Silencing protest, or senseless vandalism?
That’s what members of a group protesting the Fort McMurray West 500-kV Transmission Project east route are trying to determine after a couple of its anti-power line signs were defaced and even removed last week.
Nelson Jespersen Westlock County’s representative for the East Route Landowners Opposition Group (ERLOG) said it’s tough to say whether it’s a malicious act.
“I’m not sure. It’s hard to know,” Jespersen said.
It’s not the first incident either as shortly after the signs went up this winter some were spray painted. At the time it was passed off as random vandalism.
“For me, that means maybe they’re targeted,” Jespersen said.
“But I don’t know. I don’t necessarily care a whole lot, other than it’s disrespectful.”
Aside from in Westlock County, ERLOG’s “Say No to the East Route!” signs have gone up along the entire proposed route.
To Jespersen’s knowledge, no others aside from a couple along Highway 18 west of town have been vandalized.
“The majority of the signs have not been touched,” he said.
“I want to say it’s whoever’s near that area. Maybe it will go back up with a funny picture.”
Jespersen said members of ERLOG aren’t trying to make too much out of the incidents and are instead focusing on the upcoming hearing process, which is slated to begin June 6.
The hearing is the final step in Alberta Utilities Commission’s (AUC) review process for the Fort McMurray West 500-kV Transmission Project. At that point a panel will pick either the east route (through Westlock County) or the west route (through the County of Barrhead).
“We’re able to submit evidence to the AUC and our lawyer is doing that on our behalf,” Jespersen said.
“Everybody who is even remotely affected has correspondence going back and forth. I think it’s kind of a discovery process with AUC and trying to set the table for the hearings, that’s sort of the best way to explain it.”
While AUC has picked the west Barrhead route as the preferred one, ERLOG isn’t letting off the gas.
“No one has really forgotten what we’re dealing with and we aren’t taking it for granted that the west route is the preferred route,” he said.
