| Liberal leader Kevin Taft is questioning whether it is appropriate for a massive development 1.5 kilometres north of Calgary to be getting its water from the Red Deer River, which is nowhere near the development.
United Horsemen of Alberta and Ivanhoe Cambridge are planning a joint development on the east side of Highway 2, just off the Balzac interchange, which will include a racetrack, casino, hotel, conference centre and major mall. The racetrack and casino complex will have a capacity for 7,850 patrons and will have 500 slot machines. The proposed mall will be 1.4 million square feet, which is slightly larger than Chinook Centre. The entire development will cover 263 hectares.
The M.D. of Rockyview has put in an application to Alberta Environment asking for permission for the developers to withdraw 5,000 cubic metres of water per day from the Red Deer River. The M.D. made the application after the government put a moratorium on any further withdrawals from the South Saskatchewan River basin, including the Bow River, in September in order to protect the aquatic environment of the basin. Alberta Environment is still reviewing the request to withdraw water from the Red Deer River and is still accepting public feedback, says spokesperson Erin Carrier.
"My concerns are that once the water is allocated to this huge project on the northern edge of Calgary it’s gone forever for use by the people who live along the Red Deer River. We have already overcommitted every single river in southern Alberta except the Red Deer River. We have to ask ourselves a huge question. Do we want to commit what remains of the last river in southern Alberta to a shopping mall and a racehorse complex?" asks Taft.
However, Kent Robinson, acting Chief Administrative Officer for the M.D. of Rockyview, says if the water licence is approved it will not have a major impact on the water availability in the Red Deer River.
"The amount that we’re trying to draw out is just a fraction of what’s available for allocation from the Red Deer River," says Robinson.
He says the M.D. is already licensed to take water out of the Red Deer River for the use of the communities of Beiseker and Irricana. The water for those communities comes from the Kneehill Regional Water Services Commission. The M.D. is a member of the commission.
"All we’re looking to do is extend the pipeline further and service this new development. Unfortunately we didn’t have any other alternative," says Robinson.
However, Taft says the increasing water scarcity in Alberta should mean that all new developments are more closely scrutinized.
"Alberta’s reached the point, especially the southern half of the province, where we need to decide whether projects go ahead or not on the basis of water allocation," says Taft.
In a September media release from the M.D. of Rockyview the M.D. says the project will create thousands of jobs and double its industrial and commercial tax base.
Robinson says even with the increasing water shortage in the province it wouldn’t be fair if the province decided some projects were worthy of water licences and others weren’t.
"The difficulty with that whole idea is who makes the judgement call? I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that position to say this group gets water over that group. I would suggest if there’s water available, based on the experts that say it’s available, what we need to focus on is that people who are using water use it wisely," he says.
Taft says it’s not fair to the people who live adjacent to the Red Deer River to have developers nowhere near the river taking water out of it.
"Draining water from another river basin and constraining the future of all the people who live on the Red Deer River is not a good way to be solving Rockyview’s problems," he says.
The issue of who should be allowed to use water from the Red Deer River isn’t likely to go away.
"We may start to see more of (these applications) because of the closure of the South Saskatchewan River Basin," says Carrier. |
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