We are the Calgary River Communities Action Group. Our goal is to work with all three levels of government as they help us recover from the most devastating natural disaster that has ever impacted Calgary.

We are the bridge between our past and the possibility of our future.

Calgary was founded on the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. It’s river communities are vibrant mixed use districts that border the downtown core where 44% of all Calgarians work.

Our river communities are the heart and soul of our city and it must be a priority of all three levels of government that they retain their integrity.

We are a group of dedicated and diverse volunteers from all of Calgary’s impacted communities who fundamentally believe in the following:

• We believe there should be a clear commitment on behalf of all three levels of government to flood prevention infrastructure for Calgary and other vulnerable communities in Alberta.
• We seek to maintain the fundamental integrity of our established communities.
• We seek policy and means by which property and value can be restored.

Public input creates sound policy.

We are currently establishing our organizational chart. We have a steering committee composed of the organization’s founders and representatives from impacted communities across Calgary. We have also identified three main sub-groups. These groups shall work to make recommendations to our governments that are based on science, economics and community fabric. In order to assist us in focusing our efforts we have also identified professional experts who will be able to consult for us.

Flood Prevention

This group will advocate for and explore upstream and downstream flood mitigation infrastructure which will prevent our Calgary, the economic engine of western Canada, from flooding.

Policy

This group will advocate for changes to policies that interfere with fundamental property rights and expectations. It will also advocate to ensure that our established neighbourhoods retain their integrity. Another policy review area is to explore the expectations placed on individual homeowners with regards to flood mitigation building proposals.

Alternative Mitigation Models

This group will explore and advocate for models such as flood insurance.

We anticipate using crowd sourcing and survey technology to help us engage more citizens in our discussion.

We expect this website will be a work in progress. We have a page dedicated to sharing resources and links to important information. We will post news and information as it becomes available. We will have a FAQ page where we will post questions and responses that the City and Province have dedicated to getting us. 
And we will have a page just called “Why”. This page is dedicated to the reasons why flood prevention infrastructure must be our governments’ priority.

We also want this moment to clarify a few things that we have decided are beyond out scope.

We will not:

• Represent commercial property owners
• Represent any business interest
• Provide any individual advocacy or funding – legal, financial, insurance or otherwise
• Participate in any overt legal action
• Promote trade, vendors, professional services or political parties
• Provide any overt corporate sponsorship