RING ROAD NAME GAME
Tsuut’ina Trail spurs debate
Tsuut’ina’s chief wants all 101 kilometres of Calgary’s still incomplete ring road named after the venerable First Nation on the city’s periphery.
On Monday, the nation, along with its federal, provincial and municipal partners, announced the yet-to-be-completed southwest leg of Stoney Trail — named for the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation west of Calgary — will be named Tsuut’ina Trail.
But Chief Lee Crowchild said he’d like to see the entire highway named after the Tsuut’ina to honour their role in bringing the massive infrastructure project to completion.
“This road has symbolic meaning as well — it is more than infrastructure,” he said. “We believe that the entire ring road can and should be named Tsuut’ina Trail.”
Crowchild said the notion is no slight to the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation, but an acknowledgment of their crucial role in the megaproject. He said the nation was finally able to find common ground with the province thanks to an acknowledgment of the importance of the land.
“It wasn’t about the dollars, it was about a recognition of our ancestors and the hard work they’d put into that portion of the land,” he said.
“I think because we worked so close with the city, it just seemed like that would probably make sense.
“All respect given to the StoneyNakodas, to the brothers and sisters out there, but we want to include them in part of the conversations in the future as well.”
The $2.2-billion stretch of the southwest ring road had been in negotiations for decades, with several false starts before a deal was finally hammered out in 2013.
Last September, the province contracted Mountain View Partners to design, construct and maintain and operate the road for the next 30 years.
Construction is now underway on the 31-kilometre stretch of six- and eight-lane divided highway that will connect Highway 8 to Highway 22X in the city’s southwest. The project will include 14 interchanges, one road flyover, a flyover railway crossing, 47 bridges, two bridge rehabilitations, three river crossings and realignments of the Elbow River and Fish Creek.
Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason said he’s pleased to see Tsuut’ina’s portion of the ring road named for them, but said he’s not sure of the implications of renaming the entire highway.
“Well, that presents a difficulty, doesn’t it?” Mason said, adding he’d only learned of the Tsuut’ina pitch in recent days.
“It doesn’t take a political science graduate to see the difficulty, but certainly I’m prepared to talk to the chief and, if necessary, to talk to the three chiefs in the Stoney Nation as well, and if they can reach some sort of agreement, I think we can, too.
No one from Stoney Tribal Administration was available for comment Monday.
Mason said the southwest portion remains on track to be open to traffic in 2021 and the province is aiming to begin the ring road’s final link — on the city’s west side connecting 16th Avenue N.W. to Highway 8 — as soon as the ongoing work wraps up.
“We’ve got it in the capital budget and we’re planning to continue with the construction of the west ring road immediately following and seamlessly in conjunction with the finishing of the southwest portion,” he said.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the road’s new moniker will be a reminder to Calgarians that they have an enduring partnership with the neighbouring First Nation.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to look at this beautiful land and recognize what the Tsuut’ina have given up in order to allow this piece of infrastructure to be built,” he said.
“Naming the street Tsuut’ina Trail is a great reminder for every commuter who’s going to drive on it of the land through which it passes, but also the partnership and the neighbourliness we have with the Tsuut’ina Nation.”
As for the Tsuut’ina suggestion about renaming the entire ring road, the mayor took a pass.
“That is a question way above my pay grade,” Nenshi said.