Alberta Tory MLA Weadick says he’s been against drilling in Lethbridge since ‘day one’

Weadick against drilling since ‘day one’ by Nick Kuhl, February 28, 2014, Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge West MLA Greg Weadick said Thursday afternoon he will continue to represent city residents in opposition to the urban drilling issue. Weadick said he will present opposition letters and put his stance formally on the record in the Alberta Legislature when the Spring 2014 session begins next week. [It’ll be interesting to see if Mr. Weadick follows through on his promises.] The MLA made his comments to a nearly full house, including Lethbridge East MLA Bridget Pastoor and Gary Bikman, MLA for Cardston-Taber-Warner, during the weekly SACPA session at Country Kitchen Catering Thursday. He said he’s been opposed to Goldenkey Oil Inc.’s planned application to drill exploratory wells within municipal boundaries since day one, when he was asked to appear at a downtown rally last October.

Weadick, in his second term as MLA, said he also supported a motion about policies on urban drilling. “We’re now moving forward on trying to put that together. I’ve sent a letter to the Minister of Energy (Diana McQueen) and asked to please fast-track that, streamline that – let’s see if we can get that out in the next month or so, so that any drilling within urban areas will have a basic set of policy parameters around which the municipality and the regulator and the companies can all work,” [That doesn’t sound like the “No Urban Drilling” Lethbridge is standing firm for. It sounds like SPOG and Synergy Alberta talk, setting urban communities up to be frac’d] said Weadick, adding applications do get turned down. “It is something that can happen. It is something that does happen. I’ve got to thank the City of Lethbridge and the residents in my constituency, and across the city in fact, for becoming very vocal. We’re going to do what we can as elected officials. We’ve passed on every bit of information, emails, letters, to the ministers that are involved.”

But not everyone in the SACPA audience was convinced, and suggested more needs to be done.

“We want a moratorium on fracking in municipalities and around homes, whether they’re urban or rural,” a woman said.

“I believe that we’ve worked very hard to do exactly what we’ve promised,” Weadick countered. “And we’ll continue to do that.” [Emphasis and comments added. What precisely has the Alberta government done and will continue to do to protect Albertans from sour gas and hydraulic fracturing?]

sacpa website snap

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