{"id":4405,"date":"2020-04-02T17:26:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T23:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/?p=4405"},"modified":"2020-04-14T17:15:12","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T23:15:12","slug":"the-real-story-behind-the-taber-crown-land-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/02\/the-real-story-behind-the-taber-crown-land-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"The real story behind the Taber Crown land deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this week, the Alberta government sold a quarter section of Crown land<\/a> near Taber to an \u201canonymous\u201d bidder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s despite Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon<\/strong> saying less than a month ago<\/a>, \u201cWe are not selling any Crown or public land \u2014 period\u201d. He also wrote in a Facebook post<\/a> around the same time that \u201cAlbertans will always have access to crown land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An agricultural conservation group called Action for Agriculture has identified<\/a> the bidder as Lyle Ypma<\/strong>. His company (SLM Spud Farms<\/strong>) and his family own two irrigated quarters adjacent to the quarter section in question. Plus, he\u2019s interviewed in this CTV News clip<\/a> (starts at 9:00) as defending the bidding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the only time Ypma has tried purchasing Crown land in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, Ypma acquired public land in the area<\/a>, even though a wildlife survey found that the land was habitat for 4 at-risk wildlife species. Plus, an assessment from professional wildlife biologists found that the land he intended to exchange it for had been degraded by oil and gas development, roads, and invasive species. Plus, he plowed the land before even receiving the requisition disposition required, since it was during peak nesting season\u2014this violated the Public Lands Act, the Alberta Wildlife Act, and the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act. And he had set up an irrigation system<\/a> before he had even applied for a water diversion license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ypma tried purchasing Crown land again in 2007<\/a>, when he approached the Hays Grazing Association with an offer to buy their lease for at least 4 sections of ecologically-sensitive land that he wanted to use in a land trade for potato production. The HGA refused his original offer, but then he sweetened the deal with another<\/em> $25,000 each for all of the approximately 50 members of the HGA. Even though some members found the deal tempting, they didn\u2019t accept it, despite Ypma trying to force a vote on the offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that offer fell through, he tried yet again with other Crown land in the area, except that time, there was no public bidding process, just an offer to buy. Again, he wanted to break up the land to grow potato crops<\/a>. He withdrew the offer at the end of 2010<\/a>, after significant pushback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looks like he finally got his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except the story doesn\u2019t end there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Elections Alberta records, SLM Farms, Ypma\u2019s company, donated over $6,000<\/a> to various political activities, including the Cardton\u2013Taber\u2013Warner Progressive Conservative<\/strong> Constituency Association, Broyce Jacobs<\/strong>\u2019 2008 campaign (he became the MLA in the region that election), and 3 campaigns in the 2015 provincial election: Evan Berger<\/strong> (Livingston\u2013Macleod), Brian Brewin<\/strong> (Cardston\u2013Taber\u2013Warrner), and Greg Weadick<\/strong> (Lethbridge West). As well, SLM Farms donated $20,000<\/a> to the political action committee Shaping Alberta\u2019s Future<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ypmas owned a numbered company until 2018, called 991127 Alberta Ltd<\/strong>. This company donated over $25,000 to the Shaping Alberta\u2019s Future PAC in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyle\u2019s brother Keith<\/strong> runs his feedlot under the company called Sunset Feeders Ltd<\/strong>. Between 2008 and 2015, this company donated over $28,000<\/a> PC candidate campaigns in Taber; PC Constituency Associations in Cypress Hills\u2013Medicine Hat, Lethbridge\u2013East, and Lethbridge\u2013West; and to the PC party itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, his family has made several personal contributions<\/a> to political activites. Ypma\u2019s father, Louis<\/strong>, contributed over $4,000 to the Alberta PC party, as well as $500 to the Cardston\u2013Taber\u2013Warner Wildrose<\/strong> Constituency Association. Keith has donated over $3,000 to the United Conservative Party<\/strong>, as well as $1,700 to Grant Hunter<\/strong>\u2019s 2019 campaign. Lyle himself donated $500 to the Wildrose Party. Finally his wife, Carol<\/strong>, donated $2,000 to the Cardston\u2013Taber\u2013Warner UCP Constituency Association. Louis, Lyle, and Keith contributed a combined $3,500 to Jason Kenney<\/strong>\u2019s UCP leadership campaign<\/a>. Finally, Lyle, Keith, Sheila<\/strong> (their mother), Dale<\/strong> (another brother), and Helene<\/strong> (their sister-in-law) each donated $3,000 to Grant Hunter\u2019s nomination contest<\/a>, for a total of $15,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the Ypmas and their companies have contributed over $108,000<\/strong> to the Progressive Conservatives, the Wildrose Party, and the UCP since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it just me, or does something seem fishy here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What the media isn\u2019t covering in their stories about the Taber Crown land auction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[106],"tags":[85,78,86,75],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-conservatives","tag-politics","tag-ucp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/potato-1628500_1920-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-193","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2877,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2015\/05\/25\/8-vegetarian-foods-that-arent-actually-vegetarian\/","url_meta":{"origin":4405,"position":0},"title":"8 vegetarian foods that aren\u2019t actually vegetarian","author":"Kim Siever","date":"25 May 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last October, I decided to be a vegetarian. 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