Mohkinstsis/Calgary, Alberta
October 30, 2026

Guest blog by Lorne Fitch, P. Biol. 
Photo Credit: Mitch Leong

When the current provincial government says they are committed to conservation outcomes, they are serious about it. Except, what they really mean is conservation is straightjacketing economic development and it requires a healthy dose of Red Tape Reduction to bring this madness of protecting landscapes and wildlife to heel. In a rare show of solidarity and cooperation, the federal government is a compliant partner in this initiative. But it’s our provincial government who display the most zeal in ridding us of this impediment to progress. 

Examples: 

1. Removal of habitat protections from 74% of the Endangered Greater sage-grouse, at the request of industry. 

2. Rewriting the Alberta Environmental Protection Act to comply with industry requests for less environmental oversight. 

3. Changes to Alberta Energy Regulator policy to make it more difficult for Albertans to challenge development projects and participate in hearings. 

4. Changes to the Alberta Wetlands policy to deregulate certain types of wetland drainage. 

5. Cutting funding to many conservation-related organizations (e.g. Alberta Water Council). 

6. Development of a Coal Industry Modernization Initiative with input only from the coal industry. 

7. Failure to regulate timber harvest, even with the most minimal operating ground rules. 

8. Use of timber harvest for wildfire mitigation with no evidence on effectiveness, or of hydrologic impacts of massive clearcuts on downstream communities and the aquatic environment.  

9. Removal of a large portion of the Marshybank Ecological Reserve to permit logging. 

10. Redesignation of Kootenay Plains Ecological Reserve to provincial parks status to allow for currently non-complaint recreational activity. 

11. Failure to undertake comprehensive selenium sampling of coal mine affected watersheds to determine the extent of fish exposure to legacy mine impacts. 

12. All season resort developments infringing on parks and protected areas with no effective oversight mechanisms. 

13.  Sub-regional plans (Red Earth, Caribou Mountains, and Berland) that prioritize industrial development over protection of caribou habitat. 

14. Water storage projects for southern Alberta rivers that prioritize irrigation development over aquatic ecosystem health.  

15. Allowing game farms to be reconfigured as “hunt” farms.