January
Municipal District of Bighorn Reeve Dene Cooper officially recognized the municipality’s incorporation with a formal declaration proclaiming 2013 as the 25th anniversary of the MD. The 2,700 square kilometre MD of Bighorn was incorporated as a municipal district in January 1988.
“It was a very interesting series of negotiations that gave birth to the MD,” Cooper said. “We narrowly missed an assessment to allow the MD to become independent of the government. We had to do many things just to qualify for status.”
Among those was arranging to allow south Exshaw residents to be able buy their homes, which had been built on Lafarge lease land, and to install a sewage system in Exshaw.
“We should take time to celebrate with all the people in the story. We should take some time to recognize how fortunate we are to have gotten responsible government on the ground and moved forward with the Province of Alberta,” Cooper said.
January also marked the first peaceful Idle No More protests, part of an international Aboriginal day of action. Protesting aspects of Bill C45, which removes waterway and resource protections, decreases funding to the Assembly of First Nations and alters environmental protection legislation, protestors marched through the streets of Banff and down the Trans-Canada Highway. Similar protests took place in 30 cities across Canada.
February
The Stoney Nakoda First Nations sent out a call for proposals seeking partners to design, construct and operate a travel centre on a 20-acre site on Highway 40 near the casino just off the Trans-Canada Highway. Heather Carnahan, administrator for Stoney Tribal Administration, said the plan calls for a travel centre, similar in scope to large truck stops in the U.S. that would provide a range of services for the travelling public, specifically large vehicles, such as tractor-trailers and RVs. Carnahan said the site offers an ideal location for a travel centre given its proximity to the Trans-Canada and the lack of an easily accessible location between Golden and Calgary.
March
Bighorn councillors passed first reading of a local improvement bylaw levy necessary to require property owners in Dead Man’s Flats to pay their share of the cost of connecting water and sewer lines in the hamlet to Canmore. The levy will be used for the water portion of the project only, which is expected to cost $7.2 million.
The overall water and wastewater project, estimated at $10.96 million, includes three components: water supply, water distribution and wastewater transmission. Work on the system began in the late fall.
April
MD of Bighorn council agreed to help Exshaw residents address concerns they have associated with living in the shadow of the Bow Valley’s largest industrial complex.
On April 9, council passed a motion during a regular council meeting to request Diana McQueen, minister of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, review the Exshaw Quarry Reclamation Plan to see if current work in the Lafarge quarry complies with that plan.
In making a motion, Coun. Paul Ryan said the 1996 reclamation plan shows specific elevations for the quarry and that the haul road, which sits lower in the quarry, west of the ridge, is sufficient for the life of the quarry.
Al Doll, who has owned and operated Heart Mountain Store & Service Centre since 1993, described the recent state of affairs as the “most serious problem” he had seen over the past 20 years.
In an open letter Lafarge, plant manager Heinz Knopfel addressed the concerns raised by the two delegations, stating: “We are saddened to have contributed to the anger, frustration and mistrust we are clearly feeling in the community – sad that it’s also affecting our own employees who live, volunteer and contribute to the greater vision for Exshaw. Clearly, this has not been the intent of our actions.”
Addressing the key issue of work on the east ridge, Knopfel said that Lafarge was not building a new haul road. Instead, he said, the work was part of Lafarge’s reclamation plan.
May
Three individuals facing a variety of drug-related charges in regard to Morley grow-ops appeared in Cochrane Provincial Court in May. The arrests followed a Cochrane RCMP investigation that identified three marijuana grow operations on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. RCMP identified two additional residences, also located on the reserve, as being involved with drug trafficking. The investigation resulted in seizure of nearly $400,000 worth of marijuana.
June
Bow Valley creeks began to rise June 19 and by the following morning, floodwaters had completely inundated Dead Man’s Flats, Exshaw and Lac Des Arcs. Exshaw was hardest hit when Exshaw and Jura creeks flooded into the hamlet, damaging roughly half of the hamlet’s 220 homes. And while there was damage in both Dead Man’s Flats and Lac Des Arcs from Pigeon and Heart creeks, respectively, Dead Man’s Flats saw little overall damage to the community. The entrance road washed out when culverts failed and Pigeon Creek condominiums experienced some damage.
In Lac Des Arcs, the heaviest damage did not come from Heart Creek, but from the Bow River after it undercut its southern bank, stripping away some 16 metres of bank, leaving one house hanging out over the river.
A pair of osprey whose lives were on display for all to see via a webcam mounted on a nesting pole near Exshaw became parents after their three eggs hatched, with the first down-covered chick coming out of its egg on June 15. FortisAlberta mounted the camera on the pole near Lac des Arcs in the spring and interest in the nest surged.
The June storm cut power to the webcam and when Fortis got it back online in August, it was discovered that only one chick had survived.
The community of Morley was in crisis, as rainwater washed out roads, waterlogged homes and backed up sewers on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation reserve. Since the water started gathering on June 20, Rhonda Wildman put in 12- to 14-hour days collecting food and clothing, and working to provide a safe shelter for community members who have left their homes. Thanks to Wildman and a team of volunteers, Morley Community School was transformed into a disaster-relief centre.
July
It stopped raining and the state of emergency was lifted, but many residents of the hamlet of Exshaw continued to deal with water in their homes and mud everywhere as a result of the June flood event. In particular, residents along Pigeon Mountain Drive and Mount McGillivray Drive are unable to begin recovery due to the amount of standing water, mud and silt left in their yards and back alleys.
The mud impeded access, while inside the homes there is contaminated water in basements that cannot be drained. With the state of emergency officially lifted on July 7, the MD of Bighorn transitioned into a recovery stage, but for some, the work was not moving fast enough. A July 8 meeting saw residents of both roads express the need for an immediate recovery plan to deal with contaminated water throughout the area in order to gain access to their homes and begin cleaning up.
Lafarge’s Exshaw-based plant is known for its ability to provide cement for construction projects and with a major expansion project underway, it has also made Bow Valley history. Over July 6-7, a foundation pour of concrete to see Lafarge’s operations expand by 60 per cent saw 2,500 cubic metres go into the ground.
Officials with the company say they believe the single pour, which lasted 31 hours, could be the largest in Bow Valley history. “As far as we know, it is the largest continuous pour in the Bow Valley in recent memory,” said Ron Braun, Lafarge’s vice-president of major projects.
A pilot’s inexperience in flying mountainous terrain was ruled a key factor in a March 2012 helicopter crash near Exshaw that killed the pilot and injured four passengers. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada released the findings of its investigation report on July 23 concerning the accident in which a Bell 206B helicopter on a sightseeing tour experienced loss of control and collided with terrain near Loder Peak. The helicopter was operated by Kananaskis Mountain Helicopters and flown by Matthew Goodine.
TSB investigators found Goodine had minimal training and experience in mountain flying, and he was unlikely able to recognize and mitigate hazards associated with flying in that environment. Wind and weather conditions close to mountains can negatively affect the performance of an aircraft, such as its ability to climb, maintain altitude or tail-rotor effectiveness. At the time of the crash, a snowstorm had quickly moved into the valley.
August
Residents in the worst-hit area of Exshaw finally began pumping out their basements and clearing away thick mud left from the June flood event. Vacuum trucks drained basements along Pigeon Mountain Drive and Mount McGillivray Drive and heavy equipment is removing thick, dried silt a month after water at least waist deep drowned both streets.
“We are making progress finally in the hardest hit areas of Pigeon and McGillivray,” MD of Bighorn Reeve Dene Cooper said. “We have a fair distance to go, but I can say progress is being made, especially on McGillivray. The problem is the hardest hit areas are not only the last areas you can get into, but also require the most extensive repairs.”
Of the 220 houses in Exshaw, 50 are untouched and 100 sustained light to moderate damage and were the easiest to reach and are now showing “great progress.”
September
The final 4.5-km piece of the popular Legacy Trail was completed in September. The new stretch now winds its way from the Banff National Park east gate to the Travel Alberta Visitor Information Centre in Canmore in a project that has been years in the making.
For 22 Stoney Nakoda students the wait and hard work was worth it once they had that diploma is in their hands. They had to face the strain of waiting a few extra months for their official graduation ceremony, held Sept. 19.
The graduating class was supposed to hold the event in June, but, due to flooding, students had to bide their time until they could finalize that great educational milestone from youth into adulthood. Having 22 graduates is a new record for the school, with the students and community ready to celebrate the new achievement. The last graduating class consisted of 21 students and the year before was 18.
The MD of Bighorn was able to continue regular municipal operations and disaster recovery work after receiving a $1.6 million payment from the provincial government. The cost of recovery is expected to reach $10 million, which is considerable for the small local government.
The Stoney Nakoda First Nation officially began its repair and recovery process in September following the aftermath of June’s flooding. Currently, the nation has two emergency relief shelters in place, with about 80 families staying in these shelters. Inspectors have begun to examine homes and created statements of work for the repair teams. The heavy rainfall and rising waters had directly affected about 300 homes during June’s flooding. Approximately 1,900 people were displaced throughout the Stoney Nation.
October
While many valley residents were preparing for Thanksgiving feasts and revelry, Stoney First Nations Morley resident Conal Labelle was preparing for a journey to the Canadian capital. Labelle and two others started their journey at the Banff Indian Days grounds, Oct. 12.
“We’re doing this for our grandchildren’s future, more or less. There are many issues that need to be discussed and we have a grievance,” said Labelle on the reasoning behind the trip to Parliament Hill.
Like elsewhere in the Bow Valley, the MD of Bighorn began work to remediate creeks that ran amok in the June flood. Short-term mitigation work was done to construct berms in Heart, Jura and Exshaw Creeks; culverts at Dead Man’s Flats and Jura Creek were replaced. Dead Man’s Flats received a reinforced steel culvert, while Alberta Transportation plans on replacing the Jura Creek culvert with a pre-cast concrete box culvert.
The October election saw two Bighorn councillors acclaimed, Carolyn Montgomery and Paul Clark, who replaced Reid Thomas. Janet Brygger and Anthony Cinkant challenged incumbents Dene Cooper and Paul Ryan.
November
Upon learning that Exshaw’s Catholic Church would be demolished some time in 2014, the community, led by Lynda Grischkat, Laurie Lohmann-Court and Rick Craig, began working with Lafarge to see if the church could be saved. Lafarge has a tentative plan to demolish the buildings by the spring of 2014 for necessary space for parking or laydown areas during construction of the new kiln line.
The Province continued work to repair and replace culverts at Jura Creek and Dead Man’s Flats. The Jura Creek culverts will be replaced with pre-cast box culverts that will allow water and debris to pass through more readily. Those culverts are also easier to clear. The steel culverts at Dead Man’s Flats, heavily damaged during the flood, were replaced with concrete-armoured steel culverts.
Lac Des Arcs homeowners living along the Bow River affected by the June flood were offered a buyout for their property after the MD received a $5.2 million grant to purchase nine properties along the river and undertake mitigation work “for the purpose of implementing an erosion control project, subject to 100 per cent funding approvals from the Province of Alberta.”
December
The province chose not to sign off on a land swap agreement at Dead Man’s Flats seven years in the making. Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation minster Richard Starke declined swapping 34 hectares of land at Dead Man’s Flats with the MD for another parcel just off Highway 1A near Mount Yamnuska as that piece sits in Bow Valley Wildland Park.
Provincial spokesperson Tim Chamberlin said the province does not like to de-designate wildland park as it has the highest conservation value. The 34 ha at Dead Man’s Flats, however, is part of the Bow Valley habitat patch and an important part of the Bow Valley’s system of wildlife corridors. The MD is preparing an area structure plan for that parcel.
The MD learned it would lose a portion of its annual revenue in 2015 with the planned shut down of the Burnt Timber gas plant. The pipelines, however, will remain buried in place. Bighorn Reeve Dene Cooper said the closure of the Burnt Timber gas plant would mean the municipality loses approximately six per cent of its annual income. The Burnt Timber gas plant contributes roughly 20-25 per cent of the MD’s revenue, however, as Cooper pointed out, the taxation on the pipelines, also known as linear taxation, will remain even after the plant has been decommissioned.
The provincial government and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations signed an agreement in December formally committing both parties to rebuild and repair homes damaged in the June floods.
After 38 years of busienss, Rafter Six Ranch Resort announced it would close its doors effective Jan. 1, 2014 due to financial troubles. A miniature horse was also killed by a cougar at the ranch on Dec. 10.
