Our 2019 Annual General Meeting took place last Thursday evening, with speakers from the province and city bringing us up to speed on the status of upstream and local mitigation efforts.
(Note: This event took place 4 days before Premier Kenney’s comments earlier this week – stay tuned for our official response to that matter.)
CRCAG board member Greg Johnson headed up the evening, welcoming everyone and giving thanks to the elected officials in attendance (thanks to Minister Ric McIver, Minister Doug Schweitzer, and Councilor Jeromy Farkas).
Tony Morris followed with the Co-president’s message saying that “…when the Springbank Reservoir is built, as it must be, and when the Bow is properly mitigated, everyone here will have had a hand in that, if we stay engaged and active.” You can read Tony’s full statement here.
This year we replayed David Allen’s video After the Flood – Our Journey for the new ministers to see. As we’ve said before, no measure of eloquence can match its powerful message.
Additionally, we looped a couple of other videos as people took their seats, available here:
- Raw Aerial Footage of Calgary, Alberta Flooding – June 21, 2013
- Calgary Floods 2013 21 June Bow River Downtown Center Street and NW Bowmont Park flood flooding
There were no changes to our board or committees this year, but volunteers were recognized nonetheless.
CRCAG Board of Directors
- Brenda Leeds Binder, Co-preseident
- Tony Morris, Co-president
- Anna Mravcak, Treasurer
- David Carlson
- Steve Forrest
- Simon Geoghegan
- Greg Johnson
- Emma May
- Rob Nieuwesteeg
Bow River Committee
- Rob Nieuwesteeg
- Charlie Lund
- Jean Woeller
Regulatory Committee
- Lauren Bell
- Simon Geoghegan
- Rachel Kolber
- Rob Motherwell
Following the CRCAG finance report, we heard from Flood Free Calgary spokesperson Paul Battistella, who thanked new business and community members who recently joined the group in support of upstream flood mitigation. Find out who is an FFC supporter and how you can join here.
Next, we began to hear from our elected officials. First with a heartfelt video message from Mayor Naheed Nenshi who regrettably was unable to attend in-person.
Alberta’s Minister Justice and Solicitor General and MLA for Calgary-Elbow, Hon. Doug Schweitzer emphasized that flood mitigation is not a partisan issue and gave credit to his Calgary-Elbow predecessor, Greg Clark, for his tireless work on this file.
Minister of Transportation Hon. Ric McIver then spoke briefly with a strong message of commitment to SR1 and an acknowledgment that “you just don’t fill a room with this many people unless it is important.”
Additional presentations from the province and city followed, with (what was perhaps a highlight of the evening) the reveal of the three short-listed Bow River upstream reservoir project options.
You can download the AGM materials from all presenters here:
- 2018 CRCAG AGM – CRCAG
- [no slides] – Hon. Minister Ric McIver, Minister of Transportation
- Bow River Water Management Options Project – Blackwood, Assistant Deputy Manager, Strategy Division Environment and Parks
- Local Flood Mitigation Update – Frank Frigo, River Engineering Group, Watershed Planning, Water Resources, City of Calgary Water Resources
- [speaker panel] – Crystal Damer, Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Policy Division, Alberta Transportation
Following the formal presentations, we invited speakers to the front for a Q&A panel moderated by our Co-president, Brenda Leeds Binder. Response highlights included:
- Alberta Transportation’s IR responses have been thorough and professional but a file of this size and complexity is not done quickly or easily; they’re working very hard.
- Consultation is key to avoid court challenges. Also, SR1 is being assessed using pre-C69 standards.
- Alberta Transportation can not provide and updated SR1 timeline at this time.
- Funding for the feasibility study (phase 2) of the Bow River Water Management Options Project could be included in the upcoming budget or it could be found by reallocating money or it could result in a delay, at this point AEP does not know.
Media in attendance included CBC and Global News. All major outlets had been notified of the event and invited to attend.
Thank you to the (apx 200) members who attended, the volunteers that orchestrated the event, and to the Royal Canadian Legion #1 for graciously hosting us.
Want more? Read our tweets from the night and check out the photos!
If you have any questions or comments for us, please reach out to us at info@crcactiongroup.com.
Thanks,
Your CRCAG Board