On mid-night July 1st the Province of Alberta lifted the state of emergency that was declared in early May.  The state of emergency declaration arose from the impacts of the Fort MacMurray area wildfires.

What does this mean?

The declaration enables the Provincial government to exercise extensive powers to do stuff,  which is  normally carefully restricted by various laws. Simply put, the emergency power legislation allows the government to circumvent existing legal safeguards,  for expediency reasons.

Things like conscripting citizens to fight a disaster, ordering the evacuation of people, livestock and personal property, fixing prices for food, clothing, fuel, equipment, medical supplies and other essential supplies.

These are only examples of the powers granted to the Municipal Affairs minister during the emergency.  Others include allowing the government to acquire any property to prevent or combat the disaster, demolish or remove trees or crops, and control access to or from any area of Alberta.  (And there are a lot more).

Under Alberta emergency powers legislation the emergency declaration expires every 28 days unless renewed through legislation (i.e., an act of provincial parliament).

Kudos to our elected officials

These far reaching powers could be abused and those granted this increased authority need to exercise good judgement and constraint. We are very fortunate (citizens of Alberta) that our elected officials behaved admirably.  Well done.

My own state of Emergency Ends

Our daughter, son in law and grand daughter returned home to Fort Mac Murray permanently on July 1st as well.  They were staying with us during the crisis ( our son in law for only part of the time)

I now declare our own state of emergency lifted.