The Battle Over Redcliff

Today, Calgary and Medicine Hat are friendly cities with each other, but that was not always the case. In July of 1922, things were becoming heated as the two communities began to argue over who had the rights to export gas from the Redcliff field.

The situation would become bad enough that two delegations, one from each city, would have to be sent out to Edmonton in order to resolve the dispute. The Calgary delegation felt that the government had to come to an immediate decision regarding the application to export the gas, since the application had been pending for eight or nine months by that point. Robert Pearson would state, quote:

“There is no reason why the government should not take action on it and give a decision one way or another.”

The Medicine Hat delegation wanted the government to decide on the conservation of the gas for domestic purposes first.

The government for its part wanted no real part in the dispute.

Premier Greenfield stated that government would not introduce a bill in the current sessions, and that the two delegations would just have to provide suggestions on the subject, without the expectation that anything will be decided soon.

There would be a preliminary report released soon enough, but there was little hurry for it and J.E. Brownlee, the attorney general of Alberta, would not say whether the report would be submitted to the Legislature, or just to the cabinet for their information.

In the end, a pipeline would be built from the gas field at Redcliff to Calgary and in February of 1923, a contract would be signed between the gas company and the Dominion Glass Company of Montreal to supply gas from the Redcliff field into Calgary.