CANMORE – Canmore council decisively sent an SOS to upper levels of government when it comes to the housing crisis the community is facing.
In approving its 2023-26 strategic plan on Tuesday (June 7), council passed three motions that included recognizing the community’s housing crisis and calling on the federal and provincial governments to assist in providing land, policy changes and funding to increase affordable housing in Canmore.
Coun. Tanya Foubert, who attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference in Regina last week, said Canmore is not the lone community facing the housing crunch.
“It may seem symbolic, but it’s absolutely necessary in order for us to continue and advance on advocacy. … We’re not alone and we like to think we’re super unique and I think we might actually have a lot in common with remote northern communities with the struggles in building income appropriate housing,” she said.
“It’s out there and the advocacy is happening. We’ll be joining it and it will be well worth our time and effort because I do believe the federal government wants to be there for municipalities to help on this issue.”
The declaration doesn’t exactly put out the white flag, but emphasizes the need for the three levels of government to work together to find a solution.
Coun. Jeff Mah said it “helps create a sense of alignment” between the three tiers of government and Mayor Sean Krausert, who brought forward the three motions, added it “sets [the] platform for advocacy work.”
The other two motions will have Town staff return to council in the fall with potential initiatives to explore helping affordability and to have a council workshop in June to look at options to increase additional affordable housing options.
Coun. Joanna McCallum, the longest serving member of council, stressed how important it is to put in motion potential plans to increase affordable housing in the community during this term of council.
She said money from the federal government has previously been left on the table by the provincial government that would have benefited the Bow Valley, while policy changes have also impacted municipalities.
“If we don’t make great strides in this term, we’ll have lost the plot,” she said. “There’ll be no turning back and I believe the time is now. I’m looking forward to having bold conversations with my colleagues to discuss initiatives that may not be popular with everybody, but we’ll certainly move the needle for housing affordability for people in our community.”
Town of Canmore CAO Sally Caudill called the adoption of the strategic plan – council’s guiding document for the next four years – an "exciting moment” for both council and staff moving forward with community plans and goals.
The plan focuses on livability, the environment and building relationships.
The livability goal focuses on providing services to help affordability to have people successfully move to the community, but also be able to remain and have employment opportunities and a living wage. The environment aspect prioritizes safe human-wildlife interactions, climate change and the ongoing work to have multi-modal transit options. Relationship building will look to work with the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, but also with all levels of government, businesses, not-for-profits and two-way communication with the public.
Much of the plan is derived by what council members heard from the public during the municipal election campaign and a 2021 citizen satisfaction survey used to find what community members wish to see.
Town council did planning sessions in February and March to finalize its goals for the coming years. The majority focus is on what can be achieved in the remainder of the term, but also how it will impact Canmore for 10 years and beyond.
“I’ve been really proud of how council and administration has worked together in the short time we’ve been together since the election,” Krausert said. “To come up with what I believe is a really good basis that we can launch over the next number of years, recognizing we need to move the needle in some areas, particularly in livability and affordability.
“This is going to be hard work and it’s going to need to be bold and intentional. I’m excited and it’s something not one of us can do on our own. It’s going to take a real team effort of council working with administration and working with the community. It’s our community and we’re working to move it to a place that is better than when we found it and use this time on council to really move that needle.”
