Editor:
In response to the Alberta Court of Appeal decision on Three Sisters Mountain Village’s Smith Creek and Three Sisters Village area structure plans. As we all, sadly, acknowledge: the question posed by Bow Valley Engage in their recent newsletter regarding Canmore council's “irrelevancy”, is rhetorical.
Section 619 of the Municipal Government Act utterly and completely disenfranchised and nullified the authority of all elected representatives of municipalities in Alberta. I remember the precise moment when that was made unmistakably clear to those of us who [mis]understood that as elected councillors, we held public hearings in order to fulfill and exercise due process that would allow us receive and incorporate our citizens’ input in order to respond appropriately in the public interest. That was about 25 years ago.
Over these past decades, I’ve witnessed the efforts that the wonderfully engaged citizenry of the Bow Valley have mustered to stave off this “inevitable” exercise of the provincial government’s legislated authority. A sad, sad day for Alberta and especially for the Bow Valley and all our relations.
Julie Kehler,
Former Canmore councillor
