Editorial

How many more blockades?
How many more blockades will appear on forestry and oilfield roads across Alberta before someone – like the province – notices and actually does something?
In an almost uncanny move last Thursday morning, the Woodland Cree First Nation was alleged to have set up a roadblock on the way to a Black Rock development, somewhere northwest of Red Earth Creek, east of Peace River.
Sources say the blockade consisted of about 20 vehicles, skid shacks and the like. No one knows for sure, but some believe the blockade was meant to inconvenience one of Black Rock’s sub-contractors.
But wait. We also understand the Woodland Cree First Nation has become Black Rock’s main contractor, and that the outfit being blocked Thursday, was also working for Woodland. (Yes, this plot is getting really thick). The blockade happened just days after the annual AAMD&C (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties) convention unanimously supported a resolution calling on the province to get involved in the Crown land dispute. In essence, the resolution called on the province to “exert its authority over all Crown lands,” and “ensure a level playing field for all those who wish to participate in activities relating to those lands.”
And finally, it encouraged the province to “initiate a legal challenge..to determine legal interpretation of the meaning, spirit and intent of ‘traditional lands’ as they pertain to Crown land.”
Pretty cut and dried, we’d say. And almost identical to the one floated by the M.D. of Big Lakes in 1999, and again supported unanimously by AAMD&C members.
So what’s the message here? The province wants to hear what its rural constituents have to say, but doesn’t necessarily promise to give a damn when they say it?
We guess they don’t know Reeve Sheila Foley very well.
Several months ago, the Lesser Slave River reeve pledged to ride this one until it dropped…or the government responds, which ever came first.
After a brief show of concern/caring, the province is again in stall mode, it would appear. The people who want all affected parties to sit down and hash this out are still waiting, and wondering if tomorrow will, in fact, be another working day.
Meanwhile, a new blockade appears on some relatively remote road, bringing development to a grinding halt.
Perhaps it’s another ‘out of sight, out of mind’ event. But we’d certainly not want to be there when the ship hits the sand on this particular subject.
All those promises are suddenly beginning to ring very hollow.

Panning smoke-free?
The City of Vancouver did it, the city of New York did it. So have many others.
But the Town of Slave Lake is apparently attempting to side-step what some would call political suicide with a new law that just tightens the screws ever-so-slightly on smokers.
In fact , the new smoking bylaw that could be unfurled by summer says restaurant owners must now make 60 per cent of their establishments smoke-free. And all taxi owners must forbid it, too.
Councillor Elaine Carmichael said picking on bars and lounges goes beyond council’s jurisdiction. That is, demanding them to create smoke-free areas would be too financially imposing.
“This is a start,” added co-author Councillor Lisa Brown.
“Wouldn’t cost them anything to make their establishment smoke free,” mused Mayor Ray Stern.