Because water is basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society's relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention. Water management over the last century has privileged immediate human needs over those of future generations, other living beings, and ecosystems. In recent decades, improved understanding of water's importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supply-focused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment. This research in water ethics considers expanding the conception of whom or what is morally considerable in water policy and management. <br /><br /> First, the research proposes a water ethic to balance among intragenerational equity, intergenerational equity, and equity for the environment. Second, the proposed ethic acts as an assessment tool with which to analyse water policy. <em>Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability</em> is the focal policy document for this analysis. This document is an example of new Canadian policy; it represents the Government of Alberta's current and future approach to water issues; and it implicitly embodies the ethical ideas that guided the document's production. To assess Water for Life's success in achieving the principles of the proposed water ethic, this case study used discourse analysis, key informant interviews, and comparison to a progressive international policy document, <em>Securing Our Water Future Together</em>, the 2004 White Paper of Victoria, Australia. <br /><br /> Key conclusions show that <em>Water for Life</em> is progressive by embracing full public participation, a watershed approach, knowledge-generation initiatives, a new planning model, and water rights security. However, barriers exist that can disrupt the strategy's success, including the first-in-time first-in-right water allocation system, the strategy's lack of detail, inadequate protection of aquatic ecosystems, ambiguity of jurisdiction over water in First Nations communities, and under-developed connections between substantive issues. The thesis also outlines recommendations for Alberta and implications for other jurisdictions. Additionally this research offers guidelines and an assessment tool grounded in broad ethical concepts to water policy development; and it encourages making ethical ideas explicit in assessment and formation of equitable and sustainable water policy.

Because water is basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society's relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention. Water management over the last century has privileged immediate human needs over those of future generations, other living beings, and ecosystems. In recent decades, improved understanding of water's importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supply-focused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment. This research in water ethics considers expanding the conception of whom or what is morally considerable in water policy and management. <br /><br /> First, the research proposes a water ethic to balance among intragenerational equity, intergenerational equity, and equity for the environment. Second, the proposed ethic acts as an assessment tool with which to analyse water policy. <em>Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability</em> is the focal policy document for this analysis. This document is an example of new Canadian policy; it represents the Government of Alberta's current and future approach to water issues; and it implicitly embodies the ethical ideas that guided the document's production. To assess Water for Life's success in achieving the principles of the proposed water ethic, this case study used discourse analysis, key informant interviews, and comparison to a progressive international policy document, <em>Securing Our Water Future Together</em>, the 2004 White Paper of Victoria, Australia. <br /><br /> Key conclusions show that <em>Water for Life</em> is progressive by embracing full public participation, a watershed approach, knowledge-generation initiatives, a new planning model, and water rights security. However, barriers exist that can disrupt the strategy's success, including the first-in-time first-in-right water allocation system, the strategy's lack of detail, inadequate protection of aquatic ecosystems, ambiguity of jurisdiction over water in First Nations communities, and under-developed connections between substantive issues. The thesis also outlines recommendations for Alberta and implications for other jurisdictions. Additionally this research offers guidelines and an assessment tool grounded in broad ethical concepts to water policy development; and it encourages making ethical ideas explicit in assessment and formation of equitable and sustainable water policy.

Historically, a great deal of water has been allocated to the agricultural sector in Alberta to support economic development and to contribute to food security. However, demand from other areas has increased in recent years, notably from the environment. Meeting new demands while still satisfying existing users has become a significant challenge. The combination of increased water use efficiency and productivity combined with reallocating water from agriculture to other sectors has emerged globally as a solution to this challenge. Thus, new policies regarding water reallocation need to be developed. Designing policies that are acceptable to the various stakeholders involved poses a considerable challenge. The values held by individuals determine how they will react to new public policies. Hence, to support effective policy making, a better understanding of how the non-irrigator population perceives water reallocation issues is necessary. Using mail-out surveys to collect data from the populations of Lethbridge, Alberta, and the surrounding smaller communities, this research aimed to identify the values regarding water allocation held by domestic, non-irrigator water users, and to determine how these values influence their acceptance of water allocation policies. Findings from the survey reveal how non-irrigators’ values influence their opinion of water transfers from the irrigation sector to the urban and environment sectors, and the conditions under which they should take place. A pro-environment value orientation was most prominent amongst the urban sample, while the rural sample was mainly moderate in their value orientation. The large moderate value cluster within the rural sample represented both pro-economic and pro-environment values depending on the focus of the survey item. Statements that would affect the community (irrigation sector) were met with pro-economic values while statements that involved making a personal sacrifice in order to protect the aquatic environment were strongly supported. Value orientation was found to greatly influence the respondents’ perception of water reallocation policy.

The Consort Pebble Chert Quarry site (EkOr-8) is a Pre-Contact quarry site located south of the Village of Consort, Alberta. Despite knowledge of the site's existence by local area farmers, it was only in 1999 that it was first recorded as an archaeological site. It is described as a large area dominated by the presence of marked depressions that vary in size from less than a metre in depth and diameter to well over three metres in depth and diameter as well as an abundance of chert pebbles on the ground surface. Originally believed to be an example of meteorite impacts, the site was explored by geologists from the University of Calgary. Further visits by provincial archaeologists resulted in numerous theories as to the cause of the depression features and the purpose of the site. No archaeological investigation was undertaken prior to the summer of 2006.<p>No diagnostic artifacts were recovered from within the site area; however, a possible temporal indicator to site usage may be indicated based on the discovery of a Duncan projectile point in a site immediately to the south of the Consort Pebble Chert Quarry. An abundance of lithic artifacts were uncovered as results of the shovel test program undertaken by the author during the summer of 2006. The majority of these lithic artifacts were derived from the abundant lithic material within the site area known as pebble chert. No other non-lithic artifacts were found during the course of this excavation. <p>Shovel tests were used to provide an indication of the subsurface stratigraphy at the site. No evidence of cultural strata was found and the subsurface deposits present reflect a history of glacial landscapes. A number of glacial phenomena are the likely causes of the depression features. The presence of pebble chert on the ground surface; however, did make this area an attractive location for collecting unmodified lithic material in order to fashion stone tools. The existence of numerous artifacts made from pebble chert at the site indicates that past cultural groups had visited and collected from the area. An overview of archaeological sites on the Canadian Plains demonstrates that pebble chert is a valuable lithic material that was used in a wide variety of archaeological sites throughout the Pre-Contact era.

Graduate

No description available.

The project is a new city hall for the city of Lethbridge, Alberta, intended to replace the current building which was outgrown over twenty years ago, forcing several departments and city council to be housed in separate buildings. Past proposals for a new city hall have been confined to the current location in the Civic Centre, located on the periphery of the central business district. The primary objective of this project, however, was to create a city hall that was a successful public building, functioning not only as a setting for civic functions and ceremonies, but also as a place of everyday gatherings and activities that would contribute to the vitality of the city. For this reason a site was chosen downtown, on a block across from Gait Gardens, a park that at one time was the early coal mining settlement's town square. Once the commercial centre of the city, the blocks around Gait Gardens contain many heritage buildings, including the original city hall building. As retail activity moved to other locations the area and the park went into general decline. The block chosen as the site was cleared in 1965 and is currently occupied by a supermarket and a parking lot. In recent years the City of Lethbridge has made plans to reestablish Gait Gardens as the heart of the downtown area. Part of this strategy includes a radical redesign of the park itself which destroys much of its original formal plan. Locating an important public building, like City Hall, adjacent to the park would be a positive contribution to the revival of the area. City offices wrap around a wind-sheltered courtyard and large interior public space in order to fill up the block and to allow the building to come out to the street. The original twenty-five foot lot lines that ran east-west across the site govern the location and dimensions of major building elements. A tower, housing chimes and wind driven panels, marks the ceremonial entrance facing the park. A restaurant and small retail outlet are located along the west side of the building to support activity outside city hall hours. The southeast corner of Gait Gardens is redesigned to become a public plaza. Its main feature is a square reflecting pool and skating rink that corresponds exactly to the dimensions of the city hall courtyard. The park otherwise retains its original character and layout.

No description available.

The paper examines changes made to the first edition of Tay John for the 1960 Crown publication and argues that they were authorial.

This paper seeks to explain divergent policies toward oil and gas development across two jurisdictions, Alberta, Canada and Norway. Empirical evidence reveals that Norway collects a significantly higher portion of available economic rent from oil and gas activities than Alberta. Edwards (1987) postulates that if we assume governments have similar economic objectives (e.g. to receive the highest possible levels of revenue from the exploitation of a depleting natural resource), then it is to be expected that oil and gas policy outputs in various states would be similar. Why then did Norway develop a policy regime that allows it to capture comparatively higher levels of economic rent? The puzzle is even more interesting given the fact that Alberta and Norway are both advanced, industrialized, mature democracies that share many institutional characteristics. In response to this question, this paper presents a framework that links contemporary variations in rent collection performance to early government policies in Alberta and Norway. Several alternative explanations are tested as a means for understanding these divergent policies: resource differences approaches, bargaining power explanation, and political institutional differences. Finding each of these alternative explanations insufficient, it is argued that fundamental differences in political culture are important for understanding variations in early policies and ultimately in rent collection performance. The implications of this research are important both theoretically and empirically. For one, the analysis overcomes some of the traditional shortcomings of political culture analyses by delineating the specific dimensions of political culture that impacted policy outcomes. The analysis is pushed further by hypothesizing the intervening mechanism linking political culture to policy outcomes, namely motives. On the empirical side, there is a dearth in the political-economy literature dealing with why oil and gas fiscal policy outputs differ between developed states. This research seeks to fill this gap by focusing on how political culture can affect oil and gas policy.