Province Proposing to Take Over Gravel Pit Approvals

Following is an excellent letter from Rocky View Gravel Watch explaining proposed changes.  A link to Bill 28 is included.

From: Rocky View Gravel Watch
Date: April 20, 2026
To: Rocky View Gravel Watch <rockyviewgravelwatch@gmail.com>
Subject: Province Proposing to Take Over Gravel Pit Approvals

Greetings:
We want to be sure that you are aware that earlier this month, the UCP government introduced Bill 28 that is proposing dramatic and substantive intrusions into municipal jurisdiction, including the approval process for new gravel pits.  You can find Bill 28 at this link:. https://www.alberta.ca/modernizing-municipal-legislation-across-the-province

There has been virtually no press coverage of Bill 28 beyond its controversial proposals to give the province authority to regulate the availability of “sexually explicit” content in Alberta’s public libraries.  However, hidden in plain sight is the reality that Bill 28 is proposing to eliminate municipalities’ ability to refuse gravel pit applications.
The proposed amendments dealing with gravel pit approvals, which can be found in Section 619.1 of Bill 28, includes the following key provisions:

Overriding municipal statutory plans, land use bylaws, subdivision and development permit decisions to require a municipality to approve gravel pit applications within 90 days, so long as the gravel company first obtains its provincial pit registration.

• • In the past, gravel companies typically obtained municipal land use redesignation first and then went to Alberta Environment to receive its pit registration.
  • Our understanding is that pit registrations do not require technical studies; instead they focus on an activity plan.  This raises real questions about who will assess the environmental and other unavoidable impacts from gravel pit operations before they are approved.

Municipalities will no longer be required to hold public hearings on gravel pit applications.  The proposed amendments explicitly prohibit a public hearing from discussing any issue covered by the provincial pit registration.

• • • If a municipality decides to hold such a restricted public hearing, it is not clear what, if any, changes it could implement after the hearing since the pit registration and its conditions will prevail over all municipal planning documents.

Unlike the provincial authority given to regulatory bodies such as the Natural Resources Conservation Board, the Energy Resources Conservation Board and the Alberta Utilities Commission, provincial gravel pit approvals are not required to consider municipal statutory plans in their decision-making.

As well, these provincial regulatory boards all provide for some level of public input into their decision-making.  In contrast, the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, under which provincial gravel pit registrations are granted, has no provisions requiring public input.

The proposed amendments appear to still permit a municipality to impose development permit conditions that do not conflict with the pit registration.  However, it is not clear how the province will interpret “does not conflict with” in situations where the pit registration includes guidelines for conditions, such as dust or noise mitigation, for which, in the past, municipalities have been able to impose stricter operating requirements than the provincial standards through their development permit process.

If approved, these amendments to the Municipal Government Act go far beyond what was recommended by the province’s industry-dominated Sand and Gravel Task Force, or even what that Task Force identified as areas for further discussion.  Under these amendments gravel pit approvals will become a behind-the-scenes approval, without any ability for those directly affected by gravel pits to have their concerns considered in the approval process.  These changes also seriously undermine a municipality’s ability to undertake long-term land use planning which, almost inevitably, will result in greater land use conflicts in the future.
The province’s broader plans for implementation of Bill 28 may also have significant impacts on the amount of information available to the municipality and residents for gravel pit applications and operations.  The province has indicated that they intend to use existing regulatory authority to restrict the number and nature of technical studies a municipality may require for any development permit application to, as they say, “reduce unnecessary costs and delays” and to “further streamline approvals”.
Contrary to the loud, but unfounded assertions from the aggregate industry, gravel is not a scarce resource in Alberta, and certainly not in our region.  From our perspective, even if those claims were valid, there is no rationale to let the aggregate industry’s push for faster, more profitable approvals outweigh local conditions and concerns about gravel pit locations and operations.
Bill 28’s proposed changes are particularly offensive given that they are happening at the same time as provincial downloading is increasing costs to municipalities that must then be borne by residents.  Overall, these changes will remove local decision-making authority while leaving residents to bear all these costs as well.
At this point, these amendments have only received first reading, so there is still time to express your concerns and/or opposition to the province.  We strongly encourage you to contact your provincial politicians to make it clear that you believe that you don’t support Bill 28’s serious overreach with respect to gravel pit approvals.  Without your input, the government will continue to rely only on the one-sided lobbying from the gravel industry.
As always, if you have any questions, be sure to ask.  And please share this with your friends and neighbours.
all the best,
Rocky View Gravel Watch

Here are email addresses that you might want to use:

• Premier’s office – Danielle Smith – premier@gov.ab.ca
• Minister of Municipal Affairs – Dan Williams – minister.municipalaffairs@gov.ab.ca and/or peace.river@assembly.ab.ca
• MLAs for RVC

Sarah Elmeligi – Banff.kananaskis@assembly.ab.ca
Peter Guthrie – airdrie.cochrane@assembly.ab.ca
Angela Pitt – airdrie.east@assembly.ab.ca
Chantelle de Jonge – chestermeree.strathmore@assembly.ab.ca

Leader of the Opposition – Naheed Nenshi – Edmonton.strathcona@assembly.ab.ca