It’s official. Yesterday, following Monday’s throne speech, Premier Rachel Notley dropped the writ and announced Alberta’s provincial election will take place on April 16.

In recent weeks there has been a lot of media coverage on the issue of flood mitigation, with two stories gaining significant attention; first, the Federal government’s actual funding  of $168.5 million funding for the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1) and, subsequently, the Star Metro and Mayor Nenshi’s call-out of the UCP for their waffling on SR1, which comments mirror our own advocacy that the UCP must declare its definitive support for SR1 given how critical it is to Calgary’s and Alberta’s future.

On Tuesday the UCP issued a public statement about SR1. The full statement can be found on the UCP website.

“We will continue with the application before the Canadian Environment Assessment Agency for approval of SR1. This includes providing all of the necessary data to CEAA in support of the application for approval of SR1.

 

We will consult with all interested First Nations, including the Tsuut’ina, and consult with members of the general public, municipalities, and affected land owners.

 

If SR1 receives the requisite approval and the necessary aboriginal consultation has been completed, a United Conservative government will expedite construction of this project without delay.”

We’re glad and relieved to see this important development, in addition to the support that has long been stated from other parties already and the work done to date by the current government to move this project forward.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, it seems we can be confident that Alberta Transportation will continue to drive this project forward through the CEAA and NRCB regulatory processes, address concerns and issues as they arise, fairly treat affected landowners and, finally after much too long, protect this city and province from Elbow River flooding, before the next election in 2023.

CRCAG candidates survey

To provide clarity as the election approaches, we’ve issued surveys to all candidates for each party that represent ridings both in Calgary and at flood risk along the Bow and Elbow rivers, and to each party’s administration, on five key flood mitigation questions:

1. Do you support the completion of SR1 as soon as possible? If not, why not?
2. Are you supportive of acquiring the Springbank land required for SR1, even if that may require expropriation in some instances?
3. Do you have any concerns that SR1 is not the appropriate first project for the Elbow River, and if so please provide reasons and elaborate if you support an alternative project and why?
4. Are you supportive of, and will you be an advocate for, ensuring all upstream mitigation projects required to fully protect Calgary from flooding on the Bow River are pursued with urgency? If not – why not?
5. Do you support the continuation of the Alberta Community Resilience Program (ACRP) and the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program (WRRP)?

We expect to receive responses back before the end of the month and will share them with you directly and post them on our website and social channels. 

City of Calgary candidates survey

Additionally, the City of Calgary has launched yycmatters.ca (formerly CitiesMatter.ca) to capture where provincial parties stand on important municipal issues, including two questions on flood mitigation specifically. 

 
Question : Constructing SR1 as soon as possible

  
Question: Committing to upstream flood mitigation and water storage on the Bow River 

The city has asked parties to respond to the questionnaire by April 1. Survey responses will be posted online at yycmatters.ca.

 
If you have questions or comments, please reach out to us at info@crcactiongroup.com.

 
Regards,
 

Your CRCAG Board