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Rocky View County's top 10 news stories of 2021

Former Crossfield CAO sues Town In early February, the Town of Crossfield announced its chief administrative officer, Ken Bosman, had been released from his contract.
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Former Crossfield CAO sues Town

In early February, the Town of Crossfield announced its chief administrative officer, Ken Bosman, had been released from his contract.

According to a Town press release, the decision was made after a special council meeting was held privately the night of Feb. 9 to discuss "personnel matters."

“Town council has complete confidence in the exceptional staff we have throughout our organization who will ensure continuity of the programs and services our residents depend on while the recruitment process is underway," said then-mayor Jo Tennant, in the release.

After Bosman's departure, long-time Town employee Merel Jarvis filled in as Crossfield’s interim CAO.

In early April, legal counsel representing Bosman said the former CAO would be suing the municipality for more than $220,000 over an alleged breach of contract, according to the statement of claim.

“The Town passed a motion on Feb. 9 to pay out Mr. Bosman’s contract,” said his lawyer, Jonathan Denis. “That’s all we’re asking for. If you look at the statement of claim itself…it would appear to us a decision is being made based on politics and not legal principles. To me, that’s quite problematic and could result in significantly higher costs to the Town than if they just honoured their obligations, like we expected.”

As of press time, the Town had not issued any further advancements on the state of the lawsuit.

After the dust settled, municipal government veteran Sue Keenan was hired as Crossfield’s new CAO on Sept. 27. Keenan previously worked as CAO for the Town of Fort Macleod for six years. Prior to that, she held positions as a parks and recreation director in both Alberta and British Columbia.

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RVC heads to the polls

The year 2021, on top of everything else that came with it, also saw Rocky View County residents vote in both federal and municipal elections.

Within the County, there were some mild shake-ups on council, as former reeve Daniel Henn, Kim McKylor, and Jerry Gautreau did not retain their seats in the Oct. 18 vote. That made way for candidates Don Kochan, who would later be appointed as mayor, and Sunny Samra as council’s newcomers.

In other divisions, incumbents managed to retain their seats. Coun. Kevin Hanson secured his position by beating out Division 1 contender Brent Moore by a tally of 1,024 to 729. In the Division 3 race, Coun. Crystal Kissel beat out contender Jolene Airth by a vote of 806 to 745. Coun. Samanntha Wright won her division in a close race, beating both Henn and Roc Spence with 808 total votes. Former Bragg Creek-area councillor Mark Kamachi did not run for re-election.

Out east, the election saw  Gautreau lose his seat to Conrich real estate agent Samra in deciding fashion. Samra, a first-time candidate, secured 969 total votes on election day. The next closest in one of the most contested divisions was former RVC reeve Rolly Ashdown, who tallied 452 votes. Former reeve and council veteran Greg Boehlke retained his northeast seat as well, beating out three contenders. 

Federally, a snap election was called in August, which meant Albertans voted in that election on Sept. 20. The federal vote saw little change in the make-up of the House of Commons, as the Liberals maintained a minority government. The governing Liberals gained a total of just three seats in comparison to the results of the 2019 federal election, while the Conservatives lost two seats to maintain Official Opposition status.

In local ridings, Conservative Party candidates Blake Richards and Martin Shields easily retained their seats in Banff-Airdrie and Bow River, respectively.

Crossfield byelection

While Town council was eventually acclaimed in the October election, Crossfield did see a number of changes to its roster of elected officials earlier this year, with a byelection held to fill two vacancies before the municipal vote on Oct. 18.

After Coun. Devon Helfrich passed away in January and Deputy Mayor Glenn “Shorty” Price stepped down in early March due to medical reasons, two vacant seats remained on council heading into the spring months.

Following a public survey on the matter, the Town announced that a byelection would be held in May to fill the two vacancies. At the time, the announcement marked Crossfield’s second byelection in less than 12 months – in October 2020, Kim Harris and Justin Gustafson were elected in a byelection to replace former council members Liz Grace and Beth Gabriel, who resigned in June 2020.

Three candidates ultimately ran in the May byelection. Mike Knight and Joanne Cornelssen proved victorious after a total of 334 residents went to the polls. Knight received 281 votes while Cornelssen secured 195. The third and final council hopeful, Jean Gauthier, received 146 votes.

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Al Hoggan resigns

After two and a half years on the job and controversy surrounded his hiring, Rocky View County’s former CAO Al Hoggan announced in April that he would be leaving his position with the County to accept a similar role with the Municipal District of Bonnyville.

“He sent his resignation to me and I let council know on Thursday morning around 10 a.m.,” former Reeve Daniel Henn said at the time of the announcement, adding he was surprised and saddened to see Hoggan resign from the County's top administrative position.

“Mr. Hoggan did an outstanding job for Rocky View County for the last three years and I’m extremely disappointed to see him leave.”

While Hoggan did not supply a reason for his resignation, the Reeve of the M.D. of Bonnyville, Greg Sawchuk, confirmed April 8 that Hoggan was hired by the M.D. after being selected through the municipality's approval process.

On April 9, RVC officially issued a statement regarding Hoggan’s resignation.

“In Al Hoggan’s time with us, he helped administration and council focus on making the right decisions, instead of concentrating on forms and processes,” the release stated. “He was very open to meeting with stakeholders to find solutions to new and longstanding issues.

“His strong leadership helped move us forward at a time when so many other municipalities are facing challenges. Rocky View County will continue to benefit from his leadership through the programs and approaches he put in place. We wish him and his family every success in their future endeavours.”

After Hoggan had officially left RVC, long-time County employee and executive director of corporate services Kent Robinson filled the position for the next nine months. At their Dec. 14 meeting, RVC council approved the appointment of the County's executive director of operations Byron Riemann to replace Robinson in the acting CAO role as of Jan. 1, 2022.

Hoggan had been hired in December 2018 after a split decision from council, which eventually led to controversy around his hiring process that saw three councillors placed under sanctions after submitting a letter to the editor to the Rocky View Weekly.

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Samanntha Wright exonerated

Coun. Samanntha Wright was vindicated in 2021 in her court battle against the County, which had sought her disqualification since 2019.

On May 31, RVC's case against Wright was dismissed by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench.

The County had sought Wright’s disqualification due to matters of alleged pecuniary interest and failure to pay municipal taxes on time. After the original court date had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the judge's verdict – siding with Wright – was delivered on May 31.

At that time, the County’s case against Wright had been going on for nearly a year and a half, after a press release dated Jan. 14, 2020 called for her dismissal from council due to her voting on matters RVC claimed she had pecuniary interest in. According to that release, Wright participated in a public hearing and council discussions before voting on a conceptual scheme and land use re-designation for the Bear’s Paw Heights development on Jan. 8, 2019.

Presiding Justice Nicholas E. Devlin sided with Wright on both items. In the official ruling document, he said in regard to the pecuniary interest matter, Wright was, at worst, honestly mistaken.

As for Wright’s failure to pay taxes, she had argued her husband is responsible for all household bills, including property taxes. She swore she believed he had paid the property taxes on their family’s behalf and that their account with RVC was current.

Despite siding with the councillor, Devlin said Wright’s personal arrangements with her husband in no way diminished her individual responsibility to pay taxes on the property as its co-owner.

In November, Devlin issued his ruling on costs, ordering RVC to pay Wright $40,000.

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SR-1 approved

The ever-contentious Springbank Off-stream Reservoir Project was officially given the green light this year, after gaining the seal of approval from both federal and provincial regulators.

The Natural Resources Conservation Board, an arms-length regulator of the Alberta government, announced its approval of the $430-million project in a press release on June 22. The regulator cited the dry reservoir – commonly referred to as SR-1 – as being in the public interest.

“The board concluded that the project will provide much-needed flood protection to the city of Calgary,” the release stated.

First announced in 2014, SR-1 is a flood mitigation project proposed in response to the 2013 floods in southern Alberta, which resulted in five deaths and approximately $5 billion in financial losses and property damage.

The dry reservoir will be built on 3,780 acres in Springbank and include a diversion channel to help control Elbow River flow rates in the event of a flood.

During flood events, water would be diverted from the Elbow River into an off-stream reservoir, constructed near Springbank Road and Highway 22, approximately 15 kilometres west of Calgary. Once the risk of flooding subsides, the water in the reservoir would be returned to the Elbow River in a controlled manner. The reservoir, which would activate when water reaches 160 cubic metres per second, is designed to store up to 77.2 million cubic metres of water.

The NRCB’s approval came after an 11-day virtual public hearing in March and April that included presentations from numerous stakeholders, including Alberta Transportation members, area residents, Stoney Nakoda First Nations members, and others.    

The project has seen pushback from area residents since it was proposed. Springbank Community Association president Karin Hunter said residents were “disappointed” when they learned the project would be moving forward.

“We think the decision shows an utter lack of vision,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s a lost opportunity for Albertans to get something that could have been a positive legacy. We could have had a lake, a provincial park to create jobs and tourism to help diversify our economy [or] an asset that managed our water resources and protected and preserved our water supply in times of flood or drought.

“Instead, we get SR-1, which destroys and sterilizes 4,000 acres of wetlands, native grasslands and other sensitive ecosystems.”

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RVC residents aim to take Kamachi to court

There was never a dull moment with the previous RVC council, and another event that added to the laundry list of controversy in 2021 was when a group of residents from the Rocky View Forward advocacy group aimed to take then Div. 1 councillor Mark Kamachi to court.

Their reasoning, according to the residents, was over matters of pecuniary interest and failing to maintain eligibility.

“We raised our concerns in person with Kamachi and Reeve Daniel Henn back in January,” said Rocky View Forward spokesperson Janet Ballantyne in a press release. “We advised Kamachi that he could either resign quietly or we would take the matter to court.”

According to legal documents filed March 25, the pecuniary interest claims stem from Kamachi’s advertising company, AdMaki. The court documents allege the Bragg Creek-based business has done a “substantial” amount of advertising work for the County.

The document claims as Kamachi has been paid for services out of the County’s economic development budget, his vote on matters regarding economic development combats the Municipal Government Act (MGA), and therefore causes issues of pecuniary interest.

“The Respondent has never disclosed his pecuniary interest in the Economic Development department’s budget, nor has he abstained from voting on matters that involved the Economic Development department’s budget,” the document stated. “The respondent has, instead, participated in the council votes for the County’s annual operating budgets.”

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RVC denied specialized municipality status

After nearly two years of County administration exploring and working toward gaining specialized municipality status for RVC, the Alberta government denied the application in April.

RVC applied for Specialized Municipality status last year, having examined the merits of such a classification since March 2019. Currently, the County is classified as a Municipal District, which the Municipal Government Act defines as being primarily rural in nature.

According to an April press release from the County, a specialized municipality designation would have provided RVC easier ways to create service delivery areas supported by varying tax rates. Becoming a Specialized Municipality would also have made the County eligible for more urban grants and funding programs.

In the release, the County stated it is facing “increasingly diverging demands” for services from the different urban, country residential, rural, commercial, and industrial areas of the municipality.

Across Alberta, specialized municipality status has only ever been granted to six of the province’s 352 municipalities. The Alberta communities with a specialized classification include Lac La Biche County, the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, the Municipality of Jasper, Mackenzie County, Strathcona County, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

As Alberta’s fifth largest economic base, with more than 40,000 residents and one million acres of land that border 13 other municipalities and four First Nations, RVC believed it was in a unique situation that warranted the designation.

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Gravel pit applications

As per usual, the subject of gravel pits in RVC served to be quite controversial in 2021.

This year, two main applications saw both sides of the fence in terms of approval by RVC council. In the first, council rejected a contentious gravel pit application after a two-day council meeting deemed the application held more negative impacts than positive.

Council's rejection meant the Lehigh Hanson Inc. plan to develop a large gravel pit on the 600-acre site at Rocky Ridge Road and 144th Avenue NW was voted down for the third time in 27 years. Lehigh Hansen’s proposed development was previously denied by councils in 2010 and 1994.

The application was rejected by a vote of 8-1, with Coun. Greg Boehlke the only member voting in favour.

Just weeks later, council approved a controversial gravel pit application near Big Hill Springs Provincial Park, despite a resounding amount of opposition from residents.

The decision came at the tail end of a special council meeting and public hearing held on March 2. The application, made by Mountain Ash LP, will see a more than 320-acre gravel pit from a quarry located approximately 300 metres away from the Big Hill Spring’s creek underground headwaters, and 1,200 metres from the park’s boundary. It was passed by a vote of 6-3.

After the decision, groups like the Bighill Creek Preservation Society vowed they would continue to advocate against the development.

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Beiseker café defies restrictions

While much of the province was in a COVID-inflicted lockdown in January, the Arcadia Café in Beiseker defied provincial restrictions by deciding to remain open to customers.

Joanne Diaz, owner of the café, said her decision to continue offering dine-in service was one of survival for her business. She followed the lead of other restaurants in rural Alberta that flouted COVID-19 restrictions, including restaurants in Bonnyville and Mirror.

“We either had to open or close our doors for good,” Diaz said in a January interview. “It was coming down to where we would lose everything we’ve got. I’ve put a lot into this café.

"Yesterday, we did $80 [in sales] and the day before, we did $84. That’s not going to cut it.”

Diaz claimed takeout was not working, and the business was not making enough in revenue to support its bottom line.

Since the decision to remain open, Diaz said she has had to deal with heading to court and losing the café’s Alberta Health Services food handling permit.

Although the situation could have ended in massive fines, Diaz said she had her day in court and claimed to have won her case.

“We were the only restaurant who won in court,” she said. “I had the whole RCMP department sitting there to testify against me.”

After winning the court case, she said she jumped through multiple hoops to get back her food handling permit. Once it was retained, Diaz said business improved during the summer but has dropped off dramatically since then.

Although there are fears of having to close her café due to low traffic, Diaz said she does not regret her decision to defy public health orders.

“I wish everybody would have done it,” she said.

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