The City of Calgary Emergency Operations Centre will be hosting a media briefing today, Tuesday, May 5th at 1:00 p.m. to discuss emergency preparedness week and flood readiness. It is anticipated that Mayor Nenshi, Chief Tom Sampson, and Sandra Davis from the City’s River Engineering team will be speaking. Where to watch it The media briefing can be streamed live on Calgary.ca/live as well as on The City’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. Regards, Your […]

To manage spring runoff, there will be a controlled increase in flow on the Elbow River for the next day or so. Water treatment operations are a significant driver around the need to increase flows to 50 cms on lower Elbow. Flows will appear elevated and are triggering a couple of pathway closures but should not be problematic. The official advisory from the City is below. Calgary issues boating advisory […]

This week Fort McMurray is experiencing exactly what has been weighing so heavily on our minds: a flood and evacuation during COVID-19. 15,000 people have been evacuated and emergency crews have performed more than 200 rescues in areas where people were ordered to leave. “This is, to my understanding, the worst flood that this region has experienced in 100 years… This is a one-in-100-year flood… Just unfortunately, it is this […]

The Tsuut’ina Nation have officially withdrawn all objections to the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1). This is HUGE news! The Tsuut’ina’s withdrawal of their Statement of Concern removes a significant regulatory barrier for Alberta Transportation and eliminates one of the larger opponents we’d expected to face at the public hearing. In the official notice dated April 1, 2020, the Tsuut’ina Nation declares: Tsuut’ina hereby withdraws all of its objections in relation […]

SR1 update: Federal review moves to Round 2, provincial hearing delayed, COVID-19 impacts We’ve been fairly quiet since our last Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir update in January, but plenty has been happening behind the scenes and there’s good news to report!  Federal regulatory review Finally! The Round 1 responses have been deemed complete and the Round 2 questions have been issued. AT’s submitted its final Round 1 responses in December 2019 and the Impact Assessment Agency […]

With both good news and bad news, the release of Budget 2020 has brought clarity to a few of our flood mitigation funding concerns. Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1) GOOD NEWS: The project remains fully funded to $432 million. The total capital plan funding for province-wide flood projects remains at $386 million, for the next four years, which is essentially the previous budgeted capital expenditure number less the almost $50 million […]

Canmore’s Cougar Creek debris and flood retention structure has received final approval from the province and construction on the project will begin this summer. As we said previously… See! Big upstream mitigation projects can get regulatory approval! This approval comes just over a year after the Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) review found the project to be in the public interest and issued its original approval in November 2018. The […]

Help shape and inform the 2020 provincial budget by completing a short three-question online survey by Friday, February 7 at 4:30 p.m. Complete the online survey here 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 step of the Bow River reservoir project. Read more: Budget concerns for flood mitigation projects—your input is needed […]

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 […]

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 […]