| Landowners may still choose to fight MATL line |
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| SW AB Content - General |
| Thursday, 29 October 2009 17:20 |
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By Ric Swihart Southern Alberta The Supreme Court of Canada decision Oct. 22 to deny Coaldale-area landowners opposing the Montana-Alberta Tie Ltd. 240-kV transmission line linking Lethbridge and Great Falls “kills” their appeal of the Alberta Energy Utility Board decision — giving the green light to the $215-million project. Landowners may seek another legal solution, their lawyer Scott Stenbeck, who maintains offices in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in addition to his small-town Saskatchewan home, said Oct. 23. Stenbeck said his clients were disappointed with the Supreme Court decision denying leave to appeal the EUB decision, but are considering fighting the company through the courts down on their farms. MATL will be required to secure a right-of-entry permit to build the transmission line on each of the 113 farms along the 128-kilometre stretch in southern Alberta. MATL on Oct. 22 had reached negotiated agreements with 31 of those landowners to use their land to build the line. That likely will come down to an application to the Alberta Surface Rights Board which will hold arbitration decision-making powers over entry to the land, said Stenbeck. “I have already talked to one landowner who says he may be willing to oppose the Surface Rights Board right-of-entry permit,” he said. Stenbeck interprets the law that the Surface Rights Board right-of-entry permit is granted in contemplation of building a utility for public use and public benefit. “This (MATL transmission line) obviously is not (for public use and public good),” he said. The MATL line is a private, for-profit line. It has sold the electrical transmission capacity of 300 megawatts moving electricity north or south to two companies. Naturener Energy Canada Inc. will build two, large wind farms in the Shelby-Cutbank-Conrad areas in northern Montana to generate electricity to ship to Canada to the highest bidder. “We believe there may be constitutional arguments when a company wants to go in (private farm land) for a private, for-profit transmission line,” said Stenbeck. “Granted, we were disappointed with the Supreme Court decision (on the leave to appeal) but one thing people need to be aware of is that a lot of remedy is political, not just legal,” said Stenbeck. “They have to start deciding what they want in their government when promoting for-profit lines. “It was certainly elected representatives that set the stage for this entire situation.” |
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