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The new kid on the block
Recent news in Gift Lake the community is looking at drawing treated water from Grouard, and therefore Lesser Slave Lake, is one more step along a path all of North America is taking. That path is the slow realization water is a limited resource.
Many in Northern Alberta have talked about this often, in discussions spanning decades. Back in Premier Peter Lougheed’s days, so called “interbasin transfer’’ of water was a forbidden no-no. The first reason was the potential transfer of harmful foreign organisms from one part of the province to another. The second reason was to start building a firewall blocking water sales to the United States.
We’ve already seen what happens when America has ready access to Alberta resources. The Alliance natural gas pipeline brought world prices to Alberta for gas. Producers benefitted now they had ready, willing and cash rich customers. Albertans however, are paying world prices for heat and power. Before, natural gas was mostly a garbage byproduct from the search for oil. After the pipeline, it is a valuable commodity. The jury is still out if Alberta is getting maximum benefit from the resource.
The argument is now on whether oil sands should be processed and upgraded in Alberta or simply sold southward. After that debate, there is water.
Visionary investors like Texan T. Boone Pickens, the fellow who almost bought Gulf Oil several years ago, are now buying up water rights in America. Pickens is a major investor in Canadian Oil Sands Trust (Syncrude) and Suncor right here in Alberta. ‘’I don’t have to worry about declining production,’’ he says. He sees oil ‘’eventually’’ at $100 a barrel, and water as one of the big future plays. But, he’s been saying that for 15 years.
Meanwhile, the City of Calgary is refusing to sell city water to a regional shopping mall and business complex just outside Calgary. Their position is, they don’t get tax money from it, so why support the project?
The county is applying to get water from Red Deer, and the Red Deer river. Technically, this would be an ‘’inter-basin’’ transfer, which is against today’s government policy. The argument now is, since the Red Deer feeds into the South Saskatchewan eventually, that’s the same river as runs through Calgary. So, it’s not ‘’really’’ a transfer.
By this logic, one might as well say water from Lesser Slave Lake is the same as water in Missouri, because it all eventually ends up in the same ocean!
Lesser Slave is one of our most precious resources. Our local communities, industry and citizens, if we manage the resource well, should also obtain the majority of benefits from the lake.
As we’ve seen with other resources, all too often, most benefits flow south, and even out of country. That’s just plain wrong.
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