JANUARY
An Alberta Parks-led visitor survey focused on the Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country found a need to develop visitor use management strategies to address overcrowded parking lots, insufficient visitor facilities and degradation of designated trails, particularly during larch season from September-October.
Kananaskis Improvement District budget discussions continue with a proposed five per cent tax increase on the table.
FEBRUARY
Goat Creek Day use area reopens following a nearly year-long closure to improve trails, parking and public transit access to support a future Roam transit route. Grassi Lakes stays closed, however, due to a recent rockfall and ongoing hazard.
MARCH
The province estimated it was on track to collect about $11 million from the Kananaskis Conservation Pass in 2022-23, with 4.2 million visitors to K-Country in 2022. From June 2021-22, in the pass’s first year, it collected $12 million.
A 20-unit glamping development by Skyridge Glamping Ltd. proposed for a 2.83-hectare site in the Kananaskis Country Public Land Use Zone off Highway 40 is appealed by Kananaskis resident Ken Hoover and Îyârhe Nakoda First Nation elder Una Wesley over concerns for bear and other wildlife habitat, and Indigenous cultural and ceremonial rights. The appeal is referred to the Land and Property Rights Tribunal.
KID council passes a 4.5 per cent tax increase with protective services, utilities and garbage and recycling making up the bulk of the increase.
APRIL
The province announces $15.1 million for provincial parks capital projects in Kananaskis Country in its 2023 budget, including $1.7 million for road resurfacing in Spray Valley Provincial Park and to maximize capacity and decrease the environmental footprint of Spray Lakes West Campground.
Alberta Parks announces plans to burn 8,000 hectares of the Ribbon Creek drainage beginning in fall 2023 to create a fire break that will safeguard nearby communities, resources and infrastructure such as the Ribbon Creek day use area and Nakiska Ski Resort.
The Land and Property Rights Tribunal denies appeals to a 20-unit glamping development by Skyridge Glamping Ltd. in Kananaskis Country, citing bear habitat and migration were sufficiently addressed during the provincial approval process and that Indigenous cultural and ceremonial concerns would be better addressed by subsequent land assessments.
The province closes the popular Prairie Mountain Trail for construction to designate the trail as an official, maintained route with support from the Friends of Kananaskis Country. The project is pegged at $700,000 and is part of a $1.3 million provincial investment to refurbish trails and amenities in the Kananaskis Public Land Use Zone, including design work to refurbish the Powderface Trail.
MAY
Kananaskis Improvement District and MD of Bighorn councils agree to jointly pursue a public transit feasibility study to enable better accessibility to residents, improve worker retention and advance environmental sustainability where gaps in current transit systems exist in the region.
A communications lockdown after the writ dopped on the provincial election prevents Alberta Parks from discussing rescue efforts in Kananaskis Country, raising concerns on public safety during one of the busiest times of year for outdoor recreation in the region.
A 27-year-old Edmonton resident was found in medical distress and died on the scree at the base of a cliff off East End of Rundle on May 28.
JUNE
The Banff-Kananaskis riding elects NDP’s Sarah Elmeligi as MLA succeeding UCP MLA Miranda Rosin in the May 29 provincial election. Official election results had Elmeligi secure 11,562 votes, or 49.7 per cent of the vote, with Rosin as a close second with 11,259 votes, or 48.4 per cent. Also running were Regan Boychuk for the Green Party (336 votes) and Solidarity Movement of Alberta’s Kyle Jubb (105 votes).
JULY
Alberta Parks, the Friends of Kananaskis Country and the Canmore and Area Mountain Bike Association unveil the new Cloudline Trail – a multi-use trail extending about five kilometres eastward from the Highline Trail in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park.
Six people died in a plane crash in Kananaskis Country en route from Springbank Airport to Salmon Arm B.C. aboard a Piper PA-32 on July 28. A Royal Canadian Armed Forces rescue squadron located the overdue aircraft’s emergency transmitter at the crash site on Mount McGillivray. All aboard were pronounced dead on scene. An investigation into the crash by the Transportation Safety Board continues.
AUGUST
A plan by West Fraser Timer (formerly Spray Lake Sawmills) to log 1,100 hectares of forest in the Upper Highwood of Kananaskis Country raises alarm bells for conservationists and recreationists over concerns of loss of recreation areas and habitat degradation of at-risk bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout found in the adjacent Highwood River and tributaries.
Alberta Parks announces plans for a redesign of Spray Lakes West Campground, returning habitat for bears and other species to move through the narrow Smith-Dorrien Valley, and aimed at reducing human-bear conflicts. The campground is expected to reopen at the end of June 2024 and will shrink from five kilometres along Spray Lakes Reservoir’s west side to 1.5 kilometres. The project adds 15 new campsites for a total of 65.
SEPTEMBER
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada begins an investigation into West Fraser Timber building a bridge across the Highwood River to access 1,100 hectares of logging area in the Upper Highwood after it failed to obtain a permit to do so, despite the presence of at-risk fish species in the river.
OCTOBER
Provincial appointment terms end for KID Couns. Erum Afsar and Darren Enns, leaving KID council with four members. The ministry of forestry and parks, which appoints two councillors to represent Alberta citizens-at-large to KID council, announced new appointments will be made soon but did not provide a timeline.
NOVEMBER
KID council forms a governance and priorities committee (GPC) and announces every second KID meeting in 2024 will be a GPC meeting to promote more council discourse before making decisions at regular meetings.
A 29-year-old man from Squamish, B.C. is fully buried and killed in an avalanche Nov. 11 at the base of Ranger Creek– an ice climbing route in Kananaskis Country located in the Ranger Creek drainage. The man’s climbing partner was partly buried but able to dig themselves out.
Anita Szuster resigns from her position as KID councillor representing non-commercial residents or ratepayers after she leaves her other job and is unable to find housing in Kananaskis, leaving three people on a council of six. A byelection will take place in the new year.
DECEMBER
Design hurdles delay the opening of the $17.5 million Trans-Canada Highway wildlife overpass east of Canmore initially set for completion in fall 2023 to summer 2024.
Initial debate of Kananaskis Improvement District council’s 2024 budget forecasts a 6.2 per cent tax decrease due to tax stabilization contributions from reserves last year and increasing property assessment values. Council requested the budget be smoothed out to balance with a forecasted double-digit tax increase in 2025. Budget debate will resume in January.
