Before a packed hall of more than 200 in the High River Memorial Centre, the Pekisko Group gave strongly compelling reasons that the PetroCanada should not drill sour gas wells nor build a 56-kilomere pipe line crossing 72 water courses. Throughout the morning, Southern Alberta residents heard Pekisko Group President Mac Blades of the Rocking P Ranch speak of the irreparable damage that the pipe line will cause to that highly sensitive ecological area. Francis Gardner of the Mt. Sentinel Ranch spoke of the commitment of generations of ranchers in the Pekisko area to protecting the land.

The final presenter Gordon Cartwright of the D Ranch took nearly two hours and several slides to show the history of the land as awell as the provincial and federal legislation to protect this area and the need to reconcile rangeland with oil and gas. He continually described the ecological sensitivity of the Pekisko area and the role that land plays with the first nations in that area.

The Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) as well as the audience in the hall sat with focused interest for that morning period.

In the afternoon period including cross examination of the representatives of the Pekisko Group, the ERCB asked among other questions what management and control do the ranchers exercise to protect the land and what is currently being practiced. Their responses included banning All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). Hunters allowed to hunt must park their vehicles at designated locations and proceed by horse or walk into the area. Mt. Sentinel Ranch posts a map indicating where the hunters can go.

The ERCB panel asked for the ranchers to help the panel decide what to do. It asked the ranchers if this was yet another example of “Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY)”. Francis Gardner responded that the panel needs to look at the opportunity costs. What will be the cost of the damage be if the sour gas drilling and pipe line construction does proceed? Gordon Cartwright gave the final comment to the ERCB panel by saying that we are destroying the land at a greater pace than it has been regenerating in the past 100 years. In some areas of the prairies, there is less than 5% left. We only need to look at the changes. Nature may survive, but what will be the quality of life for human beings?

Tags: ATV, ERCB, notes, PetroCanada

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