Dear Santa: this year we would like to share with you our top 10 wish list for the future of the communities we call home here in the Bow Valley.
1. We wish that all municipal road construction projects will finish ahead of schedule and under budget with minimal disruption to businesses and residents.
2. We wish that in addition to funding for a wildlife overpass near Lac des Arcs, Alberta Transportation will begin to take the wildlife issues along the Trans-Canada Highway through Canmore seriously. That means a commitment to fencing in the long-term and short-term mitigations to warn drivers there may be an issue to public safety due to animals on the roadway.
3. We wish that in addition to Parks Canada undertaking the much-needed work to look at human use management, that Alberta Parks and the UCP government recognizes this work also needs to be done outside the national park.
4. Speaking of Alberta Parks, how about the current government recognizing the downstream economic importance of these protected environments and recreational areas and reverse its plans to revert a number of sites into Crown land and for the government to reinstate cross-country trail grooming in Kananaskis Country.
5. Residents of the Bow Valley are blessed to live in a place surrounded by lands that are protected as environmentally sensitive areas. It would be the greatest wish for us and many Albertans to see this protection put back in place for areas of the eastern slopes being considered as appropriate for future coal mines. The lack of consultation around removal of protections put in place under Premier Peter Lougheed in the '70s should be enough to convince this government that it has gone too far and lacks public support for these environmentally devastating proposals.
6. Affordable housing supports would be nice from both a federal and provincial level. Canmore and Banff as municipalities are not responsible for housing, however both have had to step into this realm and provide homes for their residents due to the lack of programs and funding from the province and feds. More and better housing is our wish, not divesting from community resources and reliance on the private sector to solve our social problems.
7. We wish for everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available to them. This is going to be the key factor for our economic recovery and to regain the sense of normalcy we have lost over the past 10 months. Getting vaccinated is the single greatest contribution towards this goal any one of us can provide.
8. Speaking of normal – we wish for 2021 to bring the recovery that many local groups, events and businesses need to survive. If that recovery is not available, we hope that federal and provincial financial supports continue for as long as they are needed to prevent the catastrophic collapse of our local economy.
9. A real Christmas miracle would be for the conspiracy theorists who demand we question what we are being told, to actually listen to the answers to those questions. Questioning and critical thought are important parts of our democracy – ignoring the answers to maintain a predetermined stance on an issue is not.
10. That everyone comes to the realization that being angry is a choice. Being able to disagree on political issues in our communities without discussions turning into vitriol-infused tirades, would help us all navigate our ways into a complex future together. How we feel and how we express those sentiments is the one thing we have control over in this crazy life. We'd like to see more people exercise that control more often.
