Westlock County is edging closer to resolving its peat burning issue.
At the Nov. 5 council meeting, the Westlock Landowners Right to Farm and Improve Land Association presented a report to council through Coun. Jim Wiese.
In the report, the association outlined suggested guidelines to be used in crafting a solution to the issue that could satisfy all parties.
For his part, reeve Charles Navratil said he liked what he saw from the proposal.
“These people realize that we’re serious, that we are going to allow them to burn peat, but there’s going to be strict rules and regulations,” he said.
Navratil also saw it as a good sign that the association presented guidelines that accounted for the landowners’ need to burn peat and the county’s desire to have some semblance of control.
“The best thing to do about the rules and regulations is to have the people that are going to be involved with the burning of the peat onside,” he said.
He added it’s integral those most affected by the regulations are onside because they will be the ones doing a large amount of the enforcement so rogue burners don’t ruin it for those who are following the law.
A good example of that desire is in the penalties the association recommended for lighting a peat pile without having first acquiring a permit.
Where the old penalty was $100 and sometimes simply viewed as a worthwhile cost to get a pile burned, the recommended fine is now $5,000.
“That is what the landowners wanted, that was their feeling that we’ve got to make this heavy enough that people will do it,” Navratil said.
While some councillors tried to get the guidelines put into place on a one-year trial basis, county CAO Ed LeBlanc suggested the best course of action would be to have the fire committee examine the guidelines and incorporate them into a new fire bylaw, which would be brought back to council for approval.
That way the guidelines could be vetted to ensure they would stand up to scrutiny if ever challenged.
Navratil said there is no set timeline on bringing the matter back to the council table, but he hopes it happens in December or early January.
That relative urgency is so that if the guidelines are ultimately approved, they contain an outline for how to issue the burning permits, which includes a March 31 deadline to apply for one.
Among the other components of the proposed regulations was the condition that only five permits could be issued each year, and if more than five applications were submitted, there would be a lottery draw in early April to determine which applicants would get a permit.
There were conditions also put on the size and location of a peat pile to be burned. In addition, piles would only be able to be burned between July 1 and Aug. 30, and would have to be extinguished by Sept. 1.
“I think we can make it work,” Navratil said. “There’s people against it and there are going to be people against it in our county, but I think when it’s all said and done, hopefully we can get something that everybody can live with.”
