LETTER: Canmore is at a turning point

Editor:

In every crisis, there is opportunity. Because of the climate crisis, the world has reached a turning point, as has Canmore with the Three Sisters Mountain Village area structure plans.

I have been a full-time town resident for 20 years. I moved here after surviving months of invasive treatment for the very aggressive blood cancer, acute leukemia.

At diagnosis, 90 per cent of the cells in my bone marrow were cancerous. Without treatment, I was given less than a year to live.

But thanks to outstanding medical care, supportive family and friends and the healing power of our mountains, I have survived to thrive. I am connected to Canmore in the deepest possible way – right down to my bone marrow. 

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Thanks to the TSMV ASPs, we now have an opportunity to make a change that few other municipalities worldwide have had the courage to do.

I see at least 10 reasons we need to lead. Among them are that the proposed development will, in my opinion: 

1. Increase property taxes;
2. Remove more trees and perpetuate more destruction of wildlife habitat;
3. Create little in genuinely affordable housing;
4. Contravene the town’s Municipal Development Plan;
5. Create a population explosion; 
6. Stress our town infrastructure to the breaking point;
7. Further constrict our already unacceptably thin wildlife corridor, currently just 168 metres at its narrowest point;
8. Increase our greenhouse gas emissions when the town has already declared a State of Climate Emergency;
9. Cause a genuine risk to public safety due to thousands of kilometers of pre-existing undermining that could collapse, resulting in potentially catastrophic financial losses for the town, injuries and even fatalities;
10. Permit unauthorized use of the Thunderstone Quarry lands outside the approved growth boundary. 

How many more reasons do we need to be the change we want to see in the world?

Mayor and council need to unconditionally reject the TSMV ASPs. I know it is the right thing to do – right down to my bone marrow.

Alan Hobson,

Canmore