EDMONTON - As greater demand is placed on Alberta's 100 million acres of public land, the proposed Bill 49 Public Lands Amendment Act, 2003 was introduced today by Denis Ducharme, MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake on behalf of Mike Cardinal, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development. These changes will strengthen and clarify the government's role as the land manager for public lands.

These amendments will allow Alberta to:
1. deal swiftly and effectively with instances of non-compliance on public lands, and
2. respond to increased demand within the agricultural industry to allow some bison grazing on public land.

The first amendments are intended to further discourage people from travelling on closed roads, destroying gates or preventing access to those who need to lawfully access public lands. This will enable the government to deal more effectively with a number of issues including wildlife management, vandalism, destruction of property, industry access and unsafe recreational activities on public lands.

The amendments will clarify existing offences on public land, outline a police officer's authority to remove people from public land and enable the Minister to take enforcement action if people travel on a road that has been closed to the public. However, legislative changes are only part of the solution. Alberta continues to promote public education and awareness programs about responsible use on our public lands.

The second part of the changes to the Public Lands Act, is considering legislative amendments to provide bison producers with an opportunity to raise bison on some public lands.

In 2001, a multi-stakeholder Bison Review Committee was formed in response to ongoing requests about bison grazing. The committee, which reported to the Ministers of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and Sustainable Resource Development, reviewed stakeholders' concerns and proposed that bison grazing be allowed on agricultural dispositions, with certain provisions.

As a result of the committee's review and scientific input, the program will have strict requirements for containing animals, disease testing, tagging and monitoring of the program. The program will also prohibit bison grazing on certain public lands. Once the legislative amendments have been made, government will review applications for bison grazing using criteria developed from the Committee's recommendations.

Applications will also be reviewed to integrate multiple uses on the land based on government's integrated resource management philosophy.

Making certain public lands available for bison grazing provides bison producers with an option the cattle industry already enjoys. Approximately $15 million was generated from the sale of bison meat last year.

Contact:

Susan Johnson
Communications
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development
Edmonton
(780) 427-8636