Town of Canmore staff are mourning the loss of a former colleague this week after news reached the community on Friday (Oct. 20) that one of the people killed in an ammonia leak incident in Fernie. B.C. used to live, work and play in the Bow Valley.
Lloyd Smith worked for the Town of Canmore for nine years as supervisor of facilities, and many people in the community knew him for his work at the Canmore Rec Centre.
Smith left Canmore in 2012 to work in Okotoks before moving to Fernie to work with that municipality’s facilities department. Smith was one of three identified as victims of an ammonia gas leak at Fernie Memorial Arena on Tuesday (Oct. 17).
Sally Caudill worked closely with Smith at the Town of Canmore, as both have spent time focused on municipal sustainability initiatives. Caudill said Smith was a hands-on supervisor – he wanted to work with staff to solve problems and create solutions to issues.
“He was a big problem solver,” she said. “He was one of the team and tried to support everybody.
“Lloyd was really on for sustainability. He cared about it and I think he did one of the very first building assessments to find where we could save money and efficiency.”
Smith was integral to introducing solar to the municipality’s facilities. It began in 2007 with grant-funded solar panels on the senior’s centre that were directly connected to the grid – one of only a handful at the time. The project was a gamechanger, as Smith said in 2009 when he helped install 10 solar panels on the roof of the Rec Centre to heat water needed for icemaking at the arenas.
“The biggest legacy of the project we are most proud of is prior to this, in order to connect to the grid people had to go through paperwork similar to building a nuclear generator,” Smith told the Outlook. “It is because of the work Climate Change Central did, we did and the group did, that this changed.”
Smith also introduced small system changes at the Town, in addition to bigger ones like solar. He created an office waste system that encouraged staff to recycle more than they put in the landfill.
Caudill said that is an example of the change that Smith brought with him to the workplace – looking at changing habits on the big and small scale.
Anyone who has enjoyed the Rec Centre’s comforts and community focus has the efforts of Smith to thank. He worked hard to make it feel welcoming, Caudill said, and recognize the community’s history.
In 2009, Smith partnered with the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre to archive historic photos of the facility and recreation in the community. The partnership resulted in an exhibit at the Rec Centre of the photos. The original photographs of Canmore’s hockey history, which includes teams like the famed-Trail Smoke Eaters, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Chicago Black Hawks, are safely stored and high-quality copies are on display still.
“In his heart, Lloyd was a hockey guy and a rink guy,” Caudill said. “He really loved the rink and he really wanted the Rec Centre to be a place that was comfortable, welcoming and had a sense of community.”
Along with the 52-year-old former Canmore resident, Fernie resident Wayne Allan Hornquist, 59, and Turner Valley resident Jason Donovan Podloski, 46, were killed. Podloski was a contractor called in to help Smith and Hornquist, who had recently celebrated 25 years working with the municipality as manager of facilities.
The three responded to an alarm at the arena that went off in the early morning, according to RCMP. It was just before 1 p.m. when a call for emergency assistance was made and Fire and EMS responded.
Ted Ruiter, director of fire and emergency services for the City of Fernie, said when crews arrived they encountered a bystander providing CPR outside the building. When they entered the arena, they located two additional victims, but because of the hazard created by the ammonia leak, the facility and neighbouring residences were evacuated.
A hazardous material team from Calgary and Worksafe B.C. responded to assist with the recovery of the bodies and investigation into the incident.
