Chip Olver is celebrating her 20th anniversary this March as a Banff town councillor. Olver was elected in a by-election in 1994 and has been involved in some of the biggest decisions that have shaped the Town of Banff.
“The time has flown by, I can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” said Olver. “It’s kind of like when you look at your kids and people’s children and you know they were infants a moment ago and now they’re adults, you just go, ‘how did that happen so fast?’”
Mayor Karen Sorensen said Olver deserves a special thank you for 20 years of public service.
“I always appreciate Chip’s thoughtful process as she makes decisions ‘at the table.’ I have come to depend on her knowledge of past council history and how some policies came to be,” she said.
“Currently all of council takes the environment into consideration when making decisions, but Chip’s environmental filter has been with her since the beginning and she consistently brings a strong environmental stewardship message to council meetings.”
There are several decisions that stand out for Olver in her career, including those around safety.
“The two that pop to my mind are the pedestrian crosswalk at Moose Street, where kids are going to school, or the crosswalk up at Valley View to get cars to slow down,” she said. “You know, there were some near misses and not misses that happened there – so those decisions about safety I feel really good about.”
Perhaps the biggest issue to ever face the national park townsite was the controversial discussion in the mid-1990s on commercial development, which led to a moratorium of development and a plebiscite.
In the end, council of the day opted to go with an additional 850,000 square feet of commercial development. But in 1998, the federal government stepped in amid concerns that growth was hurting the environment, declaring there could be no more than 350,000-sq. ft of additional commercial growth.
“Yes, it was very challenging. That was when we were doing the community plan and the Land Use Bylaw and there was discussion in the community with really polar opposite opinions,” Olver said.
“What was the right additional amount of commercial square footage for our community? A commercial moratorium was put into place and the community wrestled with the answers to that,” she added.
“We had a potential of over two million potential feet of commercial development and that seemed more than the community wanted, but trying to take a number like that down to a number you can live with day to day was hard, because those numbers are so hard to conceptualize what they might mean.”
With a career built around being ahead of the curve towards environmental issues, Olver was asked if she would like that to be a part of her legacy.
“I’d be proud of that,” Olver said. “That is a focus in my life and I think it’s important; but you know you don’t do that to the exclusion of the economy or to the exclusion of quality of life, everything links in.
“I think because it’s a core value of mine, you see the importance of it in Banff. I think it’s a strong, healthy environment and one of the things that draws people to live and visit here. I think worldwide we need to pay attention to our environment, the carrying capacity of our earth.”
Olver is glad to see the environmental issues faced in the ‘90s are now considered the norm in the present.
“That’s fabulous, and not just here – it kind of goes with why people live here,” she said. “Respect for the environment is what drew many of us here, but to see it spill out across our country and across the world in terms of respecting where you live is wonderful.”
Municipal politics in Banff have always offered Olver a good dynamic at all levels of government to keep her interests high.
“I find it tremendously interesting and rewarding to be involved in municipal politics. You’re working and making changes in your own back yard – your community is your own back yard,” she said. “The support of my family helped me continue and the support of everyone that lives in town.”
Olver also played an important role in in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). “That was so interesting because you get to see not only where you’re different from other communities, but where you’re the same and to work on issues at the federal level really makes sense for Banff because we do have stronger ties at the federal level than most communities in Canada,” she said.
“There are some issues that are federal issues and one of the big financial impacts from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities was the gas tax rebate communities get. Recently, that was indexed so it grows; it’s not just a flat amount and it was committed to on a long-term basis,” Olver said.
“Usually it comes involved with a program and you apply for it because your goals match the program goals. Now, to get dollars where you get to makes choices makes it easier to do.”
