Bill 50
While Bills 19, 24 and 36 have worried rural property owners more than urban property owners, Bill 50 is of the utmost importance to all Albertans - urban and rural alike.
Bill 50, the Electric Statutes Amendment Act, passed in 2009 calls for billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to be built up on down the province. These new transmission lines will criss-cross vast swaths of private lands - expropriating these lands as desired along the way.
In combination with Cabinet's expanded authority gained through Bills 19, 24 and 36, any decisions reached under the auspices of Bill 50 will be difficult to appeal. Transmission lines and generating stations can be planned and built without concern for current property owners, or existing businesses and land uses.
What is more, in order to justify these power lines that will expropriate so much private land, Bill 50 expressly bypasses the required needs-based assessment for such projects. Under Albertan law, before expropriating private property for electricity infrastructure, the Alberta Utilities Commission would perform a needs-based assessment to determine if the project was even necessary - and, accordingly, if it was justified to expropriate private property. Bill 50, in doing away with these needs-based assessments has doomed property owners to unnecessary expropriation at the hands of their government.
All of these transmission lines and increased generating capacity are not cheap - this is just another reason a needs-based assessment is essential. Indeed, a needs-based assessment would have indicated that many of these proposed transmission lines are not required. Billions of dollars will be spent on what are likely unnecessary transmission lines - and many of these taxpayer dollars have been allocated through untendered contracts.
All of this reckless spending has a victim other than property owners - electricity ratepayers. Every Albertan, especially those in our major cities, will be paying for this for years to come. Higher utility rates and increased provincial debt payments all trickle down to the ratepayer.
