Mason: Regulatory process is underway, Alberta Transportation is analyzing Springbank Project timeline

Earlier this month, MLA Greg Clark for Calgary-Elbow had the opportunity to question Transportation Minister Brian Mason about the Springbank Project.

Find out what the Minister said about project timelines, regulatory status, land acquisition, relations with the Tsuut’ina Nation and more in Greg’s letter to his constituents, shared below.

Read the full transcript of their conversation here.

Regards,

Your CRCAG Board

CALGARY-ELBOW UPDATE
The following is an update to constituents sent out by the MLA for Calgary-Elbow, Greg Clark, who has consented to us sharing his message with all CRCAG members.

Dear neighbour,

Every year when the budget is released we have the opportunity to question each minister on the plans for their department. This allows me to ask directly and on the record about the status of the Springbank Off-stream Reservoir project.

I have attached the full transcript of my questions and Minister Brian Mason’s answers if you’re interested, but I have also included a summary of the highlights below.

As always, I am interested in hearing your perspective on this issue or any other. Rest assured I will continue to push the province to build this critical project as quickly as possible.

You can reach my office any time at Calgary.Elbow@assembly.ab.ca or (403) 252-0346.

G.

1. There is $130 million budgeted this year (of the $372 net cost of the project). It will be used to support the regulatory process and for land acquisition, should any landowners agree to sell further parcels to the province.
2. Only three quarter sections have been acquired to date, which is the same as this time last year. That represents approximately 13% of the total land area required. The province continues to negotiate with landowners and no decisions about expropriation have been made, although I did push the minister to find ways of expropriating sooner rather than later.
3. The province has submitted the updated regulatory filing and are hopeful the process will move forward at the end of April. However, the provincial regulator also has questions about the filing, which the province will respond to shortly. I do not anticipate we will see regulatory hearings before this summer at the earliest.
4. They are still holding to their timeline that SR1 will be partially complete for the spring of 2021 (mitigation to a 1-in-100 level) and fully completed by the spring of 2022 (mitigation to a 2013 flood level), but the are also conducting a detailed timeline review that will consider the potential impact of regulatory delays, possible court challenges and any opposition from Tsuut’ina. This causes me great concern that the timeline may slip further, but at present, they are sticking to their timelines. They committed to reporting the findings of the timeline review in a matter of months.
5. To attempt to address the timeline issues they have created a Deputy Minister’s working group focussed exclusively on SR1 consisting of the departments of Transportation, Environment, Justice and Treasury Board. This tells me they’ve put a high priority on the project, and it may mean they are looking to start the expropriation process earlier.
6. Minister Mason believes the ring road bridge design is adequate, will withstand any foreseeable flooding and will not exacerbate Elbow River flood risk downstream.