Editor:
I am writing in response to the Outlook article from Dec. 14 edition titled “UCP denies local MLA voice on Bow Valley human-wildlife committee”.
Alberta's current provincial government has a problem with experts. They would rather not hear from them. We've seen this before in the dumb-and-dumber dance of dismissal when it comes to medical experts, healthcare professionals and conservationists with letters after their names.
Our premier defies logic and threatens the well-being of Albertans in these crippling decisions, such as pushing for destructive mining practices on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, decommissioning large swaths of the Alberta healthcare system and voting to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan. Now the UCP denies a seat at the human-wildlife conflict committee to the Banff-Kananaskis MLA Sarah Elmeligi, who represents the district with Alberta's highest and most consequential degree of human-wildlife conflict, an MLA who also happens to be an expert in that field.
This is not a partisan issue which the UCP has made it. It’s just pure bungling, and a kick in the face of the Banff-Kananaskis riding, clearly designed to disempower our MLA. Such a move is more likely to have the opposite effect by angering constituents of Banff-Kananaskis who elected Elmeligi largely out of concern for increasing human-wildlife conflict and the pressing issue of keeping both humans and wildlife safe.
Ignoring Elmeligi's position and expertise is a sign that Alberta's premier and the UCP just want the problem to go away, which would play nicely into their pro-development agenda. But the problem will not go away until the last inch of the wildlife corridor is squeezed out and the last grizzly bear is gone, at which point, the collapse of biodiversity will be a bigger problem. But Danielle Smith and the UCP don't want to face the complexities involved in preserving that critical balance.
Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Lowoen should reconsider his appointments to the Bow Valley human-wildlife committee and add Banff-Kananaskis MLA Sarah Elmeligi to that board.
If this issue concerns you, contact Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen to voice your opinion.
Tim Murphy,
Canmore
