Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Less than five percent of Alberta is comprised of native prairie on public lands. The 7000-year-old remnants of native prairie are of immeasurable value in preserving biodiversity, maintaining healthy watersheds, sequestering carbon, sustaining livestock production and providing outdoor recreation opportunities for a rapidly growing human population in southern Alberta. Albertans value native prairie and their public lands.

The speaker will suggest current law and policy regarding public land sale reflects an outdated ideology that defines progress as turning the prairie into a human enterprise, such as tame pasture, cultivated fields or industrial development. The taking of public land by individuals or corporations willing to pay for it is secretly sanctioned by Cabinet on an ad hoc basis without public input. Proposals to change this situation have fallen on deaf ears.

The storm over the recent application to Alberta’s Minister of Sustainable Resource Development that would see 25 sections of native prairie on public land near Bow Island turned into potato fields has been brewing for many years. Conservation interests appear to have been shut out. That Cabinet is surprised by the public outrage suggests they are disturbingly out of touch.

Speaker: Cheryl Bradley P. Biol.

Cheryl Bradley is a professional biologist who has worked in conservation biology and development of environmental law and policy for three decades. She is a long-standing and active member of Alberta’s Prairie Conservation Forum, the Alberta Native Plant Council, the Southern Alberta Group for Environment, and the Urban Team of the Oldman Watershed Council. She has served on the Board of the Environmental Law Centre and is a founding Board member of Water Matters. Cheryl has received several awards, including an Emerald Award, for her volunteer work in nature conservation.

NOTE correction to one of Cheryl's answer:

Here is a list of facts from an article about public lands by Joyce Hildebrand written in the December 2007 Wildlands Advocate:

Total Area of Alberta – 662,583 km2

Public Land - 60% of Alberta (397,550 km2)

Private Land - 28.5% of Alberta (virtually all in the White Area of southern Alberta) (188,836 km2)

Green Area (unsettled) - 47% of Alberta (311,414 km2)

Public Land in Green Area – 47% of Alberta (311,414 km2)

White Area (settled) – 31% of Alberta (205,400 km2)

Public Land in White Area - 2.5% (16,564)

(excludes federal land (10% of Alberta), provincial protected areas (4.2% of Alberta), tax recovery lands and areas covered by water (2.5% of Alberta)

Less than five percent of Alberta is comprised of native prairie on public lands. The 7000-year-old remnants of native prairie are of immeasurable value in preserving biodiversity, maintaining healthy watersheds, sequestering carbon, sustaining livestock production and providing outdoor recreation opportunities for a rapidly growing human population in southern Alberta. Albertans value native prairie and their public lands.

The speaker will suggest current law and policy regarding public land sale reflects an outdated ideology that defines progress as turning the prairie into a human enterprise, such as tame pasture, cultivated fields or industrial development. The taking of public land by individuals or corporations willing to pay for it is secretly sanctioned by Cabinet on an ad hoc basis without public input. Proposals to change this situation have fallen on deaf ears.

The storm over the recent application to Alberta’s Minister of Sustainable Resource Development that would see 25 sections of native prairie on public land near Bow Island turned into potato fields has been brewing for many years. Conservation interests appear to have been shut out. That Cabinet is surprised by the public outrage suggests they are disturbingly out of touch.

Speaker: Cheryl Bradley P. Biol.

Cheryl Bradley is a professional biologist who has worked in conservation biology and development of environmental law and policy for three decades. She is a long-standing and active member of Alberta’s Prairie Conservation Forum, the Alberta Native Plant Council, the Southern Alberta Group for Environment, and the Urban Team of the Oldman Watershed Council. She has served on the Board of the Environmental Law Centre and is a founding Board member of Water Matters. Cheryl has received several awards, including an Emerald Award, for her volunteer work in nature conservation.

NOTE correction to one of Cheryl's answer:

Here is a list of facts from an article about public lands by Joyce Hildebrand written in the December 2007 Wildlands Advocate:

Total Area of Alberta – 662,583 km2

Public Land - 60% of Alberta (397,550 km2)

Private Land - 28.5% of Alberta (virtually all in the White Area of southern Alberta) (188,836 km2)

Green Area (unsettled) - 47% of Alberta (311,414 km2)

Public Land in Green Area – 47% of Alberta (311,414 km2)

White Area (settled) – 31% of Alberta (205,400 km2)

Public Land in White Area - 2.5% (16,564)

(excludes federal land (10% of Alberta), provincial protected areas (4.2% of Alberta), tax recovery lands and areas covered by water (2.5% of Alberta)

In the late 1800s, the Canadian government banned dancing among aboriginal peoples. Any aboriginal person participating in dance events could end up in jail, performing hard labour instead of the deeply spiritual and community building work of ceremonies like the Sun Dance. At the same time, corporations like the Canadian Pacific Railroad began to showcase Aboriginal dance in events designed for “white” spectators - like the Calgary Stampede and Banff “Indian Days.” In 1988, the Canadian government passed the Multiculturalism Act “to recognize all Canadians as full and equal participants in Canadian society.” Promoting culture-specific dance was fundamental to the multicultural agenda. First a segment of the national population is commanded not to dance; then, is instead urged to dance.

This talk argues that dancing is not only a form of cultural and artistic expression, it is also a politically powerful strategy. Using two federal Acts – the Indian and Multiculturalism Acts – as the time frame, Doolittle examines how Blackfoot dancing in Southern Alberta figured in the national conversation about human rights and national identity. In many global struggles for equity and dignity, the powerful embodied experience of dance has been used as a tactic to reconfigure the present and reshape the future. What kind of influence can the practice of dance have on the perception or the reality of First Nations peoples in Canada?

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Speaker: Professor Lisa Doolittle

Lisa Doolittle is Professor in Theatre Arts at the University of Lethbridge. She trained as a professional dancer and choreographer at the Nikolais and Cunningham studios in New York, and in Toronto and Rome. She performed and created dance work in Canada and Italy for fifteen years, before obtaining her Masters degree with a focus on Movement and Culture at Wesleyan University. Doolittle’s most recent original dance/theatre production “Something to Declare” was based on oral histories of recent newcomers to Lethbridge. She has published widely in academic journals and anthologies and was the 2008-10 Faculty of Fine Arts’ University Scholar, and received the 2007 Council of Alberta Faculty Associations’ Distinguished Academic Award.

In the late 1800s, the Canadian government banned dancing among aboriginal peoples. Any aboriginal person participating in dance events could end up in jail, performing hard labour instead of the deeply spiritual and community building work of ceremonies like the Sun Dance. At the same time, corporations like the Canadian Pacific Railroad began to showcase Aboriginal dance in events designed for “white” spectators - like the Calgary Stampede and Banff “Indian Days.” In 1988, the Canadian government passed the Multiculturalism Act “to recognize all Canadians as full and equal participants in Canadian society.” Promoting culture-specific dance was fundamental to the multicultural agenda. First a segment of the national population is commanded not to dance; then, is instead urged to dance.

This talk argues that dancing is not only a form of cultural and artistic expression, it is also a politically powerful strategy. Using two federal Acts – the Indian and Multiculturalism Acts – as the time frame, Doolittle examines how Blackfoot dancing in Southern Alberta figured in the national conversation about human rights and national identity. In many global struggles for equity and dignity, the powerful embodied experience of dance has been used as a tactic to reconfigure the present and reshape the future. What kind of influence can the practice of dance have on the perception or the reality of First Nations peoples in Canada?

.

Speaker: Professor Lisa Doolittle

Lisa Doolittle is Professor in Theatre Arts at the University of Lethbridge. She trained as a professional dancer and choreographer at the Nikolais and Cunningham studios in New York, and in Toronto and Rome. She performed and created dance work in Canada and Italy for fifteen years, before obtaining her Masters degree with a focus on Movement and Culture at Wesleyan University. Doolittle’s most recent original dance/theatre production “Something to Declare” was based on oral histories of recent newcomers to Lethbridge. She has published widely in academic journals and anthologies and was the 2008-10 Faculty of Fine Arts’ University Scholar, and received the 2007 Council of Alberta Faculty Associations’ Distinguished Academic Award.

In past ages, artists were essentially craftsmen carrying out the wishes of the ruling political, aristocratic, and religious elites. When modern artists gained a degree of economic independence in the late 18th century, and with the rise of democratic ideals, a minority began criticizing the establishment as an artistic opposition, and this has continued to the present day.

The relation of artists to politics largely mirrors that found in the rest of society, a difference being that artists are experts in the manipulation of charged symbols. With respect to political issues in society (and regarding all political tendencies from left to right) artists have been harshly critical, slavishly supportive, and at times completely apathetic, depending on the moment.

This presentation will explain some of the approaches politicized artists have taken to engage in the social and political process, and it will discuss what sorts of effects these engagements may, or may not, have in the larger social and political environment.

Speaker: Kenneth Allan

Ken Allan teaches art history courses on modern and contemporary art, photography, and experimental film at the University of Lethbridge. He has a PhD in Art History from the University of Toronto, with a specialization in the study of Conceptual art.

Allan’s recent publications include: “Metamorphosis in 391: A Cryptographic Collaboration by Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Erik Satie” for Art History (forthcoming in 2011) and “Grounds of Forgetting and Intermediaries for Memory: Some Photographs by David M.C. Miller” in Public, 42, “Traces” (Fall 2010). His essay “Understanding Information” forms a chapter of Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

In past ages, artists were essentially craftsmen carrying out the wishes of the ruling political, aristocratic, and religious elites. When modern artists gained a degree of economic independence in the late 18th century, and with the rise of democratic ideals, a minority began criticizing the establishment as an artistic opposition, and this has continued to the present day.

The relation of artists to politics largely mirrors that found in the rest of society, a difference being that artists are experts in the manipulation of charged symbols. With respect to political issues in society (and regarding all political tendencies from left to right) artists have been harshly critical, slavishly supportive, and at times completely apathetic, depending on the moment.

This presentation will explain some of the approaches politicized artists have taken to engage in the social and political process, and it will discuss what sorts of effects these engagements may, or may not, have in the larger social and political environment.

Speaker: Kenneth Allan

Ken Allan teaches art history courses on modern and contemporary art, photography, and experimental film at the University of Lethbridge. He has a PhD in Art History from the University of Toronto, with a specialization in the study of Conceptual art.

Allan’s recent publications include: “Metamorphosis in 391: A Cryptographic Collaboration by Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Erik Satie” for Art History (forthcoming in 2011) and “Grounds of Forgetting and Intermediaries for Memory: Some Photographs by David M.C. Miller” in Public, 42, “Traces” (Fall 2010). His essay “Understanding Information” forms a chapter of Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Is climate change anthropogenic (are we causing it)? Do we need to wait while UN Scientists “the Greenies” and questioning Scientists “the Skeptics” debate this issue? Do we have the time to wait? What issues should we be thinking about ourselves? What will it take to progress from the stage of ideas and ideologies to a stage of realistic and pragmatic implementation for a selection of the proposed options? What criteria should be used?

Climate is a very complex and dynamic system and it is healthy for the “Greenies” and “Skeptics” to debate the issues of possible anthropogenic origin. This happens in science all the time. The problem is that the non scientific public has been divided into different camps on the basis of ideology. This division prevents the development of a flexible and comprehensive solution. The speaker will address the above questions and explore a solution that provides for sustainable energy in harmony with both our environment and our pockets.

Speaker: Cosmos Voutsinos P.Eng.

Cosmos earned a Bachelor’s in Mech. Eng., System Dynamics & Control, from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Mech. Eng., Thermo-fluids, from McMaster University. His career progressed from system designs in the Canadian nuclear Industry to construction management of US power plants in Taiwan. While in Taiwan he specialized in engineering economics. He designed Taiwan’s power infrastructure to incorporate LNG and coal port facilities, oil fired, coal fired, gas fired, hydro, and nuclear power plants to ensure that Taiwan had a reliable power supply in the event that military and/or political actions blocked external energy supplies.

Upon returning to Canada he started Adtech Manufacturing Ltd, manufacturing high tech control systems for the military, nuclear and aerospace industries. In 2002 Cosmos sold his company and semi-retired in Lethbridge. He continues his involvement in the energy sector through the CNS and his consulting company Technology Integration Ltd. (TIL). In addition, he has authored two booklets ”Using Nuclear Energy to Get the Most Out of Alberta’s Tar Sands” and “Road Map For a Comprehensive Energy Policy”.

Moderator: Ralph Thrall Jr.

Date:Thursday, October 21, 2010

Time: Noon - 1:30 PM

Location: Country Kitchen Catering (Lower level of The Keg) 1715 Mayor Magrath Dr. S

Cost:$10.00 (includes lunch)

Is climate change anthropogenic (are we causing it)? Do we need to wait while UN Scientists “the Greenies” and questioning Scientists “the Skeptics” debate this issue? Do we have the time to wait? What issues should we be thinking about ourselves? What will it take to progress from the stage of ideas and ideologies to a stage of realistic and pragmatic implementation for a selection of the proposed options? What criteria should be used?

Climate is a very complex and dynamic system and it is healthy for the “Greenies” and “Skeptics” to debate the issues of possible anthropogenic origin. This happens in science all the time. The problem is that the non scientific public has been divided into different camps on the basis of ideology. This division prevents the development of a flexible and comprehensive solution. The speaker will address the above questions and explore a solution that provides for sustainable energy in harmony with both our environment and our pockets.

Speaker: Cosmos Voutsinos P.Eng.

Cosmos earned a Bachelor’s in Mech. Eng., System Dynamics & Control, from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Mech. Eng., Thermo-fluids, from McMaster University. His career progressed from system designs in the Canadian nuclear Industry to construction management of US power plants in Taiwan. While in Taiwan he specialized in engineering economics. He designed Taiwan’s power infrastructure to incorporate LNG and coal port facilities, oil fired, coal fired, gas fired, hydro, and nuclear power plants to ensure that Taiwan had a reliable power supply in the event that military and/or political actions blocked external energy supplies.

Upon returning to Canada he started Adtech Manufacturing Ltd, manufacturing high tech control systems for the military, nuclear and aerospace industries. In 2002 Cosmos sold his company and semi-retired in Lethbridge. He continues his involvement in the energy sector through the CNS and his consulting company Technology Integration Ltd. (TIL). In addition, he has authored two booklets ”Using Nuclear Energy to Get the Most Out of Alberta’s Tar Sands” and “Road Map For a Comprehensive Energy Policy”.

Moderator: Ralph Thrall Jr.

Date:Thursday, October 21, 2010

Time: Noon - 1:30 PM

Location: Country Kitchen Catering (Lower level of The Keg) 1715 Mayor Magrath Dr. S

Cost:$10.00 (includes lunch)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing CO2 from point-source surface facilities and injecting it into subsurface geological formations, particularly depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. It is a key technology being considered and implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. In 2008 the government of Alberta committed $2B to accelerate CCS in the province, with the goal of having four CCS projects operating by 2015, each storing about 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Current targets are to have 50 million tonnes of CO2 stored in geological formations annually by 2020 and 139 million tonnes annually by 2050.

Of paramount importance to CCS is the ability to track the injected CO2 plume in the storage formation and to verify safe and permanent storage of the CO2. These goals are vital for public acceptance of CCS particularly during early projects as the technology becomes implemented at commercial scale. A comprehensive range of technologies exists for monitoring CO2 injection and storage but continued research and development is being undertaken for next generation technologies. Current Alberta CCS projects and aspects of monitoring research will be discussed in this presentation.

Speaker: Don C. Lawton, Ph.D., P. Geoph.

Don Lawton is a Professor of Geophysics and Chair in Exploration Geophysics in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. He previously served as Head of the Department from 1997 to 2002. His research interests include geological storage of CO2, acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data, and integrated geophysical and geological studies in the Rocky Mountain Foothills. He is an Associate Director of the Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology (CREWES) and was recently appointed Theme Lead in Secure Carbon Storage for Carbon Management Canada, a $25M National Centre of Excellence. He is involved in research for a number of carbon capture and storage projects in Alberta.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing CO2 from point-source surface facilities and injecting it into subsurface geological formations, particularly depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. It is a key technology being considered and implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. In 2008 the government of Alberta committed $2B to accelerate CCS in the province, with the goal of having four CCS projects operating by 2015, each storing about 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Current targets are to have 50 million tonnes of CO2 stored in geological formations annually by 2020 and 139 million tonnes annually by 2050.

Of paramount importance to CCS is the ability to track the injected CO2 plume in the storage formation and to verify safe and permanent storage of the CO2. These goals are vital for public acceptance of CCS particularly during early projects as the technology becomes implemented at commercial scale. A comprehensive range of technologies exists for monitoring CO2 injection and storage but continued research and development is being undertaken for next generation technologies. Current Alberta CCS projects and aspects of monitoring research will be discussed in this presentation.

Speaker: Don C. Lawton, Ph.D., P. Geoph.

Don Lawton is a Professor of Geophysics and Chair in Exploration Geophysics in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary. He previously served as Head of the Department from 1997 to 2002. His research interests include geological storage of CO2, acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data, and integrated geophysical and geological studies in the Rocky Mountain Foothills. He is an Associate Director of the Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology (CREWES) and was recently appointed Theme Lead in Secure Carbon Storage for Carbon Management Canada, a $25M National Centre of Excellence. He is involved in research for a number of carbon capture and storage projects in Alberta.