Wheatland County will bring forward a resolution to ensure contracts between landowners and oil and gas companies negotiated in good faith are honoured and landowners remain whole to the 2022 Provincial Agriculture Services Board (ASB) conference, and the Central Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) District 2 for consideration at the spring convention in March.
The discussion around the resolution first began during a Wheatland County ASB meeting in November 2021, and council was asked to approve the resolution for the Provincial ASB conference during the regular Tuesday, January 11 council meeting.
“Through discussions with other Reeves, I have heard this is an issue in other areas,” Wheatland County Reeve Amber Link said during the January meeting. She added by sending the resolution forward to District 2 for consideration would help “get a good sense,” within the district, whether this issue goes beyond Wheatland County’s borders.
Although contracts through individual landowners and oil and gas companies are private and do not directly involve the county, once these sites enter expropriation there can be impacts to ag producers, which is one of Wheatland County’s primary industries.
“Farmers are our vast people in this county; we farm from post to post, as the saying goes,” said Division 6 Councillor Glenn Koester, noting he supported the resolution.
Wheatland County council unanimously passed a motion to forward the resolution to both the 2022 Provincial ASB Conference, held January 25 to 27, and the Central RMA District 2 for endorsement at the upcoming March convention.
Following the meeting, Reeve Link approached Kneehill County Reeve Jerry Wittstock to ask whether the adjacent county would support the resolution as a seconder.
Due to an approaching deadline to submit the resolution, Reeve Wittstock brought the request to the Tuesday, January 18 Kneehill County Committee of the Whole meeting. He asked the committee to indicate whether they would support bringing the resolution for consideration at a future council meeting; this would allow Kneehill County to provide an interim response so Wheatland County could find another seconder if necessary ahead of the deadline.
“There are some big oil and gas companies that are doing this to us; even though they pay their taxes, they refuse to honour contracts with landowners,” Reeve Wittstock stated during the meeting, adding, “If we brought this forward two years ago I don’t think it would have gone far.”
Kneehill County Committee of the Whole unanimously agreed they would recommend council to second Wheatland County’s resolution.

A Drumheller man was given time served for flight from police and careless use of a firearm.
John McConnell appeared in provincial court in Drumheller in custody via closed-circuit television, where he pleaded guilty to a number of charges.
The court heard that on September 24, 2020, Constable Doucette was conducting a patrol and came across McConnell and a female in a black Nissan Altima. He attempted to make a traffic stop, when the vehicle fled, heading east on Highway 575 towards Nacmine. At times the vehicle was driven on the wrong side of the road and ran over a curb, with speeds estimated at 100 KPH.
Later the patrol located the vehicle in Greenwood Villa, and McConnell was taken into custody.
On December 17, 2020, RCMP was conducting a curfew check, and McConnell was not at his residence. The following day police conducted a second curfew check, and McConnell was not at home.
This time the police waited for him to return. As he was being taken into custody, a search revealed a rifle clip and .22 ammunition.
He also pleaded guilty to failing to report to probation while on release.
The crown and defense agreed on a sentencing submission of 85 days. McConnell has been in custody since November 17, 2021, and had accrued enough pretrial custody to satisfy the sentence. He was also given a 5-year firearm prohibition.
Defense for McConnell indicated he plans to move to Calgary and continue to work on his addiction issues.