The annual general meeting of the Southeast Saskatchewan Surface Rights Association served as an opportunity to discuss some of the issues facing land owners in the region.
About 45 people, most of them farmers, attended the meeting on April 7 at the Bienfait branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. President Miles Vass said one of the biggest topics was the provincial government’s decision last year to scuttle proposed changes to the Surface Rights Act.
“The changes are very important,” said Vass. “Basically, the act has remained very much unchanged since 1968, and there are a lot of changes that have occurred in the industry and in farming since that time.”
The association spent a lot of time preparing briefs and making presentations before the government made its decision.
“They were very anxious to push those changes through, and I guess they even went as far as to schedule the introduction of the changes in the legislature, but when it came time, they stood up and dismissed the introduction.”
People in attendance wanted to know if the changes for the Surface Rights Act will be brought up again. Vass isn’t sure if that will happen.
Orphaned wells also received a lot of discussion. Vass was critical of Premier Brad Wall’s request to the federal government for $156 million for the orphaned well cleanup program.
“It gets me that the media has centred on this idea of cleaning up orphaned wells, and in reality it’s a direct subsidy to the industry, and it’s a direct subsidy to something that the industry should have been looking after on an ongoing basis, cleaning up the messes that they made,” said Vass.
The federal government did not include the well cleanup program in their budget. Vass believes the money could be put to better use, such as infrastructure needs in the province.
Clubroot and bio-security have been a big issue elsewhere, he said, and they received a lot of discussion at the annual meeting, since it has been a widespread issue.
“It’s not that far from our area, really,” Vass said. “There really is a lot of equipment that moves back and forth from Manitoba, and even Alberta, and the issue of how do you ensure equipment and everything is clean before it comes off the land, because we don’t spread clubroot any quicker than it’s going to happen.”
Compensation for land owners was also brought up at the meeting. People were concerned that their compensation might be decreasing due to the sliding price of oil, but Vass stressed oil prices don’t have any impact on compensation. Rather, the cost incurred by farmers is the biggest factor.
Vass, who resides in the Carnduff area, remains as president of the organization, a role he has held for many years. Eric Wilmot, also from Carnduff, will be the treasurer and Barry Phillips from the Stoughton area will be the recording secretary.
