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To hear Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon talk, Alberta’s Bighorn Country recreation plan is a twisted sales job about to send the provincial economy into a mud bog.

It’s a “Bighorn bomb” with “far reaching tentacles,” he said, preparing for an anti-park rally in Drayton Valley early this week.

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Guyon argues the new land-use designation will create a new layer of red tape and freeze out new oil and gas investment. That it’s part of an American environmental conspiracy meant to shut down Alberta’s fossil fuel development in some of the richest areas of the province.

But seriously. This “bomb” isn’t much of an explosion at all.

Does anyone really think it took until 2018 for the province to realize it needs to protect the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River? No. Albertans and their successive governments aren’t stupid.

These subalpine slopes act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater and slowly releasing it for farms and cities throughout the summer. That land tucked up against Jasper National Park, covering 3,700 square kilometres, has been protected from industrial development by the Eastern Slopes Policy since 1984.