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The Year in Banff

January Parks Canada’s enforcement of a ban on parking in potentially hazardous avalanche terrain along the access road to Sunshine Village ski resort is upheld by the courts.
Transplanted bison charge into a holding area in Banff National Park.
Transplanted bison charge into a holding area in Banff National Park.

January

Parks Canada’s enforcement of a ban on parking in potentially hazardous avalanche terrain along the access road to Sunshine Village ski resort is upheld by the courts. Later in the month, Sunshine files an application for judicial review, asking the federal court to quash the ban on overflow parking along the upper three kilometres.

That review will be heard in federal court on Jan. 22, 2014.

A lynx, a rare and elusive animal found in the national parks, is struck and killed on the Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park. Parks Canada does not have a good handle on the lynx population.

Banff Caribou Properties wants to revitalize Banff’s historic railway station and surrounding lands, creating a satellite commercial district at the west entrance of the tourist town.

However, in September, Parks Canada raises some concerns, including whether the development could trigger the so-called reversionary clause that gives the federal government the right to take back or sell lands no longer being used for railway purposes. Banff council agrees to delay the public hearing.

Parks Canada announces its plan to delay mandatory closure of a 17-km stretch of Bow Valley Parkway every spring, instead continuing with the ineffective voluntary closure for another year. The closure aims to protect wildlife in the critical springtime. It’s due to happen next spring.

February

A motion-activated camera picks up four cougars feeding on a dead deer on Sulphur Mountain. A female and her kitten had a good feed before being chased off by two larger wild cats.

Council decides to allow retailers to display merchandise on Banff’s downtown public sidewalks in a bid to encourage more shoppers to go into stores as part of a pilot project to be launched in summer. A decision on whether or not to permanently lift a 20-year ban prohibiting businesses from displaying merchandise on Banff’s public sidewalks is in the new year.

GoPro cameras – technology used by skiers, surfers, mountain bikers and kayakers to record their adventures – are mounted on the front of trains to try to record how bears react and what they are doing – including if they are feasting on spilled grain – when a train hurtles toward them.

Melanie Kwong – Parks Canada CEO Alan Latourelle’s right hand for the previous four years – is the new superintendent of Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay.

March

Banff residents are told to expect to pay significantly higher taxes, due to a surprising school tax grab from the provincial government. The government removed a 12 per cent cap on equalized assessments for all municipalities and eliminated the national park preferential tax rate for Banff and Jasper as part of the provincial budget.

The Burgess Shale fossil beds have yielded many weird and wonderful creatures since their discovery in the early 1900s, but none are destined to elicit as many adolescent jokes as the 505-million-year-old worm that looks an awful lot like a penis with a really long tail.

The first of several bears fitted with GPS collars is out of the den. Bear 122, a large 700-pound bruin, went into his den Dec. 3 and began moving around March 27. The first visual sighting was March 31. Bear 122 was still out and about in December.

Banff’s maternity ward closes its doors at Mineral Springs Hospital despite a huge community outcry. The hospital cites patient safety among the reasons for closure because of a lack of labour and delivery nurses. Babies will now be born in neighbouring Canmore hospital.

With a 5-1 vote, Banff council defeats a motion to implement a quota system on chain stores in the mountain town and, for now, ends the debate surrounding the issue that has been ongoing for the past 20 years.

April

Fears are raised that a proposal to give businesses the right to transfer and sell existing commercial space may open the door for the potential to breach Banff’s legislated commercial development cap.

Parks Canada says the municipal bylaw requires further consideration and they won’t give their blessing unless they’re convinced measures are in place to protect the commercial growth cap.

Banff’s transportation master plan is released and concludes paid parking and an intercept parking facility outside the downtown core would go a long way toward fixing Banff’s traffic congestion and parking shortage.

A 35-year-old experienced ski mountaineer falls 35 metres to his death into a crevasse while descending a glacier on Mount Hector April 14.

Parks Canada wins a long-running court battle over what it sees as a Town of Banff attempt to expand its commercial footprint by allowing a lawyer’s office on lands zoned for public service. The decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal means Byron and Co. law office had to close its doors in May.

Council decides the long-awaited multi-million dollar redevelopment of Cave Avenue will go ahead in 2014. It will include two driving lanes and a sidewalk and streetlights on the north side of the road. Improvements will be made to the woodland trail.

A walk in the park turned into a nightmare for a 31-year-old Edmonton man who spent a frigid night huddled in a natural burrow lost on the outskirts of the Banff townsite. The man, who fell into a creek several times while stumbling around in the dark during a snowstorm, had severe frostbite on both feet.

May

Banff Mineral Springs Hospital feels the pain of provincial budget cuts. St. Martha’s Place continuing care facility will see a funding shortfall of more than $600,000.

Council gives the green light to several pilot projects to deal with parking and traffic troubles for busy summers. They include angle parking on Bow Avenue and the east side of the 100 block of Beaver Street, shortening of signal timings at traffic lights throughout the downtown, adding turning lanes at the junction of Buffalo and Bear streets among others.

The Cave and Basin National Historic Site - the birthplace of Canada’s national park system – re-opens after a two-year, $13.8 million renovation of the site.

The federal government approves summer use, including installation of cable-assisted climbing and hiking routes known as via ferrata, at Banff’s Mount Norquay. The approval of via ferrata and re-opening of the upper mountain teahouse and observation areas for summer use is part of the ski hill’s long-range plan.

A large area of the Banff townsite is closed as wildlife officials track a cougar that reportedly knocked a man to the ground during a predatory attack. The man said he fought the wild cat off with his skateboard. The man escaped without a scratch on him.

Council gives administration the green light to further investigate paid parking. Options for what paid parking might look like if implemented in the tourist town is expected back before council in early 2014.

Municipal Planning Commission approves a new 172-room hotel on on the 300 block of Banff Avenue, requiring demolition of the Arrow Motel, Driftwood Inn and Rundle Manor Apartments. The development by Banff Caribou Properties is one of the largest hotel developments since the federal government established a commercial growth cap.

June

The townsite of Banff escaped relatively unscathed during ravaging June floods that hit the region June 20, despite the flows of the Bow River through Banff blowing away the previous record.

Several hundred residents at Rocky Mountain Housing Cooperative on Birch Avenue were evacuated and areas near the Bow River, including Central Park, Bow Avenue, Banff recreation grounds and Warner Stables were flooded. Parts of the golf course were also under water.

The raging waters in Carrot Creek completely destroyed a two-lane bridge, shutting down the Trans-Canada Highway there, but Parks Canada worked around the clock in the lead-up to Canada Day celebrations to get the road re-routed and traffic flowing.

Backcountry trails and bridges were washed away as torrential rains from the Great Divide to the front ranges turned small mountain streams into raging, muddy torrents. Warner Guiding and Outfitting is forced to shut down its wilderness tenting trips in Banff National Park because ravaging floods washed out access trails. Sunshine’s base area and parking lot were hit hard by flooding Healy Creek and White Mountain Adventures could not run its summer guiding operation at Sunshine meadows this year because there was no access.

The Legacy Trail was badly damaged when TransAlta was forced to release water over the spillway at Lake Minnewanka for the first time ever, as the water levels continued to rise dangerously high.

Some of the grizzly bears captured in 2012 as part of a joint Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway project are re-captured because some GPS collars malfunctioned. Six of 13 collars had various glitches and problems, including battery lifespan.

Cory Lawrence Bitternose will remain behind bars indefinitely as a dangerous offender after the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a Crown appeal of his sentence.

In 2009, Bitternose pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats and dangerous operation of a vehicle in relation to a July 13, 2008 attack on two women in Banff.

Banff man Tim Bartlett got the ride of his life on his motorcycle when a wolf chased him down Highway 93 South in Kootenay National Park.

July

A massive fish salvage operation is mounted after thousands of fish are stranded when the spillway was shut off from Lake Minnewanka, causing the Cascade River to once again dry up.

The area is also closed on and off to people to give bears in the area a chance to feast on dead and dying fish.

Banff council decides mayor and council will be given a raise, to come into effect after the October municipal election, based on a recommendation from an independent compensation review committee.

Banff’s mayor now gets $77,000, up from $37,000, while councillors get a boost to $25,500 from $18,500.

A long-awaited housing study concludes a shortage of available and affordable rental options appear to be Banff’s most pressing housing needs. The $54,250 study determined there is not enough affordable rental housing and an emerging undersupply of staff accommodation as Banff’s economy improves and returns to previous levels.

Banff’s new $6.8 million pedestrian bridge across the Bow River is opened three months ahead of schedule and on budget.

August

While grizzly bears in Banff National Park typically have a vegetarian diet interspersed with the odd elk or moose dinner, a 600- to 700-pound grizzly called bear 122 added a twist to its menu - black bear. The big bruin hunted and consumed an entire black bear and a couple of weeks later caused closure of the Marble Canyon area, where he was feasting on an elk carcass believed killed by a wolf pack. In November, he consumed an entire elk that had drowned in the Bow River near the Banff townsite.

Ten oTENTiks wooden frame and canvas tents open at Two Jack lakeside campground as Parks Canada offers a different camping experience in its bid to encourage more people to camp in the mountains.

Municipal Planning Commission turns down a proposal by Rogers Communications Inc. to build a 35-metre high cell tower on Canadian Pacific Railway lands near the northeast entrance to town. Town administration and Parks Canada has raised concerns about aesthetics of the tower. The parties continue to work on another solution.

A new study determines that a significant portion of Banff’s grizzly bear population is using wildlife crossing structures to safely get across the busy Trans-Canada Highway and access important habitat.

September

Sunshine Village proposes a new and permanent day lodge at Goat’s Eye Mountain to replace existing Atco trailers. In October, Parks Canada’s advisory development recommends Parks Canada approve the lodge. In December, Parks Canada approves the lodge, with conditions, including a condition its meet higher water treatment standards.

A bold coyote that was seen dangerously close to a child playing in a Banff backyard ended up electrocuting itself on a power cord later that same day, Earlier, a groundskeeper at the Whiskey Creek condo complex was dragging a sprinkler and hose when a coyote came up and started making a hissing noise.

For the first time, Parks Canada offers a free shuttle service to Moraine Lake in a bid to avoid the chaos of previous years when thousands of visitors arrive to view larch trees in spectacular fall colour.

Banff National Park releases its draft bison re-introduction plan, which calls for re-introduction of 30 to 50 yearling and two-year-old bison, mostly females, to the Panther-Dormer River area of Banff National Park. The federal agency received close to 1,000 public comments on their plan.

The plan proposes 21 km of wire fence in small sections and a single six-km long drift - a barrier of deadfall and natural materials - throughout the 425-square km core zone, and possible expansion areas.

Banff politicians step away from forcing downtown retailers to close their doors during winter amid concerns the proposed legislation delved too deeply into private business practices.

It’s a first for Kootenay National Park. Three new wildlife underpasses and 4.6 km of fencing are complete in the park, and were open for animals to safely cross the highway at the end of September.

October

A plan to construct a $225,000 berm on the southern banks of the Bow River in Banff has been scrapped because flooding in June proved such a berm would be ineffective anyway at such high water levels.

It’s an election year and a strong tourism economy, affordable housing and fixing Banff’s transportation and parking problems are the most pressing issues raised in Banff’s municipal election.

Mayor Karen Sorensen wins a three-way race over Cynthia Anderson and Jim Abelseth, while council incumbents Brian Standish, Stavros Karlos, Chip Olver and Grant Canning are re-elected. Leslie Taylor and Paul Baxter decided not to seek re-election.

The new faces elected to council are Corrie DiManno, with the second highest number of votes behind only Karlos, and Ted Christensen.

The whereabouts of bear 64 - Banff’s most famous grizzly bear- are unknown. Her three two-and-a-half-year-old offspring are spotted on their own in several areas around the townsite.

Wildlife experts are hopeful the 24-year-old bear has simply kicked her offspring out on their own to fend for themselves and headed into the den, though there is always a chance something has happened to her.

A proposal to redevelop Banff’s rec grounds calls for a winter only off-leash dog area, a permanent skateboard park, construction of a new multi-purpose building and expansion of children’s play facilities.

November

Following an incident where a semi-trailer crashed into a rescue fire truck and an ambulance, Field’s fire department won’t be responding to highway accidents unless they are satisfied the roads have been properly maintained.

A few weeks later they modify the plan and say they will go if highway crews accompany them during treacherous conditions.

An independent audit concludes many of Canada’s national park ecosystems are in decline and Parks Canada’s large backlog of work and big budget cuts threaten to deteriorate ecological integrity even further.

The audit of the commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development found Parks has yet to assess the condition of 41 per cent of park ecosystems, while a third of those that have been assessed are in decline.

The Town of Banff gets set to issue a public tender to paid parking suppliers as part of an investigation into options on how user-pay parking could be introduced to ease the tourist town’s crippling parking and traffic troubles. The intent is to bring recommendations for paid parking to council in January, with the idea of beginning a trial in time for next summer should some form of paid parking get political support.

Several elk perished after falling through the ice on the Bow River upstream of the Banff townsite, despite a massive effort by Parks Canada to save them. Seven elk died, including two that wildlife experts euthanized after it became apparent they would not survive the traumatic ordeal.

Charlie Pacas, a well-known and highly respected aquatics expert for Banff National Park, passes away in Canmore Nov. 20, after suffering cardiac arrest during a once-in-a-life-time trip to Prague the month before. He was a champion for nature and national parks – most notably the aquatics ecosystem.

December

The Banff Centre has a big, bold plan to move its performances spaces downtown. Rebuilding the 1,000-seat Eric Harvie Theatre, 300-seat Margaret Greenham Theatre, along with the Walter Philips Gallery and the Club downtown in the next eight to 10 years is part of a new strategic plan.

A dam on 40 Mile Creek in Banff National Park is coming down.

Once the source of the townsite’s drinking water, before it was contaminated with giardia in the 1980s, the creek will return to more natural flows as a large section of the 1946 dam is demolished. Taking down the concrete dam will not only restore critical fish habitat, but reduces the municipality’s liability for the dam following a 2012 inspection that revealed an earthquake could damage the structure and cause flooding in Banff.

The Town of Banff has a new plan to guide for the development of recreation facilities over the next 10 years – one that calls for making the most of existing recreation facilities instead of spending millions of dollars on the development of new buildings.

A controversial plan to shorten the curling season in order to expand dry floor space at the Fenlands has been scrapped, and a move to make changes to the sports field at the recreation grounds will be dealt with in a separate planning exercise.

The Banff Seniors Society remains concerned because some of their exclusive use rooms may be changed to multi-use.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

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