Editor: I hope you will allow me to clarify a question I asked of everyone at the community conversation on Wednesday evening.
My comment was “would everyone please ask themselves this question and think hard about it, what about the infrastructure necessary to support huge development plans?”
An answer was forthcoming for all, from someone in the room. His reply to my question was simply (condensed), “the developers pay for infrastructure.” Good to hear.
But clearly he did not completely answer the question, because infrastructure in Canmore, to me, is the Town and all that it requires to make it work. Basics are a lot of water, garbage disposal, street repair, parking issues and all the things large populations require, and the proposal, of course, from developers, is that Canmore get a lot larger.
The question I am asking people, council, government is, where is all the water coming from, how does the environment handle all this increase? We know our garbage disposal is already being trucked. We know the Bow River is expected to absorb our “sanitary waste water” (apology, for calling it what it is “poop” at the meeting).
We know our streets and parking and many other local structural issues are needing to be solved and paid for, to try and accommodate a huge influx of tourism and people.
All of those things are not being paid for by developers of areas far from downtown, yet every one of those people buying and moving in will wish to be in and use the downtown core.
It is this core infrastructure that also needs serious discussion, with the core being all the things it takes to run a larger population in a limited space (this valley) and with limited resources.
Possibly for clarification, remember the core is one that municipal long term taxpayers, who see tax increases yearly, have so far supported while it densifies and becomes developed and becomes evermore expensive to operate.
Seriously, this issue is larger than this letter can possibly be, so please take the time and consider the question, for the long term. And ask the question.
Douglas Maclean,
Canmore
