Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Less than five percent of Alberta is comprised of native prairie on public lands. The 7000-year-old remnants of native prairie are of immeasurable value in preserving biodiversity, maintaining healthy watersheds, sequestering carbon, sustaining livestock production and providing outdoor recreation opportunities for a rapidly growing human population in southern Alberta. Albertans value native prairie and their public lands. The speaker will suggest current law and policy regarding public land sale reflects an outdated ideology that defines progress as turning the prairie into a human enterprise, such as tame pasture, cultivated fields or industrial development. The taking of public land by individuals or corporations willing to pay for it is secretly sanctioned by Cabinet on an ad hoc basis without public input. Proposals to change this situation have fallen on deaf ears. The storm over the recent application to Alberta’s Minister of Sustainable Resource Development that would see 25 sections of native pra