Kneehill County was successful in passing a resolution to the Alberta Association of Municipal District and Counties (AAMD&C) to help farmers deal with agricultural plastic.
    The AAMD&C’s annual conference was held in Edmonton last week.  Kneehill and Lacombe County sponsored a resolution that request that “Alberta Environment and Parks develop a recycling program that will assist municipalities in providing for the collection and recycling of agricultural plastics in the province of Alberta.”
    Ag plastic includes items such as grain bags and twine.
    “It’s a growing issue,” said Kneehill Reeve Bob Long. “What we are trying to do is get that out of the landfills and keep it away from being burned on farms. We are asking for Alberta Environment to take over the file.”
    When a resolution is passed it becomes a lobbying item for the AAMD&C to take to the provincial government.
    This was the first AAMD&C convention since the election of the new Notley government in Alberta, and was an opportunity for municipal officials to meet the new ministers.
    “We had our Caucus Meeting, and the premier addressed us. Is there anything new or startling? No,” he said. “This government is about collaboration, and I have nothing against that. What we have done in our municipality, we have collaborated with our partners and we are also sharing on our linear (tax revenue).”
    He explains there was discussion on sharing linear taxes. Linear property consists of oil and gas wells, pipelines, telecommunication, cable and electrical power property. Many urban municipalities would like to see this shared.
This is where rural municipalities share a portion of this tax revenue with municipal centres. He says Kneehill already contributes  $1.25 million they divide between Trochu, Three Hills, Carbon, Acme and Linden. He acknowledges many counties do not share.
    “There are certain costs for small towns, we think we have to try and keep small town viable, and we’ll help,” said Long. “Our position all along is to leave the money local. Our fear is they were going to take the money from rural Alberta and give it to larger centres.”  
    He has mixed feelings about

the new government. While on the one hand, they welcome spending on much needed infrastructure, he is worried about how it will all be paid for.
“The biggest thing I am hearing is the borrowing,” said Long. “Everyone of us have a mortgage to get housing for example, it is just what you do. The difficulty we are going to have during this period of low oil revenue, is how are you going to maintain infrastructure and then continue to pay the debt after. That will be the challenge for this government in the future.
“I don’t really hear anyone complaining about investing in infrastructure, the complaint I am hearing is we are going to have to pay it,” said Long.

    Hanna Mayor Chris Warwick has concerns about the Province’s new climate change strategy, and more importantly how it relates to phasing out coal-powered generation.
    Last Sunday, Premier Rachel Notley, introduced her much anticipated Climate Change Strategy. This shift included emission limits for oil sands, a price on carbon for all Albertans to absorb and a schedule to phase out coal fired electricity generation by 2030.
     Warwick says he understands the days of coal powered generation are numbered, In fact, one of the units at the Sheerness Generating Plant, co-owned by ATCO and Transalta, is scheduled, through federal regulations, to be turn off in 2034, and the second unit shortly thereafter. The new provincial plan moves those timelines up. He feels this is not the right way to make these changes.
    “I appreciate they are addressing the issue but a tax is not the answer,” said Warwick.
    He explains this transition could be done without adding a carbon tax.  He cites a TransAlta report called Dial Down Coal, Dial Up Renewables, which makes the transition without a price on carbon.
    “Who’s going to pay for it? You and me. And why should we?” he asks.
    The Sheerness Generation Station employs about 110 fulltime employees, and almost as many at the mine that supplies it. He said if the plant was converted to burn natural gas, the plant could run on about half the staff.
    While phasing out coal-fired generation will reduce the carbon footprint, Warwick points out it does not address some of the more pressing environmental concerns.
    “The carbon emissions aren’t as harmful themselves as the mercury and the toxins that go along with it. The actual pollution, those are what we should be looking at,” he said.
 While he has concerns, he estimated there could have been changes that are more drastic.
    “I honestly expected worse, I thought the timeline would be shorter than she said to shut down the coal fire generation stations," he said. “It wasn’t as bad, my biggest problem is taxing people, and it is not the industry, that is being taxed it’s everyone of us.”
    “We knew it was coming eventually, we are not naive to think it is here forever, but to fast-track it by another four years, when the feds said the were going to do it, don’t understand that,” he said.
    He says best-case scenario for the town would be to see the plant converted and to natural gas and retain about half the employees.
    “If you lose those 50-some jobs a the power plant, and the oil and gas sector goes up a bit because of this, then we might gain a few jobs back in operators and alike, so it is not a total loss. But ATCO could say ‘we are going to shut the whole thing down’ and we would lose 20 and some families, that’s pretty stressful.”