Open Letter Calls for Reform of the System – delivered by Ian Tyson & community groups June 26, 2006, Media Alert by Pekisko Group, Livingstone Landowner’s Group, South Porcupine Hills Steward Association, Alberta Wilderness Association
Ian Tyson, the legendary singer and rancher, joined representatives of several prominent community groups from Southern Alberta on horseback to deliver an historic open letter to the government of Alberta today. The two page letter declares that the Alberta Energy and Utility Board, the provincial energy regulator, is defying the best interests of Albertans. “Together the Board and the government are erasing Alberta’s single greatest brand: it’s land and heritage. We repeat: the regulatory system as represented by the Energy and Utility Board is broken, and it now threatens the future of Alberta’s water, land and traditional economies.”…
First, the regulatory system in this province has become irreparable and no longer supports the interests of ordinary Albertans or the rights of surface owners. Second, the EUB refuses to uphold its own guidelines that clearly mandate the protection of the Eastern Slopes which, among other goods, provide and safeguard water for a good part of the Canadian prairie…. The government and the regulator can no longer sit by and do nothing while unplanned and uncontrolled industrial activity threatens our watersheds and rural communities. [Emphasis added]