unit, even though it might be correctly zoned and a perfectly acceptable suite otherwise, and even though affordable housing is always a very big problem.

Thus, society is left with this big dilemma of the so-called illegal suites – suites which have been built without municipal approvals in place, which essentially therefore have not then been inspected and may have other safety and financial issues worrisome to all.

Should these suites be legalized? - if they can be done so in a manner which improves safety and life-and-death requirements, but reduces (or grandfathers) requirements on “nice to have” but non life-threatening issues, such as requiring an 8 foot ceiling? In other words, if we allow lower ceilings in return for requiring installation of smoke detectors, would we then allow - and could we get - homeowners to have their suites approved in a proper manner?

The approach, is to give the power to municipalities through the Provincial building codes, to be ABLE to make a decision on whether or not the suite should be allowed (once it has come to their attention), something they currently cannot do.

In return for more pragmatic conditions of approval, safety improvements WILL be required, such as smoke detectors, and windows large enought to crawl out of. However, these requirements are low-cost, and will greatly enhance safety, and thus are not seen as an impediment when compated to the alternate case. Readers should be aware that this is an extremely controversial issue. In fact, I have been warned many times over the years, that it is political suicide for me to have tackled this issue at all - first on Calgary City Council, and now at the Provincial level.

This is much too important an issue to keep sweeping it under the carpet in my opinion!

NIMBY issues (you can do it somewhere else, just Not in My Back Yard!) seem to be the biggest obstacle, the exclusionary desire to “zone” or eliminate the housing for “those” people as a roundabout way of making sure there are no undesirables in the community, who might threaten the children of the community.

Some apartment owners object and do not want the competition either……and social advocates insist the government should be building much better housing for the poor or buying them their own houses in the first place. Few jurisdictions anywhere in the world have really tackled this issue – although we all know that across North American, millions of people are probably living in such units.

It was pleasure to meet you yesterday at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary.

Doctor Oberg:

It was pleasure to meet you yesterday at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary. As I said I am probably not in your side of the political spectrum but thought I would expand on what I discussed with you last night.

As an aside, I have to admit I am surprised at your association with Grant Doyle.

Grant is a very nice guy, but is considered to be less than that in the business world in Calgary. In fact since he managed somewhat the campaign of Belinda Stronach here in Calgary, it is even doubly ironic that you are using him for your campaign. You may find his history in Calgary to be a hurdle to your campaign. Doyle’s name and business practices are legendary here in Calgary.

I hope you got out to see many of the exhibiting companies, to get a feel for the current situation in the oil patch. Just in that tent there were many people you should have been talking to, meeting with, and getting to know.

There are many scenarios being talked about in the leadership race. One is that Dinning will win flat out on the first ballot.

The second is that he has hit the ceiling and can go no further on the second ballot and the person with the best staying power and second ballot support will come up the middle.

Who that third person is, is still unclear. It could be someone who is not in the spot light right now, or it could be a late-comer to the race. For the latter I have heard several names swirling around.

If the process is going to be one person one vote for the leader and there will be several ballot rounds done, such as the system used for the nomination race Klein was in, then the person with the best ability to muster members for the second and third ballots will be in the best place to win.

It is a benefit that the e-marketing methods in this province are state of the art and can be a significant contributor to the winning teams success. Both at the beginning of the campaign and in to the second or third ballots.

The other issue is that the research is finding the average person, is turning away from politics, politicians, and the political process. To win, you must focus on those people that are not the same group Dinning is working on, and are those that have fallen off the radar of most mainline political parties, politicians and their strategists. It is in the best



interest of these people to focus on the 50% of the people that do vote, because the represents the status quo, and no politician, political party of their strategists want to challenge the status quo, because that pushes them into an unknown territory.

My suggestion is to go where the other candidates aren’t, talk about the issues and policies that you can talk passionately about that the others aren’t, and talk to the people the other candidates are not talking to, on their territory. You will see my theory on the strategy outline I think would work best for you below at Campaign Strategy below.

Here it is, my theories on becoming the leader:

Calgary. 2
Education. 2
Health care. 2
Infrastructure. 3
Senior’s issues. 3
Ecology. 3
Rural Concerns. 4
Post secondary education: 4
High technology. 5
Business development 5
The Province and Confederation. 5
Same-sex marriage. 5
Campaign Strategy. 6
Calgary

You have three things against you in Calgary.
Education
One is the fact you were the Education Minister, and Calgary’s school system has not kept up to the growth in the city. Growth generated and encouraged by the Alberta Advantage.

As Education Minister you can rightfully be painted as the person who could have done much for building the new schools needed, and did not.
Health care
Calgarians are also concerned with the fact that our health care system has not kept up with the city’s growth either.

The solution here is more involved, but I would suggest that if you talked about a ‘health consumer,’ centered health care system you would earn more points than


focusing on the current ‘doctor or bureaucrat centered,’ system we have now. Prevention and inclusion of other alternative health care methods must be looked at as well.

There is a huge potential for savings if the province would get on with ‘smart,’ health care card. I know you have had several plans put in front of previous health ministers, to no avail.

We need to get the health care system refocused back onto the consumer and focused on the prevention model.
Infrastructure

Calgary is drowning in oil and gas money, but none of the benefits of the Alberta Advantage flows down to the city fast enough to help keep up with the demand for new or more housing and infrastructure. In fact much of the oil and gas development takes place out of many of the larger centres and flows directly to the provincial bank account. The pulp mill in Athabasca, the oil sands developments and plants near Fort McMurray, and the Lakeside processing plant, are all outside of the town limits they are next to. The towns are faced with developing new housing and facilities to house the employees but have to rely on their tax base, which does not rise as fast as the demand does.
Senior’s issues
As for the senior’s issues, I would suggest that first leadership candidate that apologizes for the poor care being provided to seniors in long term care facilities, will garner points. As well they must promise to impose all of the recommendations for a new formula for funding it, as well as a new method of making sure the seniors in the system will not be subject to abuse either through neglect or lack of care.

Any MLA that tells me they did not know some of or any of the problems brought to light recently about the conditions in certain nursing homes is either blind or a liar.
Ecology

If you are listening when you visit with your constituents, you will know that they have a concern over water.

If you are studying the health trends in Canada and Alberta you will know there are certain health concerns that are on the rise.

You will also know that the growth in Alberta is going to quickly become unsustainable especially if some of the planned population growth over the next 50 years comes to fruition.





In the youth ecology is becoming a big issue. Hence the growing number of voters voting for the Green Party both provincially and federally.

With farmers ecology is a big issue. This I saw with my own eyes with the three leader tours I organized for Jim Harris (federal Green Party of Canada leader) here in Alberta. This happened in both the big cities and small town Alberta.

Preston Manning sees the light, and it is greening fast.
Rural Concerns
Your rural friends, who earn their living from the land, are tired of how they are treated in the energy pie. Their land and their place in the process of this province getting the oil and gas to market is a disgrace and they are increasingly getting riled up.

Land surface rights are a problem in this province.

The use of water by the energy industry at a cost that is close to if not free is another agitator.

Coal Methane gas will be a problem to rural Alberta as it will make certain land holdings worthless after the farmer decides to sell or retire.

Help to develop a local organic and farm gate agricultural industry.

Help to diversify the agribusiness into new markets, and new value added processes.
Post secondary education:
In regards to post secondary education my daughter had an interesting point of view over the idea of funding students at university. She is working towards a medical degree and figures it would make more sense if the provincial government would start to reward her for her marks in her first and second years, by refunding or rebating her tuition over her third and fourth years. She figures this sort of system would reward the students who really deserve the reward, and help weed out the students that really do not want to be at university.

We need to create an aggressive program for the provincial government to fund completely the education of certain PhD candidates if they move to Alberta, in select disciplines other than that energy. This way we can diversify not only our research community but also watch the spin off benefits flow out into the province.



High technology
The province needs to create special high technology zones in the major centres other than Calgary and Edmonton, with investment tax treatments, provincial infrastructure investment, and such things.

Currently our government’s efforts are directed too much on the energy sectors, and the two major urban centres when looking at the high technology industry.
Business development
As for business development, I personally favour a policy that encourages high technology industries to locate in centres other than the two major centres. It will help to keep the local high technology students in their hometowns, and help to rejuvenate and diversify the smaller centres away from the agribusiness and oil and gas sectors. A cap put on the amount of development of the oil sands will help as well. The oil sands are driving the provinces inflation and worker shortages. The oil will be there today, tomorrow, and long into the future so developing it now, for the sake of short term gain and pain, does not make sense.

The heated demand on everything in the province is driving up the cost of housing, creating labour shortages in other sectors of the province’s economy, and just not a smart industrial development strategy.
The Province and Confederation
A premier that sees by working with the other provinces within confederation will see that the other provinces can be the solution to our worker shortage. It is their trades training programs that we will benefit from, not by choking them off through the equalization system. Alberta does not need in to import workers from outside of Canada; it needs to work with both the other provinces and the federal government to solve the worker mobility problems within Canada.

I personally believe that the province is in a place in its history that we can put the effort and actions behind the empty rhetoric about diversifying our economic base, and start processing and adding value to what we seem want to ship elsewhere. Why shouldn’t our farmers be encouraged to process their own beef or grain here in Alberta? We saw the problems caused by the BSE situation with one major market buying most of our beef from only two or three processing plants in the recent few years.
Same-sex marriage
As far as the same-sex marriage thing, it can be fixed without new laws or regulations. It can be solved tomorrow. The religious leaders have to get out of the business of issuing marriage licenses.

No license-issuing agent can refuse to issue a license or other government document, if it is something the government has legislated. If you allow one license agent to refuse to



issue a legislated government document, then you set a dangerous precedent. It means any judge, police officer, or enforcement officer is now allowed to enforce the law as their religion or personal beliefs determine. That means you are endorsing a theocracy,
Campaign Strategy
As for getting your message out, don’t rely on the main line media, as they do not command the majority of the eyes, ears, and minds of Calgarians. Which could is the 70% of the people who did not vote in the last election, provincial or federal.

If you are looking for union support you should be taking a strong look at the Teamsters Union. From previous work with them on the federal stage, the Teamsters local here in Calgary influences all of the unions, especially the trade and public sector unions. It will not be for the politicians faint of heart, and to build these sorts of coalitions you will need people who see past the initial façade of the groups and see who they can bring to you.

While the co-chair of Joe Clark’s Election Readiness Committee in Calgary Centre in 2000, as well as sitting on the board of directors of the Calgary Southwest P.C. riding how effective joining in forces with groups like the Mormons can be for political gain.

Jim Dinning is doing much of the same thing, but with the old guard is missing an entire demographic in his leadership campaign. He has many of Klein’s organizers on his team, and they are following that path in their strategy.

Go electronic and go direct/database E-marketing.

Remember that Ralph Klein became Premier with about 25% of the eligible voter in this province. That means 75% of Albertan’s did not vote for him, and 50% of the eligible voters did not show up to vote at all. Close to 80% of the younger voter, 18 – 35 did not show up to vote. The major media are having the same success in bringing in those same people. You need to go where the non-voter is and talk to them about their issues, not yours. You need to show those non-voters you have your own ideas, and want to hear about them, and show you are open to altering your position.

There is no reason that with the right thinking and creative thinking that Alberta could not be the centre of a discovery of a cure for many of the cancers found today, and why we can not be the province to lead the way in fixing the environmental issues that are starting to grow.

You need to come out with good, big, and innovative ideas. Then you can grab hold of the agenda's rudder. Don’t follow Dinning; lead him into your agenda. Show the province that being outside of the government for too many years can be detrimental.

There is no reason that Alberta cannot be a world leader and centre for many things.

There is no reason why Alberta cannot be the province to lead Canada back on to it previous spot on the world stage.

As far as working on your campaign, I couldn’t do it for free, nor could I work on it while you have Grant Doyle there. You would also have to accept the fact I am a member of the United Church of Canada and not a conservative or born again Christian, albeit I am a committed in my faith and do try to follow the path that Christ would want me to.


Thank you

Norman Greenfield
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
403-807-1251

Re: Daily Digest June 24, 2006

So Harper thinks the debate over the use of the word nation by Quebec is purely a 'semantic debate,'? So what does that mean when he uses the word nation or nations when he refers to our First Nation's people?

Bishop Henry is Right

Gambling or any sin is either right or wrong in your religious teachings.

Either your religion has a doctrine and is going to stand and live by, or it is not.

If some do and some don't, and the leaders of the religion say nothing, then what are they a leader of?

Bishop Henry is right to put his foot down and draw a line in the sand.

On the other hand if his church doctrine says no to gambling, then it also must be ready to step up to the plate for the money that is raised via gambling for the schools involved.

Living up to your religion's expectations and doctrine is not easy and it comes with some cost.

The World of Trellisses and Arbors (Arbours)

Further to my suggestion of what might be possible on your back balcony.

The word I was looking for to call what I was trying to tell you is an arbor, or some call it a trellis.

Basically what you are doing is building a structure out of wood (preferrable red cedar or regular cedar, untreated of course) that lets in indirect sunshine, and some direct early day sunshine, but keeps out the really strong direct high noon and mid-afternoon sun shine.

It also provides you with a structure that you can grow creeping vines, train other plants to grow along so that when they leaf out, they also provide some added shade from the sun. It also can provide some cooling affects too, when the plants mature.

Yes, there are grape vines that will grow there. Some if not most are just ornamental, but there is one variety that will produce grapes that can be used in jelly or wine. You also grow something like currents, raspberries, strawberries, snow peas, peppers, or a variety of patio or roma tomatoes as well.

Sort of like a, 'Ms Ellie's Garden.'

You could put the right combination of plants in it that would bring butterflies and such that would also help your yard of flowers (weeds) as well. How this works would be explained in your medical text books on the subject of the birds and the bees. There are also bat houses you can build and put in your arbor that will attract the very small bats who eat pounds and pounds of bugs.

With the right combination of plants and herbs, you can also minimize the bugs and pests you will get too. Organically.

There are other ways of building an arbor that do not entail the cedar lumber, but need a bit more work and inegnuity. You can use twigs and small dimensional trees that are laying on the forest floor, or you can use bamboo stems. This method entails lashing them with natural string, and being a bit more of an architect than I am. You basically would be using the methods to build this way that were used in building a teepee.I have built chairs, tables and baskets from them, but that is about it.

Another way would be to look at installing bent iron structures such as hanging baskets and put plants in them that will grow large and bushy. This might include sweet peas and such. Then you run into the problem that sweet peas do emit a fairly strong sent espeically at night. It is natural, but might be too much for you.

The cedar wood will be fragrant too, and if you get the untreated wood, (which you must if you are an evnironmentalist) it will be a natural smell.

Cedar is a smell I love to smell, but it might be too strong for you.

Anyways, there is a book/magazine on this subject that Rona sells in their project resource centre.

You could make your patio into a very nice little ecosystem with the right planning and methods. And a lovely source of some natural food and herbs.