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Alberta cancels land sale for irrigation project

October 28, 2011  By The Canadian Press


October 20, 2011,
Edmonton, Alta – The Alberta government has mashed a land deal that could have
seen a large tract of native prairie sold off for an irrigated potato farm.

October 20, 2011,
Edmonton, Alta – The Alberta government has mashed a land deal that could have
seen a large tract of native prairie sold off for an irrigated potato farm.

Sustainable Resource
Development
has pulled a request for proposals to buy nearly 7,300 hectares of
grassland for an irrigation project.

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Government officials had
acknowledged a Taber-area potato farmer was expected to bid for the land.

The proposal was widely
criticized by environmentalists and area ranchers, and seemed to contradict
advice from the government's own experts.

Nigel Douglas, a
spokesman for the Alberta Wilderness Association, is praising Premier Alison
Redford for living up to her campaign promise to cancel the sale.

He says his group now
wants the government to protect habitat for disappearing species such as the
sage grouse and woodland caribou.


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