JANUARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a break from his busy life over the holidays to hide away at a remote backcountry lodge in Banff National Park with friends and family. He stayed at Skoki Lodge and skied at Lake Louise ski hill before travelling on to continue his vacation in Golden, B.C.
A local family of four was left without a roof over their heads following a basement fire Jan. 1. Nicole Lyon and her three children were at home when her 19-year-old son woke up to the smell of smoke in his room. Banff firefighters knocked the fire down, but enough smoke had wafted through the rest of the house to cause extensive damage to the family’s furniture, appliances and clothing.
Plans to tear down an A-ranked heritage home in Banff linked to prominent arts and drama promoter Margaret Greenham to make way for a new housing development has brought the issue of heritage preservation to the political level. Council asked administration to investigate policy options for a comprehensive plan to protect important heritage properties in the future.
It’s not every day a Mountie on patrol gets to deal with a wild cougar in downtown Banff. Constable Julien Cloutier-Jodoin pulled over a driver in the early morning hours of Jan. 9 on Marten Street near Banff IGA when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, only to see a cougar on the sidewalk just two metres away. The police officer followed the cougar to Banff Avenue, where he witnessed it travel close enough to the Ptarmigan Hotel’s door sensor to open automatic door.
Catholic-based healthcare facilities operated by Covenant Health, including Banff’s Mineral Springs Hospital, won’t participate or provide Canadians’ rights to medically assisted dying. According to its policy, the healthcare provider will support people in its care by providing them with more information about palliative and hospice care.
A Bow Valley man was lucky to survive after being swept away and buried deep beneath an avalanche on a slope on the Simpson slide paths for about 20 minutes as friends frantically tried to rescue him. The 57-year-old man was buried in an upright position, with his head about 1.5 metres below the surface. People buried that deep often don’t survive, as it takes a long time to dig them out.
FEBRUARY
Councillor Corrie DiManno found herself in hot water after she failed to declare she had a pecuniary interest in a matter before council that could affect her employer – the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission. Moving forward, she promised to declare a conflict of interest on any transit issues.
When Keri Martens joined the Lake Louise Fire Department in 1999 she never intended to be a champion for women in what is a traditional male dominated profession. But 18 years later, Martens, who is believed to be among the first dozen female fire chiefs in the country, was elected as the female board member with the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. Since then, Martens has become Canmore’s deputy fire chief.
Two backcountry skiers were flown by STARS air ambulance to Calgary with critical injuries from two separate avalanches on Feb. 25. A 29-year-old Calgary man was skiing a couloir with a friend when a small avalanche knocked him 300 metres down a steep gully north of Taylor Lake, leaving him with critical head and chest injuries. In the other incident, a 44-year-old man was skiing in a group of six near Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park when an avalanche pushed him into a tree, which in turn impaled his chest.
MARCH
Canmore man Lockie Hughes was killed in Kootenay National Park after falling into a tree well while backcountry skiing near Floe Lake March 1.
Council decides to replace loud firework with special effect pyrotechnics for Banff’s Canada Day, Halloween and New Year’s Eve celebrations to lessen the stress on wildlife.
An aerial gondola from Mount Norquay to the Banff townsite is no longer pie-in-the-sky now that the Waterous family has taken over full ownership of the local ski hill through their personal financial holding company, Liricon Capital. Adam and Jan Waterous want to develop a 600-stall intercept parking lot as part of major redevelopment plans for lands they lease from Canadian Pacific Railway at the train station. After a series of appeals from neighbouring properties, the Waterous’ were given permission to develop a 493-stall park-and-ride lot.
For the first time, the Municipal Planning Commission turned down development permit renewals for three bed and breakfast operations for renting more bedrooms than legally allowed. Thea’s House at 138 Otter St., Riverside B&B at 220 Bow Ave. and a B&B at 213 Otter St. all had their permits pulled. After a number of appeals the B&Bs got permission to reopen once meeting rules and regulations.
Resident Alanna Pettigrew’s drive to create change in her community was honoured by YWCA Banff as part of its Change Makers event on International Women’s Day. Pettigrew is the founder of Banff Food Rescue. Dr. Elizabeth Hall-Findlay and Lorraine Widmer-Carson also received the distinction for women in the community who are contributing to lasting, positive change.
The first grizzly bear sighting of the year was March 24 along the Bow Valley Parkway near Backswamp. It was believed to be grizzly bear No. 122, also known as The Boss.
Between 10 and 20 cubic metres of raw sewage spilled into the Spray River, which connects to the Bow River. Town of Banff crews doing regular inspections of manholes discovered the discharge March 22 at the manhole for the Banff Springs Hotel catchment. Park law enforcement, aquatics and wildlife staff directed the cleanup, while a vacuum truck was used to unclog the pipe.
APRIL
A female skier was lucky to survive after being buried for up to 20 minutes in 3.5 metres of avalanche debris near Moraine Lake. A group of three skiers was ascending a slope on the southeast side of Sentinel Pass when the led skier triggered a size 2.5 avalanche. The slide dragged one of the skiers 200 metres down the face of the mountain.
Prominent Banff businessman, conservationist and municipal councillor Peter Poole lost his legal fight over development decisions and Banff’s residential population cap. The Federal Court of Canada dismissed a request by Poole for a judicial review.
MAY
Nine dead ducks were found entangled in fish nets in Johnson Lake. As Parks Canada staff began removing some of the gill nets used to catch fish for the whirling disease project, they found a hooded merganser and goldeneyes. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, staff worked on morning and evening shifts, cutting and removing nets and working to haze any ducks away.
A body found near Banff is identified as that of missing Whistler man, William “Willy” Lynskey. Thee hikers came across his remains in the Lake Minnewanka area. In March, Lynskey’s mother Heather was in Banff looking for her 22-year-old son, who had been missing since April 2017 when he took a Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Edmonton.
A black bear killed a dog that jumped out of the window of a vehicle along the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park. The dog owner had pulled over to view the bear when the dog jumped out of the window and barked and chased the bruin, before it turned on the dog. The owner tried to save his Blue Heeler by jumping on the bear and wrestling it.
A study of mountain goats is underway in Banff and Yoho national parks. Parks Canada has put 10 GPS tracking collars on 20 goats – 10 in Yoho where twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway is ongoing and 10 more in the Slate Range where Lake Louise ski hill is located and has massive redevelopment plans.
JUNE
A lone hiker had a lucky escape after he surprised a female grizzly bear and her cub along the Lake Minnewanka shoreline. A bear cub dashed across the trail about four metres in front of the Cochrane man as he hiked about one kilometre inside the park boundary, followed quickly by the female, which charged and took a swipe at his backpack. The bear bit into the bear spray canister and bit the man’s hand, but then took off when the bear spray deployed.
Parks Canada releases draft development and use guidelines for Sunshine Village, which includes a second gondola from the base to the village, a permanent day lodge at Goat’s Eye, development of more lifts and terrain, additional commercial space and a parkade or terraced parking at the base. Sunshine, however, wants a gondola from the base to Goat’s Eye and creation of more parking off-site. Sunshine also wants to relocate its summer use program to Goat’s Eye.
The Town of Banff’s future use of the library and seniors centre beyond 2030 is uncertain. The Peter and Catharine Whyte Foundation has the head lease on the land at 101 Bear St., and it subleases it to the municipality. The foundation has indicated the lease is not perpetual, prompting council to direct administration to secure a sublease agreement until 2030 and continue seeking a longer term solution.
Managing human use as a way to provide safe and secure habitat for wildlife such as grizzly bears in the busy and developed Bow Valley is a key recommendation in the highly anticipated Bow Valley human-wildlife coexistence report. The task force recommended 28 actions to reduce the probability and severity of wildlife encounters throughout the valley.
The community of Banff mourned the loss of one of its talented young photographers, Matt Snell, who stumbled and fell 25 to 40 metres to his death on Tunnel Mountain. He was on Le Soulier (The Shoe), a popular multi-pitch route.
A coyote that denned under a deck on Glen Ave. in the Banff townsite has been attacking dogs in a defensive act to protect her pups. In one incident, a resident was riding her bike with her dog on leash on Glen Ave. when the coyote ran towards them and bit the dog.
Well-known and beloved Banffite Dorothy Carleton passed away peacefully at the Bow-Crest Care Centre in Calgary on June 30, at age 98. The death of the former war bride and a wife of a backcountry warden marked the end of an era.
JULY
A wolf collared for research purposes in Banff National Park fell off a cliff and died. The carcass of the female wolf was found at the bottom of a cliff in the north fork of the Cascade River Valley at an elevation of 2,318 metres.
A bear that trampled a tent in Banff’s backcountry forced the evacuation and closure of the entire shoreline and all campgrounds along Lake Minnewanka. A couple returned to their tent after cooking dinner to discover a bear had tried to get into the tent.
Three black bear cubs found locked inside a public washroom near Vermilion Lakes last year were released into the wilds of Banff National Park. Later in September, one of the three female yearlings was eaten by another bear, but the other two made it safely into their dens in fall.
The Lake O’Hara Trails Club recommended a lottery system be set up for the day use quota at Lake O’Hara – one of the region’s treasured gems. With the entire season selling out within minutes of the online reservation system opening April 1, the group says the online booking system had led to frustration and a perception of unfairness by many users. Parks Canada is exploring options to allocate the limited daily spaces on the bus.
AUGUST
Thunderstorms hitting the Canadian Rockies in early August resulted in multiple wildfires in and around Banff National Park. One fire near Lake Louise was promptly snuffed out, with others fires burning throughout summer in Kootenay National Park.
Banff’s bison herd was released from a fenced pasture into the wilds of Banff National Park within a 1,200 square kilometre reintroduction zone with strategic fencing. Not too long after, two male bison bolted onto provincial lands. Parks Canada killed one and relocated the other to Waterton Lakes
National Park.
In a bid to restore a threatened westlope cutthroat trout population, Parks Canada dumped 1,700 litres of rotenone, a naturally occurring plant-based chemical, into Hidden Lake near Lake Louise to kill non-native brook trout. The chemical is widely used in fisheries management across North America to kill non-native fish.
A typically wary wolf wandered into a campground where she walked within a metre of two people sleeping under the stars. The incident at Castle Mountain campground prompted Parks Canada to issue a warning for the Bow Valley Parkway.
SEPTEMBER
Brewster, a prominent Banff business now known as Pursuit, was fined $10,000 in court after pleading guilty to charges related to a female black bear getting into garbage at its boat tour operation at Lake Minnewanka.
The last of 10 pregnant bison gave birth to a calf in Banff’s backcountry. It was first spotted at the end of September. Banff’s herd now consists of 10 adult females, four adult bulls, 10 yearling and 10 calves for a total of 34 bison.
OCTOBER
A 52-year female bus driver was struck and killed by her bus in the parking lot of the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre. Yumiko Taura was a driver for Canada Coach Lines.
While public consumption or vaping of pot is banned in the Town of Banff, it was allowed throughout Banff National Park as of Oct. 17 when recreational cannabis became legal in Canada. People can now smoke or vape weed in public areas in the hamlet of Lake Louise, all day-use areas and trails. However, it will be limited to visitor’s campsite within campgrounds.
Residents struggling to find affordable housing in Banff got some much needed relief, thanks to a $3.95 million in federal and provincial funding for the YWCA’s Courtyard Project. The $9 million housing project will use shipping containers to build a 33-unit, three-storey building that will provide affordable rental housing for up to 78 residents of Banff.
NOVEMBER
A group of contractors who helped complete a multimillion dollar renovation project at the Banff Centre had to absorb $450,000 in losses as part of a negotiated settlement to solve a legal dispute between Bird Construction and the Banff Centre. In a letter obtained by the Outlook, Bird Construction told contractors it reluctantly accepted a $1.3 million loss for cost overruns and missed deadlines related to the renovation of Lloyd Hall.
One of Banff’s treasured heritage homes is getting a makeover. The McLeod/Crosby Residence got approval from Municipal Planning Commission to be run by the new owners as a bed and breakfast home. The heritage property was built in 1931.
The Cascade Plaza shopping mall is under new ownership. Atlas Development Corporation, a privately-owned commercial real estate development company based in Calgary, purchased the mall from Investors Group.
A rebate is being offered for studded bicycle tires in a bid to get more residents riding in winter. Council allocated up to $5,000 to fund up to 100 studded bike tires.
Local dog owners may be thrown a bone with a proposal to develop a new off-leash dog park on the south side of the Bow River. Banff’s budget allocated $85,000 for an off-leash dog park at the recreation grounds, but while it could still be built at the rec grounds, there’s also a suggestion it be built in the forest between Middle Springs and Cave Avenue next year.
Lake Louise ski hill was fined $2.1 million for cutting down endangered whitebark pine trees. Charges were laid under the Canada National Parks Act and the Species At Risk Act. The ski hill, which pleaded guilty to chopping down a patch of trees between Aug. 12 and Sept. 23, 2013, is appealing the fine.
DECEMBER
The Town of Banff has been live trapping ground squirrels in the Old Banff Cemetery to try to prevent ongoing damage. Under a special permit from Parks Canada, the squirrels are relocated elsewhere in the park. A three-foot screen was also been installed around the old cemetery and Mountainview Cemetery in a bit to keep the critters out.
A wolf collared for research purposes in Banff National Park was trapped and killed on neighbouring provincial lands. The death of this female wolf follows the loss of another collared female from the Cascade-Panther pack that fell off a cliff in the Cascade River Valley in early summer. Only one wolf remains in this pack.
