Councillors prepare for land-use advisory council

County Reeve Bill Lee will represent the municipality on the Upper Athabasca Planning Region advisory council.

The Upper Athabasca Planning Region is one of seven across the province established under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act. The Act creates the legal authority to implement the Land-use Framework, which is designed to help Alberta achieve a better balance between the economic growth that creates prosperity and Albertans’ environmental and social values. It was passed in the spring 2009 session of the Alberta Legislature, and received Royal Assent on June 4, 2010.

Regional plans will consider the combined impact of all activities on the land, air, water and biodiversity, and will be developed with advice from Albertans. Regional plans will integrate provincial energy, environment, water and other policies at the regional level. Regional plans developed and approved by government will be provincial policy, with the force of regulations.

“Support for regional planning is strong across the province,” Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight said in a press release following the amendments. “Considering the multiple pressures on our landscape, it is essential that we move forward with regional plans. These amendments provide assurance to Albertans that all of their rights will be respected and that they will be heard during the process.”

The borders of these regions are roughly determined based on watersheds. Each region will have a regional advisory council, which will provide information to the province on the creation of a regional land use plan. A variety of stakeholder representatives, including municipal officials, comprise the RACs. Municipal representatives are very limited in number, as are the number of representatives from other stakeholder groups, Lee explained. Two of the seven regional plans are currently being developed. The Lower Athabasca and South Saskatchewan Regional Plans are well underway.

The County and Town of Barrhead are in the Upper Athabasca region. To date, municipalities in this region have met twice to discuss the future RAC and the land use discussions that will take place. Lee said representatives discussed key topics to be addressed, while the consultation and deliberation processes are scheduled to begin in 2012.

“Each rural and urban municipality is allowed one representative on the committee,” Lee said. “We have to ensure that those are the right people. The feeling right now (among RACs) is to have everyone in the same room and working on this. The priorities (of the Upper Athabasca Regional advisory council) are still being formed, and that’s why people are needed around the table – to provide that input.”

The Upper Athabasca Region is bordered by the Alberta-British Columbia border to the west, moves east about two-thirds of the way across the centre of the province to the east boundary of the County of Athabasca and includes Jasper National Park. There are 10 steps each region must follow before implementation. Each RAC compiles a list of recommendations for a regional land-use plan and then submits it to the province, which then has final say on which recommendations to use, if any, Lee said.

Deputy Reeve Bill Lane said the land-use framework would be a valuable tool to all municipalities.

“There is strength in numbers, and we need to get more of our rural counterparts involved, and that will give us a much bigger voice.”

The land-use bylaws for both the County and the Town would have to fall in line with what is set out by the RACs, so it’s important that the County be a part of the planning process, Lee added.