Premier Alison Redford announced last week the creation of a task force to deal with Albertans' property rights concerns.The task force will be chaired by Diana McQueen, minister of environment and water, with Evan Berger, minister of agriculture and rural development, as the vice-chair.ìWhen Premier Redford ran for leadership, property rights was one of the issues that was raised. She made a commitment to Albertans to come back and have a conversation, so that we could listen to Albertans and know what their areas of concern were,î McQueen said Wednesday in a phone interview with the Gazette.ìThe government addressed a few of them: compensation, access to the court and consultation. Premier Redford wants to make sure that that's what the issues are and then look for solutions from Albertans around those issues.îDuring the month of December, the task force will be meeting with association groups and stakeholders. In January, the group will hold open houses in several communities throughout the province.ìBy Jan. 31, we will do a report with what we heard and recommendations going forward,î said McQueen.ìIt is a tight timeline but an important one for us to be able to bring back to the premier and the government what we heard on property rights.îIn an interview the same day, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said she believes the task force is just a way for the Redford government to placate landowners before the upcoming election.ìI think this is window dressing. They are trying to put out a fire that they started with these bad pieces of legislation,î Smith said.Smith said she wanted to remind people that there were already consultations last spring on the subject.ìTed Morton, Evan Berger and Mel Knight were all sent out to talk to landowners about their concerns with these bills,î she said.ìThe consultation has already been done, so this is just a delay tactic.îSmith said the solution to Albertans' concerns is to repeal bills 19, 36 and 50.ìThe government should also put in an amendment to our Bill of Rights that guarantees that private property will not be taken without compensation or due process,î she said.
