'Nothing unusual': Loewen sees no conflict of interest in taking over wildlife rules

Todd Loewen makes a comment during a debate in Medicine Hat, Alta., Wednesday, July 27, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON — An Alberta cabinet minister said Friday he's working with lawyers and the province's ethics commissioner over concerns possible changes to his department's responsibilities could put him in a conflict of interest.

However, Todd Loewen, minister of Forestry, Parks and Tourism, said it's normal government practice to have someone with a vested interest in an industry oversee its regulation and he doesn't see an issue.

"There's nothing unusual here," he said. "This is regular business when it comes to the government."

Concerns were raised earlier this week when observers noted that the United Conservative Party government was considering shifting responsibility for wildlife stewardship to Loewen's ministry. That would put him in charge of allocating all wildlife harvest rules in the province, including sport fishing regulations, the distribution of hunting tags to outfitters and private citizens and issuing trapping licences.

Loewen's Dec. 31, 2022, disclosure statement on the website of the Office of the Ethics Commissioner indicates that he receives dividends of at least $5,000 a year from a business called Red Willow Outfitting, based in Valleyview, Alta. Red Willow's website says it offers guided hunts for bears, deer, moose, elk, wolves, coyotes and waterfowl.

That just means he has expertise, Loewen said.

"We want to have the most experienced people we have in charge of the ministries."

Loewen said it's routine, even expected, for agriculture ministers to come from a farm.

"Agriculture ministers over the past decades have almost always came from the agriculture industry."

Still, Loewen said he has hired lawyers and is working with the Ethics Commissioner's office to guard against conflict of interest.

"With the additional part of fish and wildlife possibly coming into my ministry, there has been some additional work done," he said. "There may be some people that have a concern about this."

Those concerns are part of broader worries over coming changes to Alberta's Fish and Wildlife department.

Critics say crucial expertise within Alberta Environment and Protected Areas is being broken up and dispersed, weakening Fish and Wildlife programs that should be working together and putting responsibility for conservation within ministries where that concern may not be central.

Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation is to take over provincial fish hatcheries, which stock dozens of lakes, streams and ponds with sport fish. Alberta Environment and Protected Areas is to keep responsibility for species at risk.

New Democrat Opposition environment critic Marlin Schmidt, among others, has said splitting up those different functions will make it harder to have a co-ordinated approach to fish and wildlife protection. Schmidt said the government has offered no notification or justification for the changes.

Lorne Fitch, a much-awarded longtime Alberta biologist, has said the changes could open the door to further commercialization of the province's wildlife.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2023.