Riversdale Resources-- Crowsnest Pass

Coal mining revival in Crowsnest Pass eyed by Australian company

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/coal-mining-revival-in-crowsnest-pass-eyed-by-australian-company-1.2781083


Riversdale will be hosting an open house today (Sept 30) from 2-6pm and tomorrow (Oct 1) from 2-7pm at the Crowsnest Pass Sports Complex.

They will be providing updates on the following topics:

Options for the rail and train load out.
Ongoing Environmental studies
Feasibility Study.

NOTE: Three options presented for the load-out, which I was told will be a 50' high enclosed building, trains will be up to 152 cars with three engines which is 8300' in length. The load-out will hold enough coal to load one train (16,000 plus tonnes) At two million tonnes there will be a train on average every third day.
Two options; show by my count nine holes of the golf courses including the club house area being taken out. To allow for the train to loop around and be loaded, on one option it shows the load-out about 1-1.5km up the hill from the highway. The second of these options shows the load-out adjacent to the highway a little east of where the golf course parking lot is. With both of these options the train will go under highway 3 roughly where the entrance to the old highway is, west of Tim Hortons.

The third option is running the coal by conveyor under the highway similar to the above, west of Tim Hortons again, with the belt going through the old pole plant yard to a load-out just west of that. There will be an additional rail siding there which will mean that the trains will require at least 8300' of track on each side of the load-out.

Who owns the Best Western rights?

Lot's of information from various sources draw your own conclusions on who actually owns the Best Western rights.  The fact that the $50,000 will be paid back when the land is sold, still means the taxpayer will be receiving $50,000 less value for the property.

The following comes from the municipalities own press release announcing that the deal with Medican collasped.


"The Vachon Group, who is still the official applicant for the hotel development, intends to continue working with Crowsnest Pass on the complex". 


Comments from July 16 G+P meeting 

Chris Vachon spoke to council regarding this issue made some very interesting comments and responses to Councilors questions:

-Investors that were previously lined up went to what they know best the condo market

-The Best Western brand and franchise was approved for the Pass under the Vachon group

-The cost to maintain the Best Western for two years will be $50,000, the way it came across to myself is Vachon put the money up six months ago. The municipality as a deadline of July 26 to make a decision on if they will pay the $50,000 to maintain the rights to Best Western. If they don’t I suspect Mr Vachon will get his $50k back from Best Western and the option to own those rights will disappear.

At this point Councilor Gail asked if there would be a problem finding Investors down the road especially with the MCNP already having the feasibility study done?

Mr Vachon told him that Best Western came in and did their own study and would probably have to update the study when new Investors show up. He also stated that new Investors showing up would be tied to what happens in the Coal/lumber markets locally.

Councilor Londsbury asked if Best Western sees this town has a viable option?

Mr Vachon gave a qualified yes based on once again what happens in the coal industry.

Councilor Saindon asked how can Medican pull out, didn’t we have an agreement, didn’t we honor our side of the agreement, thing’s get difficult they pull out?

Myron Thompson stated terms of the agreement were not met by Medican the contract became null and void.

Councilor Saindon asked what was the out clauses that Medican used?

Myron Thompson responded with “various clauses”.

Councilor Gallant said Best Western did not play games, independent studies said this location was viable, he asked how long Sparwood has been on Best Western books and is there a time limit on how long they will be on the books?

Mr Vachon stated that he did not know Sparwood was trying to get a Best Western until they filed the application for Blairmore. He also stated that Best Western watchs a location for signs of moving forward (foundations being put in place etc)

Councilor Mitchell asked if he had heard correctly that there is a deadline of July 26?

Mr Vachon said yes for the $50,000

Councilor Saje asked for an explanation of what the status of the present contract is?

Mr Vachon stated we will talk further later in the meeting (In Camera)

Pass Herald July 16

“What brings me out here is to see if there is any interest in pursuing a new investment group, under myself,” said Vachon.

Crowsnest Pass Peomoter 

The curious case of the hotel Part 3 from Joni MacFarlane

You'd be forgiven for having difficulty keeping track of the unfolding events surrounding a proposed development for the former Crowsnest Centre site.

Ever since it was announced that the first deal had gone south, the story’s taken more twists and turns than Senator Pamela Wallin’s travel expenses.

First we’re told that after much legal wrangling, a large construction company had been awarded the sale and contract of the site.

An open house presenting an architect’s conceptual designs was held when a new name emerges – that of Chris Vachon, a hotel management consultant.

The Medican deal falls through and now Vachon holds all the rights and none of the risk to secure a Best Western franchise. With hands held to the fire, we’re told it’s now or never - pay this fellow or kiss Best Western goodbye forever.

Now another name comes crawling out of the woodwork – that of Clay Cup Development. Apparently, they were originally involved in the deal before Vachon came along. We’re told they too are an approved Best Western developer and have built one in the past. They call the “now or never” scenario bunk and say that’s not how it works.

They also claim municipalities don’t pay these fees and that it sends up “red flags” to be asked to. Clearly the majority of council members are colour blind.

But wait, there’s more. Clay Cup says they chose to walk away from the deal when they read the “amateurish” feasibility study. Some members of council said they were fired.

Who is telling the truth here and who is not?

Is council adequately investigating these conflicts of information before playing with taxpayers’ money?

More worrying is the obvious conflict between what some members of council knew and what some did not. When and how was this information imparted and why are some members in the dark?

Now with close to a million dollars committed to demolish the site, find investors, a builder, and who knows what else to make a Best Western hotel a reality, this business of “he said - he said” is farcical.