Bill 26, Mines and Minerals (Coalbed Methane) Amendment Act, 2010
November 15, 2010
Mrs. Forsyth: Well, thank you, Mr Speaker. You learn a great deal on this side of the House. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad, but I tell you, you sure . . . [interjections] Do you guys want to take that argument outside?
The Deputy Speaker: The hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek has the floor.
Mrs. Forsyth: Mr. Speaker, anyhow, I’m pleased to stand up and debate Bill 26, the Mines and Minerals (Coalbed Methane) Amendment Act, 2010. There’s no question here that when you become a member of the opposition, you go through a steep learning curve. That steep learning curve takes you from, you know, having two or three things that you’re interested in, and all of a sudden you’re learning about legislation.
I always have to say how when I was on the side of the government, I admired the opposition and wondered how the heck they were able to stand up and debate every piece of legislation and, for that matter, some of them for 20 minutes at a time with a bill in their hand. Well, guess what? We’ve got the Wildrose caucus. We’ve got a limited budget. Like I said to the leader, it’s like going from the castle to the outhouse and hoping you have some toilet paper with you because that’s exactly what we have. We have two researchers. We’ve got I forget how many ministries over on the government side, I think 23, that we have to try and keep up on. So it’s been an interesting challenge.
I find it interesting, and I’m looking forward to the Member for West Yellowhead standing up and debating this piece of legislation because it’s the coal companies in his area that, in their words, feel that they are getting screwed. They feel that there’s no recollection of their claim to the byproduct of their coal. Again, it emphasizes, I think, what my two colleagues said, the lack of the industry consultation. In fact, a lot of them were totally blindsided by the announcement on October 27.
This hearkens me back to the times when I was on the government side and the royalty framework. I don’t have to remind anybody in this Legislature about the royalty framework. I see the former Minister of Energy watching and listening to what I have to say. At that period of time, when we brought the royalty framework forward, we heard a lot of the oil and gas companies talking about their lack of consultation. We saw what the lack of consultation did on the royalty framework. I think we’ve got – what? – seven changes we’ve gone through so far. I’ve lost track of exactly how many changes.
You know, the government is rushing the legislation on this bill. I think the in situ gasification from coal is not clarified, and I think that when my colleague from Airdrie-Chestermere was questioned, my colleague from Calgary-Glenmore asked him that. The natural gas may belong to a gas tenure; however, the value-added from the coal gasification is not recognized. Without clarification of this value-added process and rushing this bill through legislation, we just feel that Albertans will be losing a great opportunity, similar to the oil sands, and we will be caught in litigation seeking assets which we know must be defined.
The Premier has said that the clean coal has a big role in Alberta’s energy future. He’s made that one of his priorities. I’m just very, very concerned about what we’re hearing from Albertans and what we’re hearing from those in the coal bed about how they feel that there has been no consultation. They feel blindsided. They feel the lack of industry consultation and yet another case of ramming through legislation, and they feel that two weeks is not enough for legislators, us as MLAs, to be able to make a fair analysis of what’s happening.
This is second reading. I’m going to be listening to what some of the colleagues from the government have to say on this particular piece of legislation. I’ll be particularly interested in those colleagues that have some of the coal companies within their constituencies because I think that’ll be interesting to hear what they have to say. I can’t imagine the coal companies coming to us and explaining their displeasure, then going to the government member if the company is in there and saying how much they like the legislation. I always find it fascinating when there are things going on that the MLA supposedly representing the constituents in their riding is not speaking up. That sends a very, very bad message, to me. But I guess it’s not surprising, when we haven’t heard any of the government MLAs talk about the crisis that we’re in health care.
With those remarks, I’m going to sit down. I look forward to again speaking in committee. I imagine that we’ll be continuing to meet with the coal companies that have expressed their displeasure in this piece of legislation as they take the time to educate us through the process. There’s nothing like going back to school and getting energy 101. Now we’re going into coal 101 and all of those others.
Mr. Speaker, I will sit down after those remarks, and I look forward to hearing what the government has to say during the committee process.