Crowsnest Pass feeling the economic downturn.

Bad news this week our Super Value (formally Extra Foods) is closing down. Back in July Loblaws had announced that they would be closing 52 stores over the next 12 months (see story below). We were hopeful that ours would survive.


Unfortunately I think the moment Wal-Mart opened in Pincher Creek a lot of people that used to shop here drive that extra 30 minutes down the highway to do their shopping.
I feel very bad for the people that worked there, they had some excellent employees I also feel bad for our community it's always good to have choices.


Now we join the ranks of our neighbors to the west Sparwood and Elkford that have had one grocery store for the last twenty years.  It's a story that's going to be repeated many times, in many other communities.


Just had a discussion this morning with somebody that tells me that half of Teck's employee's don't even live in this area any more. They commute from Lethbridge, Calgary, Cranbrook etc.









Loblaws closing 52 unprofitable stores over next 12 months


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaws-closing-52-unprofitable-stores-over-next-12-months-1.3164578

Grassy Mountain Coal Project-Public Input

GRASSY MOUNTAIN COAL PROJECT – PUBLIC COMMENTS INVITED

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
Public Notice - Revised
Grassy Mountain Coal Project — Public Comments Invited

April 1, 2015 — As part of the strengthened and modernized Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012) put in place to support the government's Responsible Resource Development Initiative, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) must decide whether a federal environmental assessment is required for the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project, located in Alberta. To assist it in making its determination, the Agency is seeking comments from the public on the project and its potential effects on the environment.
Benga Mining Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Riversdale Resources Limited, is proposing to construct and operate an open-pit metallurgical coal mine near the Crowsnest Pass, approximately seven kilometres north of the community of Blairmore, in south-west Alberta. As proposed, the production capacity of the project would be a maximum of four million tonnes of clean coal per year, over a mine-life of about 25 years.

Written comments must be submitted by April 20, 2015 to:
Grassy Mountain Coal Project
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
Canada Place
9700 Jasper Avenue, Suite 1145
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4C3
Telephone: 780-495-2037
Fax: 780-495-2876
CEAA.GrassyMountain.ACEE@ceaa-acee.gc.ca

For further details regarding the environmental assessment of the Grassy Mountain Coal Project, please visit Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s website at http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/details-eng.cfm…

Riversdale Resources

Very interesting article

http://www.cbj.ca/riversdale-resources/

Riversdale Resources reaches shipping agreement with Westshore Terminals

The following is information regarding Riversdale and Westshore Terminals reaching agreement to ship product through that port beginning in 2018.

"Westshore has entered into an agreement with Riversdale Resources Limited, a Canadian company with a planned metallurgical (steel making) coal mine to be developed in Blairmore, Alberta. Under the terms of the agreement, Riversdale will pay Westshore an annual  reservation fee to hold up to 2 million tonnes of capacity at Westshore. Production is slated to start in late 2018 and ramping up in 2019. The agreement with Riversdale also includes a 10 year throughput agreement for such volumes ending in 2028."

The full article is available at: 
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1464605/westshore-terminals-announces-q4-2014-distribution

Promoting your community-Crowsnest Pass and Sparwood

Was just sent a link to the new Sparwood Chamber of commerce video show casing their community,

 http://sparwoodchamber.bc.ca/wordpress/watch-our-video/


This made me think back to the video that Rocky Mountain properties made about the Crowsnest Pass a few years ago also very well done.  http://rockymountainproperties.ca/RMP_CrowsnestVideo.htm

They are both less than five minutes long well worth the time, please check them out.


Thanks to the comment I received, I checked out UROC at the following address  http://www.uroc.ca/  well worth the time.

Tourism Investment Forum-Crownest Pass Opportunities

Attached is a very interesting read regarding investment opportunities in the Crowsnest Pass:
Featured on Page 26-27 is the Eckardt's Tecumseh Mountain Resort.
On page 30-31 the Sentinel RV resort development.
Lastly on page 35-35 the Crowsnest Pass Ski Resort Expansion.

Tourism Investment Forum

Building Alberta

Alberta's Tourism Framework recognizes the important role that access to capital plays in supporting the efforts of Alberta's communities to diversify their local economies through tourism.The Tourism Investment Forum (PDF - 6.8 MB) provides communities with a unique venue to showcase land-based, for profit tourism development opportunities to potential tourism investors, developers and lenders. 

The Forum will feature projects from across the province, and include opportunities such as four-season and RV resorts, lodge and cabin developments and many others. The Forum's business friendly format is sure to spark new ideas and connections to help grow Alberta's tourism industry.

Communities will gain valuable exposure among investors who are actively investing in Alberta's tourism industry. All opportunities meeting the submission guidelines will be compiled into an investment opportunities booklet (PDF - 10.4 MB) and sent out to investors prior to the event in order to generate investor interest. In addition, these projects will also be featured on a section of the Department's website dedicated to tourism investment opportunities. There is no cost to participate in the Tourism Investment Forum.

http://tpr.alberta.ca/tourism/events-and-conferences/tourism-investment-forum/pdf/Regional-Investment-Opportunities.pdf

Devon Gas Plant

Devon stack coming down, September 9.



https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=54DE290CB907B1FF&id=54DE290CB907B1FF%212029&authkey=%21AJdychopP2yunYc&v=3

Crowsnest Nest Pass-Revival of the coal industry continues

Very early stages on this project, but certainly good news for the Crowsnest Pass.

Altitude Resources Signs Joint Venture Arrangement with Kuro to Develop Elan Coal Project

http://www.azomining.com/news.aspx?newsID=10407

Lots of rain and garbage, now some celebration.

I know its been a while:

Couple of things, first of all a big pat on the back for Municipal Administration, all of our CUPE members, Fire/Rescue departments, other various volunteer groups, contractors, outside agencies and any one else that helped out during the events of the last few days. Everybody was well prepared, very proactive instead of reactive, things could have been a lot worse. (And lastly kudo's to my fellow members of council)

Lets not forget the bins are parked at the Coleman Sportsplex waiting to be filled, I was told by the landfill that it was going very well until the rain started. I have heard some complaints but please keep in mind this is the first time we will take your input and make the program better.

This weekend we also have the Hillcrest mine disaster 100th memorial and Bellcrest days.

Recognition, Entertainment, and putting the Pass on the map all in one week.

What a great week in the Crowsnest Pass:

Wednesday night the municipality in conjunction with the FCSS board hosted the Volunteer recognition night, there was a packed house the meal was catered by Chris's restaurant and entertainment was provided by a group of four young guys named "Hoja" who put on an excellent show that appealed to all age groups. Three people were recognized for their volunteer efforts by receiving the Order of the Crowsnest Pass presented by Mayor Painter. Long time volunteers Margaret Stolk and Margaret Ann Woodward shared the award and Kiana Miskulin received the Order of the Crowsnest Pass Outstanding Youth award.

Friday night the Polish Hall in Coleman hosted the CBC show "Of all places" more great entertainment, the comedian Johnny Harris and his two colleagues had the crowd laughing from the beginning to the end. What was really impressive was that they spent the week here not just visiting the Pass but actually learning about the Pass and some of it's people. Which was very evident by the way Mr Harris built so much of what he learnt into his material.
I will find out when the show will be televised great opportunity to put the Crowsnest Pass on the map.

Saturday we have the Turning Pointe Dance Studio putting on their annual Festival of the Stars two shows the first at 2pm and the second at 6pm. Come up to the MDM and catch some great entertainment provided by the very talented youth of our community.

Moving forward in the Crowsnest Pass

Some good news  for the Crowsnest Pass. I attended the Municipal Planning Commission yesterday, very happy to see that Westcastle Motors will be coming back to the Pass soon, they applied for a permit to set up on Highway 3 in West Coleman.
Also Dawn Rigby the owner of Country Encounters informed the board that they will be breaking ground on their new 50 seat restaurant with a five room hotel above it, this spring.

This really is the kind of news we need to be hearing in the Crowsnest Pass.


NOTE: Bid Opening this afternoon (Feb 27) on the tenders for the flood damage, 2pm in Council Chambers.

SSRP and it's impact on the Crowsnest Pass

South Saskatchewan Regional Plan

If you wish to comment on this plan go to the following address www.landuse.alberta.ca  we had Mr Gene Wusaty CEO of Altitude Resources inc provide a presentation about is companies assets north of Grassy Mountain and their intention to begin exploration in the second quarter of 2014 last night at the council meeting. They are very concerned that the SSRP and it's plan of increasing park land adjacent to their leases will inhibit the ability to develop and operate coal mines north of us.
Again if you wish to have any input on the SSRP you need to go to the address above and voice your concerns prior to Jan 15,2014.

Christmas in the Mountains, Crowsnest pass style

Friday night I attended the Christmas in the Mountains, thanks to the decent weather there was a very good turn out.
Stopped by the Riversdale open house lots of interest,  seems like a decent group of individuals met some old friends there hopefully a good news story for the Pass.
Leaving Riversdale met up with the CJPR folks my wife encouraged me to sink Jingle Bells with her and we got one of the many turkeys being handed out.
Then we watched Marlene deal with her fear of heights and light up the Christmas tree, good for her I sweat walking up the stairs.
Checked out the Elks Hall lots of good stuff it looked like the vendors were doing well.
Kudo's to all the businesses that participated, it was nice to see Main Street so busy on a Friday night.
Did anybody hear how the dance went last night, we were going until we got whacked by that beautiful weather.

Oct 29 Organizational Meeting of Council

Highlights from the first official meeting of council:

We had a brief session from 5-6pm for council to meet most of the administration team.

At 6pm we were all sworn in to our positions by Doug Young followed up by our official council picture which will be posted on the Municipal Web site shortly.

At 7pm in front of a packed house we started of with the organizational meeting, Mayor Painter in line with past practice had spoken to all members of council regarding their preferences for which committee's very would like to sit on and handed out the appointments, these are reviewed every year at the first meeting in October:

AAMDC----Mayor Painter
Ag Services Board----Councilor Kovach
Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance----Mayor Painter
AUMA-----Mayor Painter
CN/PC Waste Management-----Councilors Filipuzzi, Ward and Lazzarotto
CNP Senior Housing----Councilors Filipuzzi and Anctil
Culture and Heritage Cmt-----Councilor Filipuzzi
Economic Development Cmt-----Councilor Filipuzzi
FCSS------Councilor Lazzarotto
G + P Cmt-----All members of council
Library----Councilor Glavin
Management Negotiating Cmt------Mayor Painter, Councilor Ward
Mayors and Reeves----Mayor Painter
Municipal Heritage Board----Councilor Lazzarotto
Planning Commission------Councilors Kovach and Ward
Oldman River Regional Service Commission------Councilors Kovach and Filipuzzi
Policy Cmt-----Councilors Ward and Kovach
Community Policing Cmt-----Councilor Anctil
Ski Hill Society----Councilors Kovach and Glavin
Southwest Alberta Trails Advisory Cmt----Councilor Glavin
Sports and Recreation Cmt------Councilor Anctil
Spray Lakes Public Advisory Cmt----Councilor Kovach
Subdivision and Development Appeal-----Councilor Anctil

This list was approved by vote of Council, with one exception a Motion was brought forth by Councilor Ward to address the Policy Cmt that is currently in place. Presently made up of the Mayor, two councilors and the CAO, there will be a meeting of this committee in the next two weeks with all members of council invited to consider the option of disbanding this committee and directing its work load to the G+P committee with a recommendation coming back to council on Nov 19th.

Last issue for the Organizational meeting was the deputy Mayor rotation, policy states that all councilor's will sit in the Deputy Mayor position for two months of the year. To keep it simply it was agreed by council that the rotation would be filled alphabetically for the next twelve months beginning with Councilor Antil.


I will report on the special council meeting later.

Good luck to all the candidates.

Today is a time to be thankful, thankful that we get to participate in the democratic process. Thankful that a variety of people put forth their names and their platforms to provide us choices.  No matter what the results are, later tonight we will have a new council. Tomorrow will be the time to start moving forward. The campaigns are over now the people will choose.
Good luck to everyone.

Now, It really is about voting

I just received a comment from some one that is going to vote for me which I sincerely appreciate.
More than anything it gave me several reminders the first being that the poll on my right was for fun and was provided due to a lot of requests from people that read my blog. Let's not forget the Wildrose was winning the election right up until days before the vote. So polls are great but the only one that really counts is tomorrow. Second there is no question that the Incumbents and their supporters are working hard, it would be foolish to write them off at this point. So I think it is important to remind your family and friends that if they have not been happy with the last three years they need to get out and vote. When you look at an Incumbent you are not just voting for them as individuals your are voting on what they have stood for. Did they represent you and the direction you wished the community to move towards?
 I encourage the voters to do two things; first of all think really hard about who and what you want for the next four years, let's be clear you will have to live with who you elect tomorrow for the full four years. Neither a petition, or municipal affairs are going to change the decision we all make, and lastly and most importantly get out and vote.

Dean Ward

Viability Study-Dissolution-Fear Factor

First of all the recommendation of council looking at a viability study was just that a recommendation, next council does not have to go down that path unless Municipal Affairs forces it which as never been implied. From 2006 to 2011 there were 18 municipal dissolution studies conducted which resulted in five villages being dissolved and thirteen were not.
The villages that were dissolved were population wise very small and absorbed by counties surrounding them with much larger populations in most cases ten to thirty times larger.
They were:
Village of Sangudo pop 398 absorbed by Lac Ste Anne County pop 10260
Village of Thorhild pop 478 absorbed by County of Thorhild pop 3417
Village of Kinuso pop 231 absorbed by M.D of Big Lakes pop 5912
Village of New Sarepta pop 401 absorbed by Leduc County pop 13541
Village of Derwent pop 111 absorbed by County of Two Hills pop 3160

Of the thirteen municipalities that did not dissolve they ranged in size from the village of Gadsby with 25 people up to the Town of Falher with 1075 people.

I am not suggesting for a moment that we as residents, or future council's should not take seriously the issue of strengthening this community. But let's not lose sight of the facts all the communities that participated in the studies between 2006 and 2011 were significantly smaller than the Crowsnest Pass, of those two thirds did not dissolve, and finally of all five that did dissolve they were taken in by neighbors with much larger populations than themselves. Certainly an option we do not have.

Some items to think about before you vote.

• The new Image, we are in the process of spending in excess of $300,000 to put in place the new brand, logo, banners etc.

• The hidden “tax” Franchise Fees have increased from $295,000 in 2010 to almost $700,000 in 2013

• Crowsnest Centre the Mayor announces in his Mayor’s Corner Oct 17,2012 “The new Hotel, Restaurant truck stop complex is a go!”

• June 25,2013 Council is informed that Medican has backed out of the hotel deal

• July 23,2013 Council votes to pay $50,000 to purchase Best Western name for Group Vachon.

• Sept 2013, Workplace Assessment Report  “"While many express that this relationship has, historically, not been "perfect", the theme is that, currently, the relationship is the "worst it has ever been". “The majority of employees indicated they are experiencing significantly high levels of stress in this workplace. Longer term employees stated "morale is lower than they can remember".

• We now have the largest and most expensive administration in our history the Russell Farmer report recommends “The municipality continues to rationalize its operations looking for opportunities to create greater efficiencies and effectiveness not only in operations but in administration as well”

• Russell Farmer identifies crucial areas of concern “High rate of turn over in management particularly the CAO, and the impact of the high rate of turn over on the municipality’s ability to provide effective and efficient service” In the last three years we have had three CAO’s plus seven other changes in various administrative positions the most in any term of council since 1979.

• Russell Farmer crucial area of concern “Communication within the organization and with residents which has resulted in a lack of trust in the community and in the organization”.

• Russell Farmer High Tax Rate; “Crowsnest Pass’s mill rate has increased by 8.3 percent in the past two years which is a significant increase in the mill rate”

• March 6,2012 Thunder in the Valley is deferred for one year

• October 2012, Fire Chief terminated, large numbers of volunteers leave the Fire Department   

• Budget 2013 Council after a significant miscalculation on the assessment base eliminates the $100,000 commitment to the York Creek Lodge to balance the municipal budget. 

Democracy and another perspective on the current Election

Democracy is alive and well and very active in the Crowsnest Pass, I was told last night after the council meeting that 481 people voted in the advance poll double the number that voted last election.

Right now there are so many conversations happening all over the Pass regarding who should be voted in and why:

Here is a link to Peter Rosner's Blog giving his perspective on the election http://theminersjourney.blogspot.ca/ 

Peter also refers to an article that appeared in the Pass Herald on Oct 26, 2010 after the last election where the previous CAO Gord Lundy reflects on his time in the Pass, great things about our small town, and the community moving forward. http://passherald.ca/archives/101026/index2.htm

The real S.C Rudegan

I received the following email yesterday I have now confirmed that this is the real S.C so I am posting for all those people that were misled. By a group that is willing to stop at nothing to hang on to power we have heard so much about the "old.boys club" is this now "new boys club".

Where did they get everybody's email's?

Hello Dean,

I just wanted to let you know that the blog that is out there, supposedly by S.C. Rudegan, has nothing to do with me.  I've posted a response on John Prince's blog, but I don't know if he will allow it.  I think it is idiotic, when there are real issues to discuss, that people are getting distracted for even one moment by b.s. like this.  I'll address this more in my next column, unfortunately it will be after the election.  I just wanted you to know that the sentiments expressed on the "blog" have nothing to do with me or my opinions.

 

S.C. Rudegan