Alberta’s Finance Minister Honourable Travis Towes is holding a telephone town hall tonight, and Albertans are invited to provide feedback to help shape and inform the provincial budget. This is an excellent opportunity to get vocal about prioritizing budget money to support flood mitigation projects. Remember, Budget 2019 saw a serious reduction in the Alberta Community Resilience Program funding allocation for Calgary and no money budgeted to proceed to the next […]
Calgary’s new arena: High flood risk without Springbank Reservoir
This month, the City of Calgary made public its agreements with Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC) for the arena deal approved last July. It’s no secret that the land slated for the new arena is in the floodplain, and that could end up costing the City — and taxpayers — significantly. Unless we’re protected like we should be. Unless the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1) is built, that is. The […]
2019 recap and what to expect in 2020
With 2019 behind us, we’ve compiled a quick recap of what the year brought and a preview of what to anticipate in 2020. 2019 recap Provincial election In the lead-up to the provincial election in April, we surveyed each party on key flood mitigation issues and put pressure on those who had not yet declared publically their commitment to SR1. Related to these efforts, in January we formed a coalition […]
Report on Bow River reservoir options expected in early-2020
As part of the Bow Basin Water Management Options (BBWMO) project, Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) has spent the past year working through the conceptual assessment of 10 upstream reservoir options. In September, AEP announced the three shortlisted reservoir options, hosted public information sessions, and solicited public feedback. The final report on the first phase – the conceptual assessment – of the BBWMO project is expected in Q1 2020. Phase 2 […]
Remaining SR1 responses filed with federal regulator, provincial review moves to Round 2
Alberta Transportation has submitted responses to all Round 1 SR1 information requests from the federal regulator, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC). It is expected that these latest responses (to the IAAC’s July 16, 2019 deficiency questions) will satisfy the regulator. If so, the Round 1 information requests will be considered complete and ready for review. The following is a notice provided by Alberta Transportation: On June 14, 2019, […]