FFWD Weekly
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City by Tom Babin While provincial environment ministers debate climate change and world leaders struggle to sell the Kyoto Protocol to their citizens, Banff is beginning an ambitious plan that could make them one of the most eco-friendly towns in the world. The mountain mecca is in the second year of a three-year project to gather baseline information about virtually every environmental factor in town, and from there, programs will be implemented to mitigate those factors. The ultimate goal is to create a town that has no impact on its surrounding environment, but even if it fails in that lofty goal, the town is burning a trail to a cleaner lifestyle that can be a model for municipalities all across Canada. "The thing that we're finding is that Banff is being seen as a leader in the process. We don't have a problem with that," says Banff Mayor Dennis Shuler. "(Other municipalities) may look at it and say, 'We may use different standards and we may have different requirements,' but the thing is, if they can follow the process that we're doing and then go from there, it's going to be useful for them." The genesis for the project lies in the much-maligned National Parks Act, and more specifically in the Banff Community Plan, both of which have been criticized by the tourism industry almost continually since their adoption, and have placed a target on Sheila Copps's back. Buried in the National Parks Act is a clause that states all communities within National Parks must be consistent with the principle of "no net negative environmental impact." While that clause itself is a bit vague – former Banff mayor Ted Hart mocked its ambiguity last year during a park management conference – it forced the town to take a serious look at the impact it was having on its surrounding environment. Last year, Banff was the first community to tackle the principle. The three-year project includes conducting an air quality survey, creating a vegetation map of the town and even putting together an aquatic quality survey. Once all that information is obtained, the hard part of the job will begin: implementing programs to reduce that impact. "Ultimately, you want to become a community that has zero affect on the environment," Shuler says. "The water goes into the river no different than the water you took out of it. It doesn't mean it doesn't have, theoretically, some pollutants in it, but if the natural level of phosphorous is at such and such, then the water you put back in is the same. Then with buildings, have we got enough vegetation and green space so that the gasses being put out are neutral?" Shuler says the program is still so new it is difficult to tell what it may entail, but the town is starting off by re-examining its own operations and buildings. There are plans to outfit municipal buildings with solar panels, with the goal to eventually take them off the power grid. The town already has an extensive education campaign to encourage people to use energy and water more efficiently, and there is a detailed transportation plan to encourage alternative modes of transportation. The town also hopes to avoid some of the opposition Parks Canada has met with by encouraging, rather than forcing, participation. "Part of the criticism that some people have in some of the things that Parks (Canada) has developed, is they haven't been developed with the clear consultation with the parties. That's one of the problems some of the ski hills have had. They say, 'Hey we haven't been consulted on this.' And of course, with the town, what we're doing, we're going to do with our own buildings first, and then encourage other people to do it. We think the carrot approach is better," Shuler says. The program, however, isn't cheap. The initial baseline study was projected to cost the town about $100,000. An upgrade to the waste-water treatment plant that will remove phosphorous from the water at a rate 20 times the provincial standard will likely run up to $15 million. The town is footing the bill largely by itself. Though it has a little financial aid from Parks Canada, that organization is busy applying the same principle to its own operations outside the town. Shuler says he has no idea what the program will cost when completed, and doesn't even know if the program will be worth it in the long run, but adds that part of the point is that the town is taking a leadership role. "On the energy savings, on no net environmental impact, on lighting standards and those kinds of things, we expect a recovery time.... The energy costs are definitely worth it. "The other costs, such as the climate control, it's futile if Banff is the only community in North America doing this. Some of this stuff is dependent on a lot of other people joining into it." However, it proves that action to combat climate change and environmental deterioration can be undertaken at a local level. Shuler says he believes most of the town supports the plans, and according to the recent municipal census, 60 per cent of residents already reported using alternative transportation to get to work in the summer. The initiative will also make life easier for any municipality that tries to follow in Banff’s tracks. The town is venturing into places no Canadian community has gone before, and once the country has seen the results, the program can be transferred and improved upon. "To start with, Banff isn't a real heavily polluting community. We don't have any industry here, and we're in a very small geographic area, so very obviously, most of the pollution that goes into the air from Banff is automobile and building, and sewage," Shuler says. "To me it would seem, the more polluting the community, the more potential there is."

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