The year 2011 proved to be a big one for Banff – with both municipal politicians and national park managers dealing with a host of controversial topics.
Perhaps the most contentious issue for Banff council was Phase 2 of the Land Use Bylaw review, and in particular, the ongoing call for the municipality to regulate corporate chain businesses.
Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen, who personally believes there is an appropriate mix of independent versus chain businesses, said the bylaw review is dealing with many significant community issues.
“It’s an important bylaw and it deserves time and it deserves public input, and although it’s going slower than we initially planned, we want to get it right,” she said.
“It would be my hope that the entire Land Use Bylaw would be done by end of this council’s term.”
The invasion of chain businesses across North America is meeting growing opposition in many communities wanting to preserve their unique community character and protect local businesses.
And Banff, which sees hundreds of residents get up in arms every time a new corporate giant threatens a mom-and-pop operation, is no exception.
In 2011 – after two decades of contentious discussion – Banff’s politicians finally took a vote against an outright ban on corporately owned restaurants and retail shops.
But in light of feedback from a council-struck working group and ongoing community pressure, they did agree to at least consider setting quotas for chain restaurants and retail shops.
Council’s decision followed an outpouring of opposition to Montreal-based chain David’s Tea coming to town in the new year, just around the corner from the locally-owned Banff Tea Company.
There was a similar outcry when Indigo-Chapters came to Banff, signalling the beginning of the end for the treasured Banff Book and Art Den in 2007.
Council was hit with letter after letter after letter in support of The Banff Tea Co. The one below was typical of the flavour council received from both locals and out-of-towners.
Karen Barkley, a local resident of 13 years, said as a tourist destination Banff thrives because of its unique location, noting shops and businesses in Banff should reflect that uniqueness.
“When I personally travel I don’t want to purchase something that I can get in any other city or town in Canada, I want something unique to the area,” she said in a letter to council.
“If chain stores come in, local businesses can’t compete. You only have to look at the number of small businesses that have folded in Banff in the past 10 years,” she added.
“This diminishes not only the experience for the tourist, but undermines the stability of the community.”
Another local resident, Deborah Cameron, echoed those sentiments.
“It appears that the Town is setting an unhealthy precedent by continually approving chain stores to the detriment of smaller locally-owned shops,” she said.
“How many times do we hear from tourists that they do not want to visit Banff due to its ever-increasing reputation as just another strip mall?”
The Land Use Bylaw working group failed to reach consensus on the issue, but landlords raised huge concerns about over-regulation and the potential to hurt business.
Councillor Paul Baxter, a local hotel manager, has remained steadfast in his belief there should be no municipal meddling in the free market, and is opposed to even considering quotas.
“So far Banff has done well with the restrictions in place and any further regulation or quotas would be detrimental to the economy,” he said.
Another contentious issue in the Land Use Bylaw review was a proposal for cap the number of souvenir and gift shops in Banff’s downtown.
In July, council threw out that proposal in a bid to weigh business and community interests, leaving existing souvenir and gift shop owners breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Kees Vanderlee, the owner of A Bit of Banff and Sleeping Buffalo, said his biggest concern centred on his ability to sell a business in future.
“If there’s a limit – when someone wants to take over or buy – that affects my retirement that I’ve been working on for years,” he said at the time.
And while dealing with the contentious Land Use Bylaw review, Banff’s politicians also had to deal with the day-to-day business of running the town.
They gave the green light to a pedestrian bridge across the Bow River, okayed an off-leash dog park in the industrial compound and threw their support behind the new farmer’s market.
There were also significant decisions to be made surrounding the Banff Housing Corporation.
One of the biggest issues in BHC’s history came to an end when council backed up its earlier promise to never set price caps on existing homes.
In June, politicians directed a restrictive covenant be registered against the BHC’s head lease titles for all remaining properties on an equity-share model.
They also significantly hiked administration fees to cover the costs of service levels of existing housing developments, drawing opposition from many homeowners.
“It’s been a busy year,” said Mayor Sorensen.
Parks Canada has also had its share of controversial issues.
The federal agency this year approved a host of new thrill-seeking commercial and recreational activities that have been traditionally banned in Banff National Park.
Via ferrata, aerial parks, traction kiting, hang gliding and paragliding can now be considered in Banff under certain conditions, although zip lines and canopy tours are off the table.
Parks Canada also opened the door for summer use, including a via ferrata operation, at Mount Norquay, although the ski hill still has to meet many conditions for approval.
The move quickly drew fire from conservationists, who were angered that Parks Canada had gone back on an agreement in which Norquay gave up summer use in exchange for winter development.
“This is a betrayal of public process,” said Mike McIvor, president of the Bow Valley Naturalists.
On the other hand, final approval of the development and use guidelines for Norquay drew praise from business and Banff’s mayor, who said it’s a new attraction for Banff visitors.
“Year-round use for visitors to national parks is important for it to continue to be presented as a world-class tourism destination,” said Sorensen.
Norquay’s part owner owner Peter Sudermann said: “I have no doubt if we proceed with it, it will be a really unique experience for parks visitors.”
Another issue which made headlines in local, regional and national newspapers, is Brewster’s proposal for a multi-million dollar commercial tourist attraction overlooking Sunwapta Valley.
The glass floor observation platform overlooking the spectacular valley is one of the most contentious projects put forward in the mountain national parks in decades.
The environmental assessment has been done, but Parks has made no decisions at this time.
Brewster officials say the proposed development will provide an immersive, interpretative guided experience focusing on the wonder of the unique ecosystem, glaciology, natural and aboriginal history of the Columbia Icefield area in the Canadian Rockies.
Michael Hannan, president and CEO of Brewster, said Brewster has addressed all of the various environmental concerns identified in the environmental assessment.
“People have a profound desire to protect national parks when they’ve had a profound experience,” he has said. “That’s something they’re not getting when just rubbernecking and driving by.”
Conservationists, on the other hand, refer to the project as the ‘Disneyfication of the national parks’ and a dramatic move away from what national parks are meant to be.
“They seem to want to dress it up with gimmicks and thrill-seeking opportunities, producing these little side shows instead of capitalizing appropriately on the main event of the park,” said Jim Pissot.
The Association for Mountain Parks Protection and Enjoyment (AMPPE) welcomes the proposed tourist attraction, saying it will be an educational and unique experience for visitors.
“Creating new attractions in national parks is a good thing in terms of keeping product fresh,” said executive director Monica Andreeff when the project was publicly announced in February.
A major good news story for the national park this year was the joint Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway symposium in September, aimed at limiting or eliminating grizzly bear deaths on the tracks.
It was a significant meeting, drawing experts in the field of science and transportation to once and for all tackle the issue of bear mortality, given the railway is the single biggest killer of grizzlies.
While it’s a huge and impressive step forward, Parks Canada was once again unable to meet its own human-caused mortality threshold this year for sustaining the grizzly bear population.
Four grizzlies died at the hands of humans in 2011, including two on the highway and one sow on the train tracks, which in that case left behind two orphaned cubs.
The fourth grizzly was a six-year-old male, which was put down after aggressively stalking and trapping famed mountaineer Barry Blanchard and a client up a tree for several hours.
It was a deadly year not only for bears, but for other treasured wildlife.
At least two wolf pups were killed in the Bow Valley transportation corridor and as many as seven black bears also met unnatural deaths.
Two young cougars, originally collared in Banff, were eventually destroyed by provincial officials after some too-close-for-comfort encounters, including an attack on a six-year-old girl in Kananaskis.
In other locals news, 2011 featured the long-awaited release of the tourism Competitive Initiative Report, which calls for an initial $825,000 investment to help give the park a competitive edge.
The report called for an initial $150,000 to get a new winter festival off the ground, growing to $500,000 over five years. The new festival, known as Snow Days, runs Jan.14 to Feb 12 in 2012.
New events such as the Mountain Adventure Weekend and ‘Take it to the Street’ hockey tournament on Banff Avenue, combined with Ice Magic, now make for two weekends of fun.
“This is not a chili cook-off,” said Julie Canning, president and CEO of Banff Lake Louise Tourism at the release of the report.
“This is about a big winter festival and about bringing vibrancy and animation to Banff-Lake Louise year-round.”
Other big local headlines in 2011 include the demolition of the 90-year-old historic Wheeler House; a labour dispute involving the firing of four long-term employees from Sunshine; a local partnership ending their ownership of Wild Bill’s, Parks Canada’s plans to work with the Calgary Zoo on a captive breeding program for caribou and environmental concerns for a trout population in the Spray River in the wake a major mechanical failure at one of TransAlta’s power plants.
And, of course, making news not only in Banff, but around the country, was the whirlwind visit of royal family newlyweds Prince William and Kate to the remote Skoki backcountry lodge in July.
Their visit was a quiet getaway from the hustle and bustle of their hectic schedule, and even led to a private loo being built for them, complete with running water from a nearby creek.
Owner Charlie Locke said the royal couple wanted an authentic experience and stayed in the Riverside cabin.
“They were not pampered in any way,” he said. “Other than running water, they ate the same food as other guests and drank the same wine.”
