The former Calgary city councillor behind a push to save a large swath of a Calgary-area park from the impact of a potential dam believes advocacy played a major role in the province’s decision to choose a different path.
Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation CEO and former Ward 11 city councillor Jeromy Farkas told LWC Wednesday that the province’s decision to pursue the Ghost River reservoir option instead of the Glenbow East version is a credit to the communities standing up to have their voice heard.
“If it wasn’t for the communities speaking up in such a big way about how important these parks and green spaces are, we probably would have had a different decision today,” Farkas said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Government of Alberta said that after reviewing multiple options, they’ve determined that an expanded and relocated Ghost Dam option was better than the Glenbow East option for delivering upstream flood and drought mitigation along the Bow River. They said a lower cost, the ability to mitigate both flood and future drought, plus limited social and environmental impact made the Ghost River option “significantly better.”
“Increasing water storage capacity is critical to protecting Calgary and other communities along the Bow River from future floods and drought,” said Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas.
“Based on the data collected in the study, one option, the relocated Ghost Dam, is clearly the best choice to move forward with.”
The province said that the Glenbow East option had higher risk to downstream communities during construction. They also said that the earthfill dam was more susceptible to erosion and failure in large flood events, compared to Ghost, which is a concrete gravity dam.
The Ghost Dam also has a smaller projected footprint while having comparable water storage to the Glenbow East version.
Ongoing advocacy presents important information to Alberta government
Farkas said that he was thankful the province contributed to a robust public discussion on the impact of the Glenbow East option. He said they participated in public town hall events put on by various groups. They also had online engagement open to the public.
“It was very, very clear that the more that people knew, the less the Glenbow Dam made sense for a number of different reasons,” Farkas said.
He said their contribution that showed the Glenbow option may have helped protect Calgary while sending floodwaters back into Cochrane was important. As was advocating for an option that helped solve both flooding and potential future drought.
The Glenbow option was wide and shallow, with greater evaporation, Farkas said. The Ghost option is deeper, lessening the evaporation.
“Once we were able to reframe the conversation not just about flooding, but also about drought, that was a big game changer for us,” he said.
The clincher came down to the value of a promise, Farkas said. Parks in the area – like Glenbow Ranch Park and nearby Haskayne Park – were built on the premise of a promise. It was the promise that land donated by local philanthropists would go untouched and preserved for future generations.
“What we heard in our conversations, really, from coast to coast to coast with the Nature Conservancy movement, was that all eyes were on Alberta,” Farkas said.
“Would this government essentially tear up those contracts and take that land that was supposed to be protected forever? Would they instead go on and break those promises? That was the big question.”
With this hurdle overcome, Farkas said there’s a sense of relief among folks who have been working on this decision far longer than he – many since 2013.
“We think advocacy really was what saved the day for us and there’s just so many people having so many sleepless nights over the past years, worried about this outcome and lots of us are going to be sleeping a lot better tonight,” he said.
The province said the next step is Phase 3, which will be the engineering and regulatory approval for the project. More information is expected in 2025.
