It has been a difficult and frustrating search for town officials who approached as many as 2,000 water licence holders in search of more water for Okotoks.

Okotoks municipal manager Richard Quail said many people were not interested in even talking about their water licences.

“There is a complete lack of understanding and awareness around this,” said Quail. “People are calling to talk to us to understand.”

The Town’s problems escalated when the water crunch put a temporary halt on new development this spring. Three developers had to put projects on hold while the Town continued its search. The Town was nearing its licensed water allocations and was as close as 1,000 people away from reaching its limit.

Okotoks has access to 608 million gallons of water per year, enough for 24,500 people. Okotoks’ population is close to 23,000 people and there was concern the Town would reach its water capacity by the fall of this year.

As a result, securing additional water licence was a top priority.

The Town said the cost of buying additional water licences is not going to increase the cost of land in Okotoks. Quail said the Town is still competitive with other communities. In fact, Okotoks has similar charges for developers in Chestermere and is lower than Calgary and Airdrie. High River’s land development fees are almost $12,000 less than Okotoks.

In early June the Town finally secured a water licence. They paid $1 million for enough water for another 2,000 people. Okotoks asked the Province if there were any grants available for the purchase of water licences, but were told no funding was available for a transfer.

CanEra Resources agreed to transfer a portion of their licence to the Town and will use the money to create a charity to fund local projects. The Town now needs Provincial approval for the water licence transfer to go ahead. In the meantime, Okotoks continues to negotiate for a second water licence transfer. Quail said the Town could require as many as 15 licences to get to their 30,000 population cap.

“It will require a series of water licence transfers,” said Quail. “To achieve that an open and transparent water licence transfer system is needed.”

The process has also been expensive for the Town. Quail estimates $25,000 has been spent on independent contractors to help them with the application by providing environmental and scientific research required by the Province to determine what impact the water licence transfer could have on the waterways involved.

CanEra is the largest water licence holder on the Sheep River with access to 715,420 cubic metres annually. Vice-president Brian D. Evans said the water licence was fairly new to CanEra which bought the licence along with Talisman’s oil development projects in southwest Alberta last fall.

Evans said they have technical staff who are familiar with the water licence and its requirements, but were not familiar with the water license transfer system.

When the Town of Okotoks came to CanEra this spring in search of water, Evans became involved and put himself through a crash course on the system.

“It was brand new to me,” said Evans. “So I started to do some individual research.”

Finding information on how and why the Province was proceeding with the transfer system and had discontinued approving new licences in the South Saskatchewan River Basin was not difficult, he said.

“I looked through the Water For Life information available on the Alberta Environment website and the water act,” said Evans. “You could wade your way through it and understand what they were trying to accomplish from a policy perspective.”

An Alberta Environment staff member also helped facilitate the relationship between CanEra and the Town, he added.

Trevor Redman, co-owner of the Crystal Shores Golf Course and Claude Kolk, owner of Kayben Farms near Okotoks, both have water licences. Crystal Shores has licences for nearly 68,000 cubic metres of water.

Both men said they know little or nothing about the water licence transfer system.

Trevor Redman with his dog Divet at the Crystal Ridge Golf Course. Redman, part owner of the Okotoks golf course, holds a water license from the Sheep River for the irrigation of the course.

“I don’t have any information on it,” said Redman.

The golf course regularly doesn’t use its entire allotment, but transferring a portion of their water isn’t likely, he said.

“You never know when you’d have a drought year and needed it all,” Redman said. “You’d feel foolish if you sold and then you needed it later.”

The Province should be letting all water licence holders know their plan, said Redman.

“They should notify everybody with a water licence,” he said.

Kolk said it is concerning that individuals who had to do little previously to obtain a water licence now can sell them on a market that is largely unresolved.

“The (licences) allocated before when it was easy to do, you just had to sign a paper and you didn’t have to put a lot of money into it, now all of a sudden they are sitting on a little gold mine,” he said.

Kolk said water needs should be prioritized. In Lethbridge, where he grew up, there was a system that gave human needs and agriculture demand for water priority before recreation, for example. He said the same priorities should be applied to the water licence transfer system.

“Who gets the rights to the water?” he questioned.

The Sheep River as it flows west of Okotoks has 5.6 million cubic metres of its annual 6.7 million cubic metre annual flow allocated to water license holders.

The Province slammed the door shut on water licenses in the South Saskatchewan River Basin several years ago, but what most do not realize is those who hold those licenses now have a valuable commodity.

When the moratorium on water licenses was put in place on the South Saskatchewan in 2006 major rivers like the Bow and Oldman, it also meant no new water licences would be approved on smaller tributaries like the Highwood and Sheep River.

At that time a mechanism introduced in Alberta’s Water Act in 1999 kicked in, which allows existing water licenses to be transferred.

The Province held public consultations on the Water Act in 2000 and on the Water for Life strategy in 2003 in Calgary.

Alberta Environment spokesperson Cara Tobin said many people still don’t know about the water license transfer system, including water license holders, but said they will as the need for water continues to grow.

The Province has created a website allowing people to view where water license holders live in the South Saskatchewan River Basin. The portal also allows people to see how much water the license holder has rights to.

Tobin said this is one way people looking for water can identify where they can obtain a licence. She said the Province also works with those seeking water to find those willing to transfer a portion of their license.

In the meantime, municipalities like Okotoks that are closing in on their water allocation will have to make some tough choices, said Tobin.

“If you don’t have the water, you can’t approve the development,” Tobin said.

The Province is pushing municipalities and all water users to recognize water conservation is a must, said Tobin, and putting a price on water will help achieve a greater respect for water use.

“There’s no more water to be had,” said Tobin. “If there is a cost associated with things people will be more reluctant to waste it.”

On the Sheep River 5.6 million cubic metres of the annual 6.7 million cubic metres of water that flows down its channel has been allocated through water licenses. However, Tobin said much of that water is returned to the river and municipalities typically treat and return 85 per cent of what they draw from the river.

The Province is currently reviewing its water license transfer system. Tobin said they hope to hold more public consultations later this year before deciding how to proceed.

Last year Alberta Environment asked an advisory group commissioned by the minister, the Alberta Water Council and the Alberta Water Research Council to make their recommendations on the system.

The Province heard from the advisory group of 10 people late last summer. Their report gave 15 recommendations, including six suggestions on how the water license transfer system could be improved.

Most of the recommendations state the system needs to be faster, clearer and better understood by the public. In the document the advisory group co-chair, David Percy, the Dean of Law at the University of Alberta, writes a facilitator should be hired to educate water license holders, act as a go-to person when it comes to information on the system, and create a bulletin board where water licenses for sale and those looking to obtain water licenses could advertise. The bulletin board would include volumes of water for sale, the location and price.

“We know there’s lots of ways to find out if land is for sale, but it is very difficult to find out if someone is eve interest in selling their water,” said Percy.

The advisory group also recommended the lengthy approval process needs to be simplified and certain requirements, particularly the need to have a cabinet approved water management plan before a transfer can be approved, should be removed.

License holders also need to know how much water they are allowed to transfer, particularly based on the amount of water they are using.

Percy said the government has done a good job of introducing and starting the controversial system, but now needs to expand.

“We are now ready for the next step,” he said. “We have to make it much better known, much easier and have far less time for approvals.”

However, Liberal Environment critic Laurie Blakeman said the system needs to be scrapped.

“We do not support a water market,” Blakeman said. “We need a different system entirely.”

Blakeman said making water an expensive commodity does not benefit Albertans and added Okotoks is a good example of that.

“I don’t think Okotoks is going to do well under that system,” she said. “Either they are going to get cut off or they are going to pay an awful lot for human drinking water.”

She said the current system is unclear. Although she agrees with the government’s clawback of 10 per cent of any water license that is transferred, she said it doesn’t address issues like when waterways are at low flow periods.

She said there also are not answers for how communities with increasing water needs will pay for water in the future.

“It doesn’t give any clarity for growing communities like Okotoks,” she said.

The Province needs to do away with the legislation that allows those who obtained water licenses first to have control over Alberta’s water, said Blakeman. She calls the “First in time, first in right” (FITFIR) rules archaic and said water should be prioritized based on needs, with people coming first.

“(FITFIR) is from two centuries ago,” she said. “It is still wild west.”

The Liberals are waiting to see where the water license transfer system will go next.

“We are waiting from a report from the government, but it hasn’t come yet,” she said.

Blakeman doesn’t expect the Conservatives will do away with a water market, which she said could force Alberta into a position of selling their water to the United States.

“There could be a NAFTA challenge,” Blakeman said. “If Alberta makes water a commodity it would open up the market and we would have to sell on an equal basis to people outside of Canada. They (the United States) could kill us. They could take our water.”

A dispute between a small group of neighbours in the tiny hamlet of Naphtha, south of Black Diamond, has turned into a court battle that includes the municipal district. An argument over parking and what some deem a messy yard in the one-street hamlet has divided neighbours, some of who contacted the MD about the problem.

As a result of the complaints, Naphtha resident Frank Krieter was ordered by the municipality’s bylaw services to clean up his yard last year.

MD protective services Const. Geoff Carpenter said he responded to a complaint from neighbours and went to inspect Krieter’s home last summer. At that time Carpenter simply spoke with Krieter about a number of unregistered vehicles and machinery in his yard. Later that fall he gave Krieter a remedial order to clean up the yard. Krieter appealed the order to the municipal appeal board, but was denied and given until the end of June to do the work.

MD of foothills protective services officer Const. Geoff Carpenter

When Carpenter returned he said some things had been removed, but he couldn’t fully inspect the property.

“I was only able to get to the front yard,” said Carpenter. “He would not let me on the property. I was satisfied from what I saw there he hadn’t complied.”

As a result, Carpenter laid charges against Krieter under the MD’s community standards bylaw for failing to comply with a remedial order, which comes with a $500 fine, and having an unsightly premises, punishable by a $300 fine.

Carpenter said this is the first time a remedial order was appealed, but it is not the first time charges have been laid under the community standards bylaw.

Krieter will be in court on the charges at the end of August.

Krieter said the municipal bylaw is not legal and hopes a judge will throw the charges out.

“You can’t make a bylaw of what you can and can’t own,” said Krieter. “Everything here has value and is owned by me.”

Neighbours can’t see into his yard, he argued because of six and eight-foot fences he put up around the property and tall shrubs and trees also surround his home.

“It’s not unsightly if you can’t see it,” he said.

When Carpenter came to inspect the yard Krieter and his wife were in the midst of cleaning up their deck, he said, and were loading it into a horse trailer to take to the salvage centre and have since hauled it away.

Krieter said allegations he is a hoarder are ridiculous.

“I buy and sell vehicles,” he said. “I’m retired so I buy things, tinker with them and sell them.”

Under the community standards bylaw the MD allows only one unregistered vehicle in a yard. Krieter has a number of trailers and trucks, but said most of them are registered and parked on the street.

Carpenter said the number of unregistered vehicles in Krieter’s yard is in excess of the bylaw’s rules.

Complaints from his neighbours are just an attempt to make him conform, said Krieter.

“They want everybody’s yard to look like their yard,” he said. “With trees and gardens and grass and flowers.”

Neighbours, who didn’t want to be named, said they felt threatened by Krieter, who they say retaliates when they try to approach him with their complaints.

RCMP have investigated complaints against Krieter, but said they were not able to substantiate any criminal activity.

One neighbour said Krieter’s property looks like a junkyard and said his vehicles clutter the boulevard and are sometimes parked in front of other people’s homes.

Discussing the problems with Krieter hasn’t worked, said the neighbour, and neither did ignoring the problem because it continues to get worse.

Another neighbour attempted to mediate the problem, but in the end the feuding groups did not come together.

In the end, the neighbour, who believes Krieter is a hoarder, hopes the courts will force him to clean up his yard.

“Maybe if the authorities can be firm enough with him he’ll make some attempts to be a little more considerate.”

Okotoks RCMP charged Robert Leonard Scott, who worked out of Okotoks Chiropractic and Massage, with sexual assault in response to a complaint from one of his clients.

Police said they had received several complaints over the course of a few months and are continuing to investigate.

Const. Grant Kneller of the Okotoks RCMP said not much has changed, but said he is continuing to look into the case.

Scott worked at the Okotoks business for eight years. He was an independent contractor, who rented a room from Dr. Ed Sands, the owner of Okotoks Chiropractic and Massage, to operate his massage business. Sands, said he also received a complaint about Scott last fall and followed through by talking with him and the client.

Sands said Scott was surprised by the allegations when they surfaced.

Scott left the business in May after police spoke with him, said Sands.

Last week a lawyer stood in for Scott’s defence lawyer, Pat Horner, to ask the case return on Aug. 20 to give him time to receive information from the Crown prosecutor and review it with his client.

Chief Ken Thevenot said a resident contacted him asking about a phone call they received soliciting a $180 donation the caller said would be used for fire prevention and education on the behalf of the Association of Canadian Fire Chiefs.

Okotoks fire chief Ken Thevenot

The Okotoks resident did not pledge any money, even when the called requested donations of $60 and $30. Later that week the resident received a flyer in the mail that gave a Calgary address where any donations could be sent. The flyer also listed a toll-free number to call with any inquiries.

Thevenot said he was not aware of any such campaigns and called the Alberta Fire Chief Association president to confirm.

“He was not aware of any campaign either,” said Thevenot.

Using the fire chief association to take people’s money is appalling, said Thevenot.

“We are in a position of trust in our communities and when people lose that trust it is disturbing,” he said. “What they are doing – it’s kind of immoral actually.”

He passed on the information to RCMP who looked into the situation.

Const. Melanie Skidmore of the Okotoks RCMP said the phone number and address traces back to an organization called the Cancer Recovery Association of Canada. The phone number reaches an automated line.

People are also receiving e-mails, said Skidmore that look authentic.

The same scam has also been reported in Winnipeg.

Police were alerted to a Pontiac Grand Am driving the wrong way down Highway 2 near the Okotoks overpass and before an officer arrived a second call came in saying the vehicle had collided with an SUV.

A passenger in the Grand Am, 43-year-old David Tarr of Calgary, was killed in the crash. A couple from Granum driving in the SUV were seriously injured and taken to hospital.

Roxanne Swanson, 44 of Calgary, was charged with one count of impaired driving causing death and one count of driving with a blood/alcohol level over .08 causing death. She was also charged with two counts of impaired driving causing injury and two counts of driving with a blood/alcohol over .08 causing injury as well as breaching a recognizance and driving an uninsured vehicle on a highway.

Evidence given during the preliminary hearing last Wednesday was banned from publication until the matter is completed in court.

Following the preliminary hearing all charges were dropped and Swanson pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing injury.

She will be back in Okotoks Provincial Court tomorrow (Thursday) to set a sentencing date.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his wife and their child, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in Calgary court on July 16. Charges of assaulting causing bodily harm, uttering threats and kidnapping were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea, which came unexpectedly on a day when the trial was supposed to be set.

The man admitted to taking his estranged wife and their son on a drive south of Calgary after they met up at Chinook Mall on June 21, 2009. The pair was supposed to exchange their son, who was to spend Father’s Day with his dad.

Instead they drove south of Okotoks and pulled onto some rural roads. There the woman was ordered to take her clothes off and was assaulted while the boy sat in the back seat. At another location the boy was ordered out of the car and the woman was again sexually assaulted.

A pair of teens out driving came across the scene and the woman attempted to flag them down. The husband forced her back in the car, but the teens followed them while unsuccessfully trying to call police. The teens eventually lost sight of the accused’s vehicle, but later called RCMP when they gained cell phone service.

However, officers were unable to track down the suspect. The woman later convinced her estranged husband to take her to hospital. He was arrested days later by Calgary police officers.

Judge P. McIntyre agreed with a submission from Crown prosecutor Mac Vomberg and defence lawyer Dennis Kolba a three-year sentence was appropriate.

However, the convicted rapist will likely be let out later this year because he was given two-for-one credit because he has already spent more than a year at the remand centre while his court case proceeded.

Vomberg estimated his jail term will end within six months.

The convicted rapist will be on the sex offender registry for 20 years and is prohibited from owning weapons for 10 years. He was also ordered to give a DNA sample.

Robert Lefthand admitted to breaking into the home of Darryl Dixon and beating him severely. Lefthand, his brother Greig and his cousin Conrad used clubs and a metal rod to assault Dixon. The Lefthands claim they had come to Dixon’s home in retaliation for a beating he laid on two of them a day earlier.

Greig Lefthand was sentenced in May to eight months in prison for his part in the beating.

Judge Peter Barley admonished Robert Lefthand for continuing the ongoing vigilante justice between the two families. Barley said he has heard about the feud in the past and said individuals like Robert Lefthand need to stop using their fists and start calling police.

“It was explained to me before, but nobody could remember where it started, but they couldn’t see it ending,” Barley said of the feud. “I hope you realize there are better ways to deal with it.”

Retaliation isn’t a defence, Barley said.

“I can’t excuse it because the Dixons did something because maybe the Lefthands did something the week before,” said Barley.

The police should have been involved earlier, said Barley, noting the only one who would be before the courts in that case would be Dixon.

Barley sentenced Robert Lefthand to 80 days in jail, but allowed him to serve it over weekends so he could keep his job.

He called the assault on Dixon dangerous and said anyone else participating in such an assault can expect jail time.

“If you take care of it yourself this is where you’ll end up,” Barley said.

Robert Lefthand was also sentenced to one-year probation. He was ordered to take literacy training, counseling and cannot have or consume alcohol. Barley also told Lefthand he could have no contact with Daryl Dixon and advised him to use his discretion when it came to spending time with his co-accused if they were getting into trouble.

Lefthand is also prohibited from owning or possessing any weapon for 10 years and must give a sample of his DNA.

Conrad Lefthand will be sentenced on Oct. 15. In the meantime, he is forbidden from entering the Eden Valley Reserve.

Daryl Dixon will be on trial on an assault charge Aug. 4, 2010 in Okotoks Provincial Court. Dixon is also banned from living on the reserve.

This small Alberta Treasury Branch in Bragg Creek was held up last week by a man already convicted of two other bank robberies.

On July 13 a man approached a lone bank teller as she opened the Alberta Treasury Branch in Bragg Creek at around 10 a.m. While brandishing a 10-inch long knife and with his face hidden by a balaclava the man demanded money. He took off in a car with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Despite being shook up by the incident, the teller was able to provide police with a detailed description of the robber.

Const. Norman Mercier of the Cochrane RCMP said the teller’s ability to focus and remember the robber led to his arrest.

“The whole time she was concentrating on his clothes, description, words he said and anything else she observed,” Mercier said.

The teller remembered details as small as the colour of stitching on the man’s hoodie.

A suspect was arrested later that afternoon.

Jean Herve Veillette, 39, of Calgary is charged with robbery with a weapon, uttering threats, wearing a mask with intent to commit an indictable offense and assault.

At the time of the robbery Veillete was on parole for an Edmonton bank robbery. He committed the robbery in Edmonton while on parole for an earlier bank robbery in Montreal. Following the Edmonton hold-up he was sent back to prison to finish the remainder of his 7.5 year sentence and in 2005 was sentenced to an additional five years in prison.

Mercier said his parole has been revoked on his current sentence and said he will likely be sent back to the Drumheller Institution to finish it out.

Veillette will appear in Cochrane Provincial Court July 29.

High River bank robbery

In an unrelated case, the Alberta Treasury Branch in High River was also the victim of a robbery last week.

On Thursday at around 2 p.m. a man wearing a nylon over his head, a puffy black winter jacket and knitted woolen finger gloves approached a teller and demanded money. No weapon was brandished and the man was able to get away on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

Corp. Don Racette of the High River RCMP said the teller was shaken up by the incident.

“She was in shock and upset,” he said.

Police officers and RCMP search dogs did an extensive search of the area, but were unable to locate a suspect.

Racette said tips have been coming into police and they are asking anyone with information to call the High River detachment at 403-652-2357 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

A local couple is the support team behind adults living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in the foothills.

Jane Janzen and her husband Harv have been involved with the Foothills Fetal Alcohol Society for 10 years.

The pair provides advice, friendship and practical help for those who need it and want it.

Jane said adults need continuous help as they get out of school and transition into the real world.

“It is crucial for adults to be respectful and give them hope,” she said.

Adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FAS) have their own talents and abilities, she said, which at times may be hard to see through behaviour that is hard to understand for most.

“It’s hard to find where their gift is and where it can work for them,” said Jane. “They are all so different. They all have different issues.”

In addition, each person has their day-to-day challenges. For example, said Jane, one day a FAS adult may have no problems making a decision, but the next day can become hopelessly frustrated and unable to make simple choices.

She said isolating a talent can be a major breakthrough for people living with FAS.

Jane and Harv focus on getting to know the adults they work with on a personal level.

“Its pretty much building relationships to see what they need,” she said.

They will go to appointments, meet with potential employers, provide information about other organizations that could be helpful and just meet up to talk about their day. FAS adults can have a number of needs that are not easy for them to deal with, including doctors appointments, mental health appointments, continuing education, making and keeping relationships, addiction support or involvement in the criminal justice system.

Jane said often a person with FAS can misunderstand information, which can be a substantial problem when it comes to medical appointments and other technical information, which then isn’t relayed properly.

In most cases parents are heavily involved, even when an FAS child becomes an adult, said Jane, and having a little extra support from an outside source can be a relief and provide assistance to the parents as well.

“We need to support the family because that is their strongest support,” she said. “When it doesn’t work, which it does with all our kids, then the support is still there.”

In the end, Jane said hope is the biggest motivator for her to continue working with FAS adults.

“You celebrate the small changes and successes and stop looking for the huge ones,” she said.