Community Meeting
Protecting Our Futures: Community Meeting
Wednesday, July 24 at 7:00 PM
Bill Warren Training Centre at the Nordic Centre
Hello Rundleview Neighbours/Community,
As you may know, since the recent announcement of a proposed spa/hotel development adjacent to our neighborhood on provincial lands, a few of us have met to discuss our concerns about the project proceeding and how to mitigate its impact should it occur. [see the map below for the leased area].
You are invited to an initial meeting of Rundleview residents/ homeowners with the goal being to see if we have sufficient common ground to speak with a unified voice in addressing town council and the developer. As a starting point, the following is an outline of issues raised by Rundleview residents as well as the broader Canmore community. It will be used to start the discussion at the meeting. We look forward to your assistance in adding to and helping to clarify the significance of these issues to the Canmore community.
These concerns include:
1. Geotechnical
undermining and subsidence risk
short/long term risk and liability
2. Environmental
wildlife corridors including impact on connectivity between wildlife areas
wildlife habitat and cumulative effects of habitat loss
human-wildlife interactions
3. Community and Infrastructure
utilities including water supply and support infrastructure and the impact on property taxes
loss of recreation for other uses
effect of commercial activities in our neighborhood including parking, traffic and resident safety
4. Consistency and Compliance with the Municipal Development Plan (MDP)
the MDP does not contemplate commercial activity in this part of Canmore
5. If the project proceeds, Mitigating the impact:
exceeding minimum standards set out in the MDP
minimize visual impact and require underground parking
lighting – dark standard compliant
no traffic through Rundleview
no development below the ridgeline
a restrictive covenant on the unused land (estimated by the developer to be nine acres) for future recreation use only in favour of the community or the Rocky Mountain Heritage Foundation (Quarry Lake Park)
Through this meeting we suggest the community give a mandate to the Protecting Our Futures committee to develop and present a unified voice of our concerns to town council, the developer and all of Canmore. A first draft of the proposed mandate is:
To review, research and analyze all matters related to the proposed spa/hotel development in Rundleview and to provide advice, to make representations and to advocate to the Town of Canmore and the developer in relation to the same on behalf of the community of Rundleview.
We welcome all those who wish to participate in developing our positions. We also see opportunity for an active connection with groups from whom we may gather knowledge and learning such as Yellowstone to Yukon, Alberta Wilderness Association, and Bow Valley Engage. We welcome your suggestions of additional experts and information that should be consulted in this process.
The goal is a Rundleview community voice. Nothing should or will stop anyone from voicing their views. To that end and to help ensure transparency, it is planned to have all the relevant materials available for all to access at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ESRXD8TM-IKKDMSLR1-tvuOsHwjpzhJE?usp=sharing
The committee will, of course, consider suggestions provided as the process continues.
Please join us on July 24 at the Canmore Nordic Center at the Bill Warren Training Centre at 7:00 PM. We believe it will be an hour well spent in helping to maintain and improve the quality of lifestyle for all Canmore residents and visitors. For those not able to be with us in person, the meeting will be available on Zoom.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88309170738?pwd=lT5AwMfqWC2CSCptNS9napZDsNj5cc.1
Meeting ID: 883 0917 0738
Passcode: 206929
Prior to the meeting, please feel free to share your thoughts by email to ProtectingOurFutures@gmail.com or to any one of us.
Respectfully,
Protecting Our Futures Committee:
Kevin Baggott, 8 - 1061 Evergreen Circle
Sian Barraclough, #13, 1022 Rundleview Drive
Al Black, 1034 Rundleview Drive
Andrew Hicks, 105 Deer Place
Bruce Libin, 106 Deer Place
Diana MacGibbon, 1034 Rundleview Drive
Brad Molnar, 1052 Evergreen Circle
Peter Musil, 1010 Rundleview Drive
John Ritchie, 101 Patrician
Ian Robinson, 1015 Olympic Drive
Eric Young, 1009 Olympic Drive
Livability in Contested Spaces
Presented by Dr. Joe Pavelka
Spend a rewarding evening with resort community planning expert Dr. Joe Pavelka. Joe will address the challenges of planning in a town faced with overtourism and overdevelopment, and we are looking forward to a lively discussion about some of the pressures we face in Canmore. Joe will also be walking the proposed Rundleview hotel and spa site and will share his insights on the challenges this particular development and loss of green space would present for Canmore and the Bow Valley.
Joe is a professor at Mount Royal University who has studied amenity migration and tourism challenges in the Bow Valley for over 15 years.
(See brief CBC interview. )
When: 7:00 PM, June 25, 2025
Where: Artsplace Canmore
Admission: Free
RSVP: Tickets are limited. Book yours today! at artsPlace - Protecting our Futures
If you can't attend in person, you can sign up for Live Streaming through the artsPlace link. We also plan to record the event for future viewing.
Please share this invitation with your networks as we hope to get a broad representation of people from the community to attend.
Did You Know?
Protecting our Futures has launched its own Facebook page (“Protecting our Futures”). Please follow us! You can like and share the post about this event from there to help spread the word.
Joe Pavelka at Arts Place
On June 25th Protecting our Futures will be hosting a talk by Joe Pavelka, PhD, at artsPlace. Joe is Professor at Mount Royal University. His doctoral dissertation examined resort community evolution and amenity migration.
Save the Date!
On June 25th Protecting our Futures will be hosting a talk by Joe Pavelka, PhD, at artsPlace. Joe is Professor at Mount Royal University. His doctoral dissertation examined resort community evolution and amenity migration. He was also a consultant to the Town of Canmore on the current Recreational Master Plan. Over the course of his career, Joe has authored several research articles, two books, and is a public speaker on sustainable tourism and destination planning.
The event will start at 7:00 pm with further details to follow.
Status of the Development Proposal? Unknown
The Developer has not indicated when a formal proposal will be submitted to the Town of Canmore Planning Department for review. We do not know whether a proposal will be submitted, when it will be submitted, when the Town of Canmore Planning Department’s review will be completed and if a recommendation, either for or against the project, will be made to Council. It appears that a proposal may not reach Council prior to the October 2025 Canmore Town Council election.
Stay Up to Date
It is possible that Council could vote on the project within four weeks of receiving a recommendation from the Canmore Planning Department. That is, the four steps in the process: the announcement of the project recommendation, a public hearing, the second and third reading of the Council decision, could all be completed within one month. It is crucial that we are all ready to respond.
Please stay engaged and encourage your neighbors, local friends and families to stay informed of the status of the project, add their names to the petition and to our mailing list.
Protecting our Futures Needs Your Help!
Do you have an interest in preserving the proposed hotel and spa site in accordance with its designation as “Community Open Space and Recreation Lands”? Would you enjoy working with a highly committed group of Canmore residents? Do you have skills in the areas of public engagement, effective communication, networking or graphic design? Or would you be willing to go door knocking, put up posters etc.? We would love to hear from you! Please contact protectingourfutures@gmail.com if you have the interest and capacity to help out.
Wildlife Impacts
Protecting our Futures has been working with a wildlife biologist to better understand what effects the proposed spa/hotel could have on wolves, grizzly bears, elk and other wildlife that we know use the areas around Rundleview.
According to the developer, the proposed spa/hotel will clear 9-12 acres of open space that wildlife currently frequent. In a valley where cumulative effects are ever increasing, another incremental, direct loss of habitat is not acceptable. But it’s the impact beyond those 9-12 acres that may be even more important.
The proposed development site directly abuts the Quarry Lake Local Habitat Patch and Georgetown-Quarry Lake Wildlife Corridor. Both of these protected areas are already compromised in their capacity to support wildlife, due to their small size and high levels of human activity (Herrero and Jevons 2000, BCEAG 2012). Best practices for wildlife indicate we should be limiting development on lands adjacent to these habitats – not increasing it (Ford et al 2020, Integral Ecology Group / Y2Y 2022). In fact, the Bow Valley Ecosystem Advisory Group guidelines are clear that hotel development is not appropriate within such close proximity to a habitat patch (BCEAG 2012). The Town of Canmore has committed to following these guidelines (Town of Canmore Municipal Development Plan 2016, sections 4.2.12, 4.2.13).
The proposed spa/hotel location, is approximately a half a kilometer connection between the regionally-significant Georgetown Canmore Nordic Centre Habitat Patch and the Quarry Lake Habitat Patch. The Quarry Lake Habitat Patch continues approximately one kilometer to the Three Sisters Along Valley Wildlife Corridor. Together these four parcels (of which the proposed spa/hotel location is an integral part) comprise one of the few remaining routes via which wildlife can travel between Banff National Park and Kananaskis Country. Observations of wolves in Three Sisters and frequent grizzly bear sightings around Nordic Centre and Grassi Lakes confirm the importance of these areas for connectivity (Integral Ecology Group / Y2Y 2022). Research overwhelmingly indicates that wildlife’s ability to continue to travel through this habitat depends on human activity and development on nearby lands (BCEAG 2012, Ford et al 2020, Whittington et al 2022, Thompson et al 2025).
If anything, in fact, new studies show that the impacts of nearby development on wildlife movement and other behaviour are likely more extensive than previously thought. Recent investigations into the zones of influence of human activity, wildlife flight initiation distances, and disturbance in the Bow Valley suggest that the hotel and spa will negatively affect wildlife use habitat several hundred [CH1] meters away from the development footprint (Ford et al 2020, Thompson et al 2025). We also know that wild animals are most likely to travel through high human-use areas at night rather than during the day (Gaynor et al 2018, Whittington et al 2022). Increased foot and vehicle traffic, noise, and lights at night around a hotel will deny animals this nighttime security, further reducing the likelihood that wildlife will use adjacent corridors and habitat patches.
Of course, the potential for human-wildlife conflict is a significant concern. Twenty-five years ago, provincial ecologists observed wolves turning around at the Rundle Forebay and noted it was a “major barrier to wildlife movement” that risked forcing wildlife to move through the Rundleview neighborhood on their way to and from South Canmore and Banff National Park (Herrero and Jevons 2000). The proposed development site is one of the few remaining locations where wildlife can still skirt the Rundleview neighborhood.
As of 2022, more than 85% of habitat suitable for travel of wolves and grizzly bears had already been lost from the Bow Valley (Whittington et al. 2022). The science is clear: The development of a spa/hotel adjacent to habitat patches and wildlife corridors will only serve to further undermine the functionality of those spaces for wildlife. Canmore’s Municipal Development Plan states: While the natural environment and the recreational opportunities within and surrounding Canmore will continue to be a primary economic driver for the community and a competitive advantage of the town, it must not come at the expense of the environment, including wildlife”. Protecting our Futures will be reminding the Town of this responsibility as well as its obligation to consider the BCEAG Wildlife Corridor and Habitat Patch Guidelines for the Bow Valley for development proposals adjacent to habitat patches and wildlife corridors.
Literature cited:
Town of Canmore Municipal Development Plan (2016)
Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group. 2012. Wildlife Corridor and Habitat Patch Guidelines for the Bow Valley (update). 143 pages.
Ford, A. T., Sunter, E. J., Fauvelle, C., Bradshaw, J. L., Ford, B., Hutchen,J., Phillipow, N., & Teichman, K. J. (2020). Effective corridor width: Linking the spatial ecology of wildlife with land use policy. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 66(4), 69.
Gaynor, K., C. Hojnowski, N. Carter, and J.S. Brashares. 2018. The Influence of Human Disturbance on Wildlife Nocturnality. Science 360: 1232-1235.
Grizzly Bear Movement and Conflict Risk in the Bow Valley: A Cumulative Effects Model. 2022. Matt Carlson, Integral Ecology Group and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
Herrero, J and S Jevons. 2000. Assessing the Design and Functionality of Wildlife Movement Corridors in the Southern Canmore Region
Thompson PR, Paczkowski J, Whittington J and CC St. Clair. 2025. Integrating human trail use in montane landscapes reveals larger zones of human influence for wary carnivores. Journal of Applied Ecology 62: 344-359.
Whittington, J., Hebblewhite, M., Baron, R. W., Ford, A. T., & Paczkowski, J. (2022). Towns and trails drive carnivore movement behaviour, resource selection, and connectivity. Movement Ecology, 10(1), 17.
[CH1]Could also say, “200-500” m away – especially if indicated that the 3 Sisters Corridor and Georgetown/CNC habitat patch are within this distance in previous paragraph
Happy New Year
Happy New Year from the team at Protecting Our Futures!
Protecting Our Futures continues to advance efforts to oppose the development of the proposed hotel and spa in the greenspace adjacent to the Rundleview neighbourhood. We are pleased to provide an update on what we have been up to, including a meeting with the Mayor and attending the developer’s December 2024 Open House, and what actions you can take to Stand for Canmore and Protect the Rundleview Greenspace.
What Protecting our Futures is Doing
Protecting our Futures met with the Mayor and senior members of Town Administration on November 28, 2024. Our objective was to build a good understanding of the development proposal review process and to share our concerns about the development. You can find a summary of this meeting on the Protecting Our Futures Community google drive here.
Committee members, along with many members of the public, attended the developer’s December 5, 2024, Open House, where we learned what we could about the proposed development and expressed our concerns regarding the project. A summary of the Open House, including media coverage, is available on the Protecting Our Futures Community google drive here. Materials presented by the developer at the Open House can be found on the developer’s website on the What’s New Page or in the Protecting Our Futures Community google drive here.
We have been reviewing the reports (required by the Town of Canmore) that have been posted on the developer's website. You can find the list of required reports and completed reports in the Technical Assessments and Reports section of the developer’s website at the bottom of the page. You can also find these reports, as they are published, on the Protecting Our Futures Community google drive here.
Committee members have been consulting with local experts to confirm what mining took place on the Rundleview site, and what the environmental and structural impacts of such activity would be if the site is developed.
We are also considering whether consultants, including an environmental consultant, should be engaged to analyze and respond to the technical reports the developer submits in support of their application. If you are willing to donate to help fund this work, you can do so by sending an interac e-transfer to protectingourfuures@gmail.com or by credit card at Stand for Canmore: Protect Rundleview Greenspace - Donate.
Protecting Our Futures has been actively working with local non-governmental organizations to request that they spread the word about the proposed development to their members.
We continue to spread the word about the development within the Town and need your help to do so! Please keep your networks apprised of the proposed development and ask them to get engaged by signing the petition, making a donation and writing a letter to the RMO editor.
What You Can Do
Let your friends and neighbours know about this proposed hotel and spa development. Send them to our website (www.protectingourfutures.org) where they can learn about the proposed development and why we are opposed to it at this location, and Take Action to oppose the proposed development. To receive updates from Protecting Our Futures, sign up here.
Encourage your family, friends and neighbours to Sign the Petition opposing a hotel and spa at this location. The petition will be presented to Town Council during the Public Hearing process. To date over 500 people have signed the petition, but we would like to see that number much higher. The petition can be found here. You can also spread the word by sharing the petition on social media.
Donate to Protecting Our Futures by sending an interac e-transfer to protectingourfuures@gmail.com or by credit card at Stand for Canmore: Protect Rundleview Greenspace - Action Network. We are hoping to raise $5,000 to $10,000 to fund studies by an environmental consultant and cover administrative and other costs.
Write a letter to the Rocky Mountain Outlook expressing your views by clicking on their Contact Us page and selecting Letter to the Editor from the “Regarding” drop down. We would appreciate receiving a copy of your letter for our records. Please send it to protectingourfutures@gmail.com
We have posters in a number of locations around town. If you see another location without a poster, please let us know at protectingourfutures@gmail.com. We can either put a poster up ourselves or drop off a poster or two for you to put up.
Send us a photo of the Rundleview Greenspace that you’ve taken and we’ll put it on the photo gallery on our website. We are including a photo from the gallery in each newsletter we send. Send your photo to protectingourfutures@gmail.com.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at protectingourfutures@gmail.com. You can also find key documents at the Protecting Our Futures Community - Google Drive.
Developer Open House
Dear Community Members:
The developer has confirmed details of the upcoming information session on the proposed hotel and spa development.
They will be holding an Open House on December 5, 2024 at the Bill Warren Training Centre (Canmore Nordic Centre), 1995 Olympic Way. There will be no presentation, but you will be able to view presentation boards and talk to the project team. You can attend any time between 5:00 and 7:30 pm.
If you'd like to prepare yourself, you can find information the community concerns about the proposed development at Protecting Our Futures' website (https://www.protectingourfutures.org/about). You can also visit the Community Engagement page on the developer's website to read more about the previous public engagement sessions (https://canmorehealthandwellnessresort.com/the-community/#Community-Engagement).
Please take this opportunity to attend the session to learn more about the proposed development and tell the developer what you think about commercial development on Community Open Space and Recreation lands.
Protecting our Futures
Continuing to Gather Signatures
Dear Community Members:
Thank you for taking action to oppose the proposed hotel and spa development in the Rundleview Greenspace! To date, 175 people have signed the petition and 23 letters have been sent to the mayor and council members. The letters have had the intended effect of making council aware of our concerns and the reasons we are opposed to the development.
That said, we have received some feedback that sending too many letters to Council now may not be the most effective strategy, as there is no proposal in front of the Town yet. We would like to build and maintain a productive working relationship with the Town in regards to this development, so we are suspending our letter writing campaign for the moment. We will be asking you to send a letter at a later date, likely soon after the proposal has been submitted to the Town, and in advance of the required public hearing.
Meanwhile, we are continuing to gather signatures for the petition, so if you haven't had the chance to do so, and would like to let the Town know of your opposition to the proposed development, please sign the petition here Take Action! And please continue to speak to your friends and neighbours about the campaign, pass along the website link, and encourage them to sign the petition and add their name to the mailing list at the bottom of the Take Action page.
Also, a reminder that the developer's website states that they will be holding an open house on December 5th, with further details to be provided. We'll keep watching the website and let you know when we become aware of where and when the open house will take place.
Protecting our Futures
Website Launch Announcement
Dear Community Members
While we haven't provided you with an update for a while, Protecting our Futures has been hard at work building the "Stand for Canmore: Protect Rundleview Greenspace" campaign to express our opposition to the development of a hotel and spa on the lands adjacent to the neighbourhood of Rundleview, and to raise community awareness about the proposed development. As the first major step in our campaign, we are pleased to launch the new website! (www.protectingourfutures.org)
The website includes background information on the proposed hotel and spa development, actions you can take if you wish to express your concerns about the development to Canmore Council, a place for you to add your photos of the threatened lands, as well as information on how you can support Protecting our Futures Society.
Take Action Now!
Sign the petition to be delivered to Town Council.
Share your concerns with council using the letter we have prepared or modify it to describe in your own words why the proposed development concerns you.
Spread the word: talk to your friends and neighbours and share this email and/or the link to our site with your networks; Council needs to hear from as many of us across the Canmore community as possible.
Write a letter to the Rocky Mountain Outlook editor sharing your views on the proposed development (https://www.rmoutlook.com/other/contact-us).
Donate. We would also be grateful for financial support to help cover costs the costs of establishing the website, engaging consultants and miscellaneous items such as printing and room rentals. You can send an e-transfer to: protectingourfutures@gmail.com or use the Donate button on the website to donate by credit card. Please note that we are not a registered charity so cannot issue tax receipts for donations.
What else is New?
In addition to getting the "Stand for Canmore: Protect Rundleview Greenspace" campaign up and running, Protecting our Futures has also been engaged in the following actions:
Planning for an upcoming meeting with the Mayor and members of Town administration to highlight the issues, concerns and risks associated with this development.
Consulting with experts in the areas of undermining, wildlife movement and municipal affairs/public advocacy.
Meeting with our MLA, Sarah Elmeligi to better understand how she might be able to assist us with certain aspects of our work.
Setting up "Protecting our Futures Society", a non-profit society established under the laws of Alberta.
Submitting a request for background information on the proposed development to the Province of Alberta under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).
Contacting the Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors and learning that it has received an application from the developer for direct access off Highway 742, as well as learning more about the Ministry’s assessment process for such an application.
Stay Informed
The developer’s website states that they will be holding an open house on December 5th with further details to be provided (we will let you know when the details are confirmed).
As a reminder, if you are looking for documents such as the Municipal Development Plan, applicable legislation, regulation and policy documents, published letters to the RMO, and developer materials, you can continue to find these on our google drive at our shared community folder: Protecting our Futures Community Drive.
In closing, thank you for your ongoing support! Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at this email address should you have any questions about the campaign or Protecting our Futures.