Province may seize land for dam
Deadline near for property owners to sign deal or face expropriation
The clock is ticking on Springbank-area landowners to make a deal with the provincial government to make way for a massive flood mitigation dam and reservoir.
After several years of negotiations, the property owners have until the end of July to reach an agreement with the province, which needs the land to build the Springbank dry dam and hopes to begin construction next spring.
If agreements are not reached, the province could begin expropriating the land, Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney said Tuesday.
“The timeline is very slim. If it doesn't (happen), there's the option of expropriation but that's not our first choice,” she said.
“I can say truly the province has engaged very faithfully and competently and will engage to make sure their voices are heard.”
Up to 44 per cent of the land needed for the massive project has been acquired by the province, said Sawhney, while an official with her department said four families remain holdouts.
The work is meant to prevent a repeat of the disastrous flooding that occurred in the summer of 2013 — which caused more than $5 billion in damage and killed five people — by diverting water from the Elbow River, store it in a reservoir and release it once the threat is over.
The cost of the project has already ballooned from an initial $200 million to $432 million, and could rise even more, said Sawhney.
“It's hard to say what that final number will be, it will depend on the (land) negotiations that we undertake and what the construction contracts will look like,” she said.
A provincial official said a lone First Nations holdout — the Stoney Nakoda — had signed a letter of non-opposition on July 2, joining a dozen others.
Last year, the Tsuut'ina Nation ended its opposition after the province promised $32 million in flood mitigation measures.
The federal government on Tuesday said it has also finalized nearly $168.5 million in funding to build the dam, a move that will help clear the way for its construction.
Ottawa's share was originally earmarked in 2019 but a federal environmental review's approval releases that money.
Earlier this month, the Assessment Impact Agency of Canada issued a report, signed by federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, that concluded the dam, known as SR1, was the best option to prevent severe flooding and wouldn't significantly affect the environment if conditions were met.
And in June, following public hearings in March and April, the province's Natural Resources Conservation Board granted approval for the project, also concluding it was superior to the Mclean Creek option.
The dry dam would cover 1,438 hectares of land 15 kilometres west of Calgary, north of Highway 8 and east of Highway 22, with a capacity to hold 78 million cubic metres of water.
Opponents, primarily landowners who will be displaced or otherwise affected by the reservoir, have contended the project will be too disruptive, poses health and environmental hazards, and that a site upstream at Mclean Creek would be a better option.
A vocal opponent of the project said the remaining landowners are reluctant to speak out now for fear of jeopardizing the ongoing negotiations.
“But everybody loses here,” said Karin Hunter of the Springbank Community Association.
“This could be the biggest expropriation in Alberta's history … so much for landowner rights.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who backs the dam, urged its opponents to think of those killed in the 2013 deluge, citing an elderly woman who died while protecting a neighbour's cats when the Elbow River overflowed its banks in the Mission district.
“I'll say, `please remember Lorraine and her sacrifice and understand that we are a community of people together and we have to protect people,'” he said.
“There has been eight years of study on all those other options … and ultimately every single study has said the Springbank off-stream reservoir is the right solution.”
Wilkinson, speaking Tuesday along the banks of the Elbow River against a backdrop of skies clouded with wildfire smoke, said projects like the Springbank Dam are crucial in disaster-proofing Canadians against extreme weather driven by climate change.
“We must adapt to climate change already baked into our future,” he said.
“We must work to make our communities more resilient, and that's what this announcement is about.”
Construction of the dam and reservoir should take three years to complete, the province has said.