Gondola Update (August 2022)

Gondola Update (August 2022)

In February 2021, I wrote a blog post detailing some of my thoughts on the proposed gondola. If you haven’t had the chance to read through that, I would encourage you to read that first (link above) because much of what I wrote in that update is still relevant now. With council set to discuss a conditional lease agreement with Prairie Sky Gondola, I thought it would be appropriate to provide an update on where things are at.

First, it’s important to note that if the conditional lease were to be approved on August 10th, that does not mean the project would proceed. A number of the issues I referenced in the February 2021 blog would still need to be addressed and would require approval by City Council. Therefore, the gondola cannot be built with a yes vote on August 10th. Having conditions in the lease ensure that unless those are met, the project would not proceed. I’ll touch on a few of those conditions later in the post.

Back in February 2021, City Council gave approval to allow Prairie Sky Gondola to begin all the necessary regulatory work at their cost to determine whether a future city council would allow this project to be built. At the time, one of the biggest concerns raised was if any City money would be used. It was clear that the overwhelming majority of people, including me, did not believe that any City money should be used and it was made clear through a motion by City Council that no taxpayer dollars would be used if this were to proceed.

Going one step further, it was made clear that any agreement would require a financial guarantee that if the project were to proceed and then fail at a later date, taxpayers would not be on the hook to remove the infrastructure. The conditional lease being discussed on August 10th clearly states that there will be a bond that ensures any decommissioning of this project, if it were to proceed, would be paid for by Prairie Sky. The conditional agreement also states that the amount in the bond has to be reviewed at set intervals so that the amount in the bond reflects current day costs.

To be very clear, I am neither ready to say yes or no to this project at this point. While the conditional lease has resolved the financial concerns, there are still a number of outstanding issues that need to be addressed. My previous blog post outlines those issues in greater detail but the two biggest concerns for me relate to the environmental impact and the concerns raised about burial grounds.

The conditional lease is clear that an Environmental Impact Assessment must be completed and that would come back to City Council to approve or reject. What is less clear from what I have read is if the archeological work related to the burial grounds can be independently reviewed and if that is required to come back to City Council for acceptance prior to that condition being removed from the lease.

I believe it needs to come back to council before being removed because it’s a significant issue. This also extends far beyond the gondola conversation as the River Crossing Plan, which is a land use plan for the Rossdale area, is also likely to be impacted by this work. We need to develop a clear plan for how we will address this going forward. It’s not clear to me how much of Rossdale has burial grounds and we need to understand that because it would impact the future of current residents and any future plans.

If I’m going to vote for or against something, I’d like to have concrete evidence to inform that vote. We don’t have that evidence yet. I want to know that those many remaining regulatory issues can be addressed. If they can't, I wouldn't support this project. This is similar to what I wrote last year and it still stands today.

Going into the discussion on August 10th, I look forward to hearing the perspectives of those who have registered to speak and will listen to that feedback closely. That will be combined with the feedback that I’ve already received. To close this post, I want to share a thread that I felt did an excellent job articulating my feelings about where we are at today and what we need to consider going forward. Thanks to Kirsten Goa for allowing me to share the thread she wrote on my post:

https://twitter.com/kirstengoa/status/1554579761292120065?s=21&t=h-szG3jR1zhlPVZb4L9BWg

For those that have any additional questions or feedback, please share that in the comments below.