“We continue to make good progress in meeting the commitments we made to Albertans in the Land-use Framework,” said Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton. “And we will continue to listen to Albertans as we move forward with regional plans.”

The Actenables the establishment of seven planning regions congruent with Alberta’s major watersheds and rural municipal boundaries, and requires a plan for each region. Regional plans will consider the combined impact of all activities on the land, air, water and biodiversity, and will be developed with advice from Albertans. Regional plans will integrate provincial energy, environment, water and other policies at the regional level. The regional planning process is underway in the Lower Athabasca and South Saskatchewan regions. See a map of the seven planning regions at http://www.landuse.alberta.ca/.

Regional plans developed and approved by government will be provincial policy, with the force of regulations. The Act allows for municipal plans like the Calgary Metropolitan Plan and Capital Region Plan to be incorporated as sub-regional plans.

The Act also establishes a Land Use Secretariat to support the implementation of the framework, and makes consequential amendments to 27 other Alberta Acts to ensure better alignment of policy and decision-making across provincial ministries, local governments and boards. Resulting amendments to the Public Lands Act and Forests Act will come into force in the spring of 2010 after additional work on supporting regulations is completed.

Four conservation and stewardship tools are defined in the Act to help protect specific landscapes, viewscapes, and lands of ecological or heritage value. The tools are conservation easements, conservation offsets, conservation directives and transfer of development credits.

The Alberta Land Stewardship Act can be accessed at www.landuse.alberta.ca/alsa.