Drill Baby Drill? November Updates

Social Media Campaign:  Our social media campaign is gathering steam! Our Facebook and Instagram pages are active, and we are building awareness of the proposal and what you can do to help prevent it. Please visit our pages, follow us, and like/share our posts! 

We have Lawn Signs and Posters!  Protecting our Futures’ lawn signs are popping up all over town, demonstrating just how concerned people are about the proposed development.  If you would like one for your property or business, please email us at protectingourfutures@gmail.com and we will arrange to get one to you (we’d appreciate a small donation to help us defray printing costs of approximately $10 per sign).  We are especially keen to get lawn signs up outside of Rundleview to encourage Canmore residents who know of and use the greenspace to make their views known and to raise awareness of the proposed hotel and spa among all Canmore residents.  We also have posters available.  If you’d like to get a poster or two up at a public location, please let us know by sending an email to protectingourfutures@gmail.com, and we can arrange to provide you with posters we already have printed.

Drill Baby Drill? As many of you have observed, core drilling is taking place on the Rundleview greenspace.  Rest assured, this activity does not mean the development is approved.  Far from it; the developer has yet to submit an application for the hotel and spa.  We understand that the drilling is taking place as a preliminary step by the developer to determine if the site is suitable and economic for development given the undermining risks. Once the developer evaluates the result, if they decide to proceed the information is to be submitted to the Town and Province to review before any development can proceed.

As noted, based on our recent discussions with the Town, the developer has not submitted a development application to the Town. Once that occurs the Town will need to consider its recommendation to Council and then a public hearing must occur before development starts.

We have been monitoring the drilling activity closely and have engaged with Alberta Environment and Protected spaces concerning the drilling and safety practices employed by the Contractor.  

Council Greenspace Visit:  On November 10th, members of Protecting our Futures took the Mayor and four members of Council (Wade Graham, Jeff Hilstad, Jeff Mah and Jen Marran) to visit the site and on November 25th, we took out the remaining two Council Members (Tanya Foubert and Rob Murray). Our objective was to show them this land is special for both the two- and the four-legged community.  We believe it was beneficial to show the greenspace to Council to help familiarize them with its mining history and how it is used today.  We were also able to demonstrate its proximity to the Georgetown-Quarry Lake Wildlife Corridor and Quarry Lake Local Habitat Patch, as well as to describe the role it plays providing habitat for wildlife, offering connectivity for the movement of wildlife between Banff National Park and Kananaskis and acting as a buffer between the adjacent corridor and habitat page and the neighbourhoods of Rundleview and Hospital Hill.  

Voices of Canmore

We are gathering short video clips of people who are passionate about seeing the Rundleview greenspace remain protected.  We will be adding these to the website, posting them on social media and sending them out through our newsletter.  If you are not camera shy and would like to talk about why preserving this land is important, please email us at protectingourfutures@gmail.com. 

Please Take Action

We appreciate your commitment to staying informed through our updates. One of our goals is to significantly increase the number of signatures on our petition to ensure a strong, unified voice when we present our concerns to Council. We are working hard to get as many signatures as possible. If you oppose the location of the proposed hotel and spa, we invite you to add your name to the petition on our website:  Protecting our Futures Take Action.

Now is also great time to write a letter to the editor of the Rocky Mountain Outlook to express your view.  Check out the recent letter by Max Elliott:  Letter to the Editor

Please learn more about the proposal, sign our petition, donate, discuss your concerns with Town Councillors and share information about the proposed development with your family, friends and neighbours.

If this development is sent to Council for approval, we will let you know the date of the first reading so that you can attend and let council know that you are concerned about this development. At first reading residents are not provided the opportunity to speak, however our presence will be important to demonstrate the concern of the community. Our opportunity to present our views to Council is to occur at a public hearing before the second reading. Because the developer has not submitted a proposal thus it will likely be a few months before it reaches Council.