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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

rumble in ryley ko? [the continuing saga of bill 19].

Some reaction from Joe Anglin on last night's hotly anticipated Bill 19 Town Hall in Village of Ryley:

For Immediate Release

March 24, 2009

Bill 19 was Drafted in Error?

(Rimbey, AB) Bill 19 – still looking for the right combination to debate Green Party Leader Joe Anglin over the proposed Land Assembly Area Act [Bill 19], the Hon Jack Hayden, author of the Bill, attended a public forum in Riley AB on Monday night to try his best to defend the Bill. Mr. Hayden accompanied with MLAs Mr. Evan Berger (Livingstone-Macleod), Mr. Ray Prins (Lacombe Ponoka), Ms. Diana McQueen (Drayton Valley/Calmar), Mr. Verlyn Olson (Wetaskiwin/Camrose), and Mr. Doug Griffiths (Battle River-Wainwright) failed to convince the crowd in attendance of the merits of the Bill or the proposed amendments, and may have embarrassed themselves.

Mr. Hayden told the crowd in the attendance, as the government has done at previous public forums, Bill 19 was needed because the Restricted Development Act was struck down in a previous court decision. When queried by Mr. Anglin over the referenced court decision, Mr. Hayden was informed that a Restricted Development Act has never existed in law in Alberta, and the Alberta courts have no record of a decision striking down any piece of Alberta Legislation called the Restricted Development Act.

Anglin went on to ask Mr. Hayden that if he could not produce a copy of a court case striking down the assumed Restricted Development Act, would he then agree that the premise for drafting Bill 19 was based on an error concerning a court ruling that doesn’t exist, and would he then withdraw the Bill because of this error?

Mr. Hayden did not respond to Anglin’s question, and the other five MLAs scrambled and shuffled paper. However, Mr. Hayden and the other MLAs in attendance would not comment further on the fact the Minister may have drafted Bill 19 in error – in view of the fact the courts have not struck down any legislation in Alberta called the Restricted Development Act.

-30-


Joe Anglin
Leader of the Alberta Greens
(403) 843-3279

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

a Green party leader holds a sham town hall meeting that doesn't have a single land owner from the Ryley area in attendance, but merely Greenpeace activists and the usual NDP crowd and its news? what a joke. Anglin is doing more damage to himself then he realizes. What a joke he has become.

Anonymous said...

Who thinks Jeff J is a paid PC staffer? I do, I do!

If this was such a sham with no landowners in attendance, why would numerous PC MLAs waste their time showing up?

And here's a clue, the NDP haven't had followers in Ryley for about 25 years, so those actually are disaffected PC voters showing up to hear Mr. Anglin.

But just keep on denying it until it starts to cost you the rural MLAs. PLEASE PLEASE DO!

Anonymous said...

Yes anonymous, good call, Joe Anglin can walk into Premier Stelmach's constituency and walk out with everyone behind him. Give your head a shake.

You want to see how people really feel about Bill 19? take a walk down the hall during AAMD&C convention, don't watch a sham town hall meeting.

Anonymous said...

You'd think paid PC staffers would have something better to do than go on blogs for individuals who couldn't hack it as a paid Liberal staffer. His writing must not be that good.

Gauntlet said...

That's strange. I wonder if they were referring to "Restricted Development Areas."

There was a court case in 1999 (Alberta (Minister of Public Works, Supply & Services) v. Nilsson) in which an owner of land was refused the right to develop is property because the land was needed for the Anthony Henday, and he sued and won compensation because there was some problem with how his land had been declared a Restricted Development Area (RDA).

That ruling said that RDAs issued prior to 1977 were invalid.

I don't know how many of them there are, but that might be a reason to create a new scheme to create something similar.

Still, the fact that the Minister can't tell the difference between an act and an administrative regulation is a bit... disconcerting.

Anonymous said...

I'm less concerned about Hayden misspeaking "Act" for "Area" and more concerned at how Joe Anglin is allowed to issue news releases that are obviously completely incorrect. When is this going to stop being a political issue and instrad focus on the facts?

Anonymous said...

"If this was such a sham with no landowners in attendance, why would numerous PC MLAs waste their time showing up?"

Especially given that PC MLAs are a little hard to find at any public candidates' forums, at election time....

Anonymous said...

Jeff, you obviously were not at the meeting last night in Ryley or you would know that there were about 60 landowners there from the Ryley area, 1 NDP guy and 3 from greenpeace, one of whom asked some excellent questions that Mr. Hayden could not or would not answer. You should not continue to comment on events you know nothing about or you will become the joke.

Why do we suppose this small piece of legislation, that, by the way is only for "the good of Albertans"(NOT) is being so strongly defended? Last night a plethora of MLA's (don't know what you call it? a herd? a pod?) attended Ryley.

Minister Jack Hayden, and Verlyn Olson, Doug Griffith, Evan Berger(who has been at all of the meetings on Bill 19), Diana McQueen, and Ray Prins (who absolutley did not want to be there at all) heard Joe Anglin explain why this is such a bad, poorly written piece of *******
and none of us were reassured that of course, it is only for the public interest, and of course, only for public projects. Of course, we have no idea what a public project is, or what is the public interest as only cabinet will be able to decide that.

Start adding in the defeat of the amendments on public debate in Bill 18, leaving cabinet in the position of being able to decide what may of may not be discussed,1+1 is starting to add up to a whole lot more than 2.

I hope more people will start to pay more attention to the acutal legislation that this government is bringing forward. Joe can't do it all.

Thanks, Joe!!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like AAMDC is conflicted on this one.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Politicians+push+delays+Bill/1425825/story.html

Anonymous said...

Midge,
"Joe can't do it all..." craves nothing but attention and will say ANYTHING to get in the news. Anyone who believes what he says, needs to clean the cobwebs out. This guy creates something out of nothing so that he can have adoring crowds kiss his feet - just as you appear to be doing. Too bad that common sense doen't prevail.

Jeff S. said...

I've been at these meetings, have worked with Joe Anglin for some five years or so being from Central Alberta myself, and can honestly say that for the most part I am the only NDP plant around - though in Ryley/Tofield/Antler Lake/Daysland, we do have a relatively solid membership, including an executive member of the NDP, as well as a Mayor and county reeve or two.

However, Joe is appealing to disaffected landowners - the backbone of the rural PC Party. There's development in Tofield that has people angry and alienated - and Joe is tapping into that with aplomb.

Precipitating a split with the Green Party aside, Joe is doing some good things in some places. On the other hand, he bombed in Weberville and Grimshaw. His bombastic style seems to play to the already angry - and in Weberville, a motion to pass the hat to cover Anglin's travel was actually defeated.

That other Jeff? He's clearly a bit touched. With these meetings averaging 4 or 5 backbench Tories at a time, there must be something afoot.

Alberta said...

Jeff, I am more than a little bit aghast that you heard that Joe bombed in Weberville and Grimshaw. As in every meeting where he has presented, Joe has received virtual unanimous support fromt the locals in each place. In each meeting, either Joe, or a moderator, or someone from the audience asks the audience for a straw poll...in favour, or not, with Bill 19. The person who had chauffered local Tory MLA Frank Oberle from Peace River to the Weberville meeting raised his hand in favour of the bill. In more than a dozen meetings, that is the only hand that has been raised. In Lakedell, more recently, even former minister of agriculture, Shirley Cripps, did not raise her hand in favour of the Bill. THERE WAS NO MOTION TO PASS THE HAT AT ANY OF THESE MEETINGS. Please do not print lies...that is our government's role.
Why, even in Innisfail the other night, when Minister Hayden and more than a handful of his legislature colleagues had control of the meeting, and Joe was absent, speaking in another town, there was not one indication of support for Bill 19.
Folks, this is not the Joe show. It is about democracy and defending our rights. It is about stopping a rampaging government intent on trampling and destroying those rights. Hats off to Joe and others like him who will speak up for us at great personal sacrifice in time and resources. To say that he is out on some sort of public trip to do anything to get into the news is simply ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous...it is malicious and a show of ignorance.

Alberta said...

Jeff, I am more than a little bit aghast that you heard that Joe bombed in Weberville and Grimshaw. As in every meeting where he has presented, Joe has received virtually unanimous support fromt the locals -- and there have been dozens of concerned locals, not "plants" as someone mistakenly claimed. In each meeting, either Joe, or a moderator, or someone from the audience has asked the audience for a straw poll...in favour, or not, with Bill 19. The person who had chauffeured local Tory MLA Frank Oberle from Peace River to the Weberville meeting raised his hand in favour of the bill. In more than a dozen meetings, that is the only hand that has been raised. In Lakedell, more recently, even former minister of agriculture, Shirley Cripps, did not raise her hand in favour of the Bill. THERE WAS NO MOTION TO PASS THE HAT AT ANY OF THESE MEETINGS. Please do not print lies...that is our government's role.
Why, even in Innisfail the other night, when Minister Hayden and more than a handful of his legislature colleagues had control of the meeting, and Joe was absent, speaking in another town, there was not one indication of support for Bill 19.
Folks, this is not the Joe show. It is about democracy and defending our rights. It is about stopping a rampaging government intent on trampling and destroying those rights. Hats off to Joe and others like him who will speak up for us at great personal sacrifice in time and resources. To say that he is out on some sort of public trip to do anything to get into the news is simply ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous...it is malicious and a show of ignorance.