Editor:
This letter was sent to Canmore Mayor John Borrowmand and council.
My first comment is that this limited, ill-timed, virtual format event is not sufficient to qualify as a public hearing and should be postponed until a full and open hearing is possible.
Past that I want to be sure that your understandings of several of the factors you are considering are the same as mine. They are as follows.
You are knowingly creating the certainty that residential taxes will increase in perpetuity since the taxes from the proposed developments will never cover the municipal costs forever incurred, in my opinion.
You are knowingly swallowing the fairy tale that commercial development and the taxes therefrom will proceed, in my opinion. You know this because you have seen it in the shortfalls of previous plans that resulted in no commercial development other than the Windmark property and a few retail spots at Dyrgas Gate.
You are knowingly accepting the perpetual liabilities for the undermined lands. The $600,000 plus spent so far on the Dyrgas Gate sinkhole is only a drop in the bucket. You know that long after the developers have taken their profits and disappeared the Town and Province will hold the bag. You know that future subsidence is a certainty, in my opinion.
Disregarding the Town’s declaration of climate emergency, you are knowingly increasing our carbon footprint by the amounts needed to heat, secure, and maintain thousands of properties that will be vacant for much of the year, every year hereafter.
You further know that these vacation properties do little to create community, while the costs of clearing the roads and maintaining them, sanitation, emergency services and other costs go on forever.
You are well aware that our wildlife corridors are a vital pinch point in the continental biodiversity pathways. You know that the TSMV proposals will constrict these pathways past the critical point.
There is a matter you may not be thinking of so I’ll try to refresh or inform you. There will be an election in the fall. There are already thousands who actively oppose the TSMV proposals, even in this time of restricted society.
Their numbers will grow for sure, and they are already in the majority. If you support this proposal, many will work hard to see you defeated on election day.
My sweet wife, who wouldn’t swat a mosquito, had an active disdain for Ralph Klein, but says she’d welcome him with a three layer cake if she could trade him for Kenney.
Circumstances alter cases. Mr. Klein had a great quote that you should remember as you deliberate this most important matter: “The key to governing is to figure out where the parade is going - and then to get in front of it."
Both you and Canmore will be defined forever by this decision. Stop TSMV now.
Jeff Caskenette,
Canmore
