Canmore Downtown BRZ Media
Snow Track Back for Carnival
by Sondy Szymanis on 12/22/11
Snow track back for carnival
A big hit during the last two Canmore Winter Carnivals, the snow track on Main Street will make a return, says event manager Ric Proctor.
“Two years ago, there was a World Cup cross-country race, and the Downtown Business Association, along with the Canmore Nordic Centre, thought to do something really special to welcome the World Cup,” said Proctor. “They came up with the idea of putting this snow track on Main Street and it was a smashing success.
“Last year, we had the Haywood Canadian National Cross-country Championships, and the Downtown Business Association and the Best Of Canmore accommodation group decided to do it again, to show our Canadian athletes we’re really proud to have the championships here.”
In both years having the snow track was a big success, said Proctor, and so it’ll be coming back to assist with another international event.
“This year we’re pleased the Canmore Nordic Centre is going to host two International Biathlon Union cup races,” he said. “They’ve never held those races outside of Europe before, so for Canmore to get those races is big news.”
The carnival will take place Feb. 10-20, and will involve a wide range of activities and over 40 different partners to help make the event happen.
“We have some really awesome contributions by people like Trail Sports, who provide a free ski loan program; the Fast and Female program, run by Chandra Crawford, and their whole mandate is empowerment of youth through sports; local schools will be doing programming on the track and the Rocky Mountain Adaptive Sports Centre will do demonstrations to show people what it’s like to participate with the challenge of a disability,” said Proctor, to name a few.
“We also have a number of traditional winter carnival events, like the kid and mutt races, the mayor’s challenge and media challenge, the opening ceremony and town party and snow sculpting and just a very wide range of activities,” he added. “The great thing from a participant point of view is that 95 per cent of these activities are free, which is something we’re really proud of, and is only made possible through all our different partners.”
Approximately 250 international athletes, from 15 to 20 countries, will attend the biathlon events, he explained.
At this point, the carnival is looking for volunteers and more partners to assist with the activities.
“We do need volunteers, by all means, and they can contact myself,” said Proctor. “We’re also looking for individuals or organizations or businesses to come forward with ideas of events they might like to do.
“We’re looking to let the folks in Canmore know this is coming back, so they can consider being involved as a partner or volunteer.”
Proctor can be reached by email at docproc@shaw.ca or by phone at 403-678-6436.
Snow Track returns for year 3
by Sondy Szymanis on 12/21/11By Hamish MacLean
Canmore Leader
The snow track is coming back. It's starting to become predictable. Now, for the third winter in a row Main Street will become a centrepiece for the town as it is covered in snow for skiing and dog sledding and a celebration of winter fun.
This time it's while the 2012 International Biathlon Union Cup races are held at the Canmore Nordic Centre that the town will celebrate one of its greatest attractions.
"It's a world class facility," event manager for the Canmore Downtown Business Association Ric Proctor said. "This event is also one of those things: nobody else is doing it."
The Canmore Nordic Centre has hosted the 2010 World Cup and 2011 Canadian Ski Nationals over the past two years and the community has celebrated by dropping 850 cubic metres of snow on Main Street. It's now looking like the idea's got the momentum to become an annual event.
Unlike last year, the Town of Canmore will be able to schedule the Winter Carnival to coincide with the community celebration.
The idea though is again the same that Canmore, Proctor said, wants to impress on ski organizers that the community is getting behind these races. That the town will go ahead and make the event, truly an event, with activities downtown.
The Winter Carnival will kick off with an athletes' parade and welcoming ceremony on the evening of Friday, Feb 10., with a block party to follow. Skiing on the track, listening to live music, enjoying food or hot chocolate (part of a KidSport fundraiser) or warming up by a fire will set the tone for fun to run through Feb. 20.
The first thing that Proctor said he did was to go back to the partners they've had in the past — and he was unsurprised that there was instant buy in.
"It's still early days, but we are looking for ideas and suggestions from other people," he said. Perhaps this year there could be a winter fashion show.
JackRabbit skiers will again race up and down Main Street. Kid N'Mutt and the Mayor's and Challenge events will again see dog sleds race down Main Street. And there will be street hockey, ice carving, log sawing, and snow sculpting events will all take place in downtown Canmore throughout the carnival.
"It's about downtown Canmore," Proctor said. But he said that the celebrations are for the entire community. It's about growing the reputation of the place as a destination. "It's about Canmore. If people get caught by the idea of this track when they come to Canmore . . . .
"If they came last year, they might come for two days this year."
This represents, he said, the perfect opportunity for people to work together for Canmore.
Chris Bartolomie, supervisor for the Town of Canmore's Arts and Culture Department, said that she's pleased that the timing worked out with the Canmore Nordic Centre event so that the winter carnival can get back on board with the snow track.
The snow track will be down from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13, but the Winter Carnival will continue.
It's timed with the Exposure 2012: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival and there will be another outdoor photo screening.
And the next weekend on the pond downtown there will be a Bonhomme Carnival ensuring that the festivities continue through the month.
LUB Breezes Through Council
by Sondy Szymanis on 07/06/11
By Hamish MacLean
July 6, 2011 - Canmore Leader
After little debate Canmore moved its proposed new land use bylaw forward last Tuesday.
Canmore's draft Land Use Bylaw was given second reading by council at the June 28 meeting.
Though there were a couple of sticking points for some councillors, the discussion and debate was much faster than some observers, and councillors, predicted, with Mayor Ron Casey adjourning the meeting at 7:25 p.m.
Council gave first reading to the proposed new land use bylaw Feb. 22.
Secondary suites, a sticky subject early on in the process went very smoothly. And while the Town's proposed green building requirements and employee housing in industrial zones regulations saw some debate, there was little opposition to the proposed new over-arching planning document that has yet to incorporate the more controversial Sustainability Screening Report
Casey argued successfully for the maximum number of suites in a neighbourhood and the maximum distance between suites within a neighbourhood be removed from the document.
"These two sections create, number one, a heartache for the Town trying to administer this," Casey said. He noted that these inclusions were in reaction to concerns raised before consideration was given to back alleys. The two provisions were put in as a reaction to the "global" provision of suites first put forward by the planning department, he said.
The so-called blanket approach to incorporating more secondary suites into Canmore's housing fabric was met with vocal opposition last year.
"If the intent there was to encourage development of suites in appropriate areas, this counteracts that," Casey said.
The motion he put forward to delete the two regulations was carried unanimously.
Coun. John Borrowman brought forward concerns with the regulations for employee housing in industrial zones.
Borrowman took exception to the latter part of a regulation that stated: "The employee housing units are appropriate in design for employee housing, particularly with respect to the unit size, and are targeted to hourly paid or seasonal employees and not towards managerial employees."
He successfully persuaded council to remove everything after "unit size" in the regulation, and thereby not specify who employee housing in industrial zones ought to be targeted towards.
Coun. Ed Russell took exception to the motion.
Coun. Hans Helder was skeptical. He said that removing the target of seasonal employee housing from the regulation removes the intent of providing housing in industrial zones, saying that "managerial employees" could by virtue of their position enter the residential housing market.
Helder and Russell voted in opposition of the change.
Casey on the other hand argued with Borrowman. He said that the nature of housing in industrial zones was such that only those "managerial employees" who wanted to would live there. Logic tells you industrial zones are not preferred, he said.
Casey said: "For the most part, I don't think it's an issue where most people will want to live in an industrial part of town."
He said the changes "leaves it open to a point where (housing in industrial zones) might work."
Casey furthered this by adding that the arts sector might be suited to take that opportunity.
In another discussion, Helder raised some concerns over the prescriptive nature of the green building regulations in the proposed new land use bylaw.
"I think market forces would be as effective as anything else that these standards are met," Helder said.
As for the Town's proposed green building requirements there was at a time a suggested requirement to report prior to occupancy, but the industry proved reluctant to accept that regulation, Buxton said. Based on discussions with industry, Buxton said, rather than requiring a report on occupancy if a green building report could not be provided at occupancy, a bond for reporting would be required. If the building ultimately exceeds that report the builder might then get their money back, but if the report is not met, the money might be returned only in part.
Planner Alaric Fish said the requirements were established in part through talks with the Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association and showed that if the green building requirements were applied to 2009 numbers the Town would have generated $60,403.
Manager of planning Gary Buxton said that he expects a public hearing to be set after the summer recess.
The staff report from the Sustainability Screening Report task force was to be discussed at the subsequent Tuesday meeting.
The amendments that are proposed therein, if accepted as suggested, would then be incorporated into the final land use bylaw and will then likely prompt a public hearing, Buxton said.
The July 5 council meeting occurred after the Leader's press time.
