Editor: We would like to thank out-going council, Mayor Borrowman and Councillors Comfort, Krausert, McCallum, Russell, Sandford and Seeley, for honouring their commitment to the Canmore public to protect the remaining sections of the Three Sisters Corridors, as made at the 2013 Environmental Forum organized by the Bow Corridor Organization for Responsible Development and the Bow Valley Clean Air Society.
With particularly strong input from Councillor McCallum, the Stewart Creek section of the Along Valley Corridor and a small portion of the Across Valley Corridor were protected under the 2015 Provincial Conservation Easement where the conditions of the Easement Agreement provide a scientifically functional corridor in late fall, winter and spring for wildlife to move freely throughout the easement, i.e., “This Easement Area shall not be used for any other purpose than a golf course, and shall be maintained and operated in a manner which ensures that wildlife may freely access, be on, and pass through the Easement Area as has occurred up to the date of this Conservation Easement.” (Section 3.3).
This council also committed to do its best to ensure that the primary Three Sisters Wildlife corridor would be established consistent with the most recent scientific data, as earlier councils did when the Three Sisters Resort Centre section of the Along Valley Corridor was designated under a Provincial Conservation Easement on an average corridor width of 600 metres in 2003 and a 35-metre corridor buffer under a conservation easement agreement between the Town and Three Sisters Mountain Village (TSMV) in 2007. This average corridor width of 635 m was an outcome of the 2002 Golder Report recommendations accepted by the Town, the Province and TSMV.
We also thank the outgoing council, particularly the leadership from Mayor Borrowman and Councillor Sean Krausert, for unanimously supporting Policy 4.2.14 in Canmore’s 2016 Municipal Development Plan which requires zoning only less intrusive land uses adjacent to wildlife corridors consistent with the Province’s 2012 Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group (BCEAG) Guidelines, i.e., For the purposes of this section, the Town will determine adjacency consistent with the BCEAG Wildlife Corridor and Habitat Patch Guidelines for the Bow Valley (2012). Not all proposals deemed adjacent will require an EIS – the requirement for an EIS will be evaluated based on the nature and scope of the proposed development, including the type of land use and the intensity of the development, as well the potential for adverse environmental impacts.
This policy was at least part of council’s most recent decision not to approve TSMV’s application for development in the Three Sisters Resort Area, where the proposal was not equal or better than the green land use of a golf course adjacent to the Along Valley Corridor already zoned under Bylaw 24(Z)2004 which, based on the recommendations of the 2002 Golder Report, would increase the seasonal functionality of the average corridor width of 635 to 935 m in late fall, winter and early spring.
It is our hope the new council to be elected on Monday, Oct. 16 will have made a commitment equal to the outgoing council to protect the remaining sections of the Three Sisters Multi-species Along Valley Corridor by urging the Province to approve only scientifically viable corridors and by strictly applying Policy 4.2.14 to land uses adjacent to the corridor consistent with the 2012 BCEAG Guidelines as required.
Heather MacFadyen, Chair,
Bow Corridor Organization for Responsible Development
