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- Your onlY locallY owned newspaper • serving the cnp since 1930 • noveMBer 6, 2019 ~ vol. 89 no. 45 $1.00
Lisa Sygutek photo
Pumpkins in the Park
Over 250 pumpkins were on display at the annual Pumpkins in the Park on the evening of November 1st. Residents were able to walk along Miner’s Path and enjoy the different carvings lit during the night. The 859 Crowsnest Pincher Creek Air Cadets Squadron provided assistance ensuring the lights stayed lit throughout the evening. There was also coffee and hot chocolate for people to enjoy. Overall it was another successful Pumpkins in the Park event.
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2 – crowsnest PAss HerALD – Wednesday, November 6, 2019
AltaLink wildfire safety open house
GARRY’S BARBER SHOP
DaviD SelleS Pass Herald Reporter
12161-20 ave Blairmore, Alberta
403.562.2726 HOURS Morning 8:30 AM – Noon Afternoon 2 - 5 PM
Coleman
#9
ProgrEssivE 50/50 rAffLE! one winner takes the cash prize! MiNiMuM $1000 PAyouT! Tickets $5 at the Coleman Legion Draw Made November 11, 2019.
"Save tHe Date" for our New Year'S PartY
We’re not so sure we’ll be as blessed as her, As Kay looks great and can celebrate Her 90th birthday on November 10th. Even though she’s always scolding, That she’s 59 & holding!
Happy Birthday Mommy Dearest, Nana & Great Nana We are so proud, as you are a true inspiration to us all. Love from your family & friends.
AltaLink held an open house on wildfire safety in the Crowsnest Pass on Tuesday, October 29th. The information session was designed for residents to come out and learn more about what AltaLink is doing to mitigate the chances of wildfires in the area. Vice President of System Operations for AltaLink, Paul Lee, says he wasn’t certain what the turnout would be but was happy with the questions from the residents who attended. “We had about two dozen folks come out to the open house. I didn't have any real expectations on how many we would get. It always depends in terms of time of day, what kind of weather it is and other factors. The two-dozen folks who came had some really good engaging questions for us. Some were quite educated in the sense that
David Selles photo
AltaLink held an open house on Tuesday, October 29th to update the public on how they are trying to mitigate wildfires in the Crowsnest Pass. The all day open house gave residents the chance to learn about vegetation clearing, updating power structures and potential power shutoffs. Approximately two dozen residents attended the open house.
they had done some research.” Lee says the people who attended the open house provided good input. “Many came with stories of wildfires that they experienced in the area as well. It was very real to them and that was a big positive for me. Everyone was engaged.” Lee said there was one main question that visitors asked. “The general question was what is AltaLink doing for wildfire safety as a whole? That's where we had the opportunity to speak to all the different components of our wildfire mitigation plan like vegetation management, additional inspections and enhancing the overall system. One area that garnered some interest was around our public safety power shut off (PSPS). PSPS is supposed to be a measure of last resort. We don't want to manage wildfire risk by shutting the power off; we want to do all the other things. There was another question about the PSPS that Lee said was asked often. “The other common question was how often would these PSPS events occur and based on our analysis it is intended to be very infrequent. It's reserved for the most extreme fire weather conditions. When we take a look at the triggers and look back over the years we've only seen them exceeded twice in seven years. Those two times only lasted for an hour each as well.” Lee says some people were worried that what happened in California could happen here as well. “A lot of folks had questions about if what happened in California is going to happen to us. In short, California isn't Alberta. We don't have the same geography or climate.”
Lee said AltaLink also had the chance to sit down with many emergency response teams in the area. “On October 28th, we met with the emergency responders. That included the Crowsnest Pass Fire Chief, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, RCMP, and the Director of the Pincher Creek Regional Emergency Management Organization. We had a
electrical transmission line issues to realize, scrutinize, and react to is Alberta’s electrical distributors’ apparent sudden awareness that the current electrical distribution system is neither safe nor reliable. It has the very real potential to cause wildfires and spark their advance. It’s a virtual duplicate of the deadly, problem-plagued system that’s in place in California, where wild-
“A lot of folks had questions about if what happened in California is going to happen to us. In short, California isn't Alberta. We don't have the same geography or climate.” - Paul Lee - Vice President of Systems Operations for AltaLink
roundtable discussion with them to show them what the protocol would be in the case of a PSPS. Essentially it would be no different than the community getting a notification if there was a tornado coming through. The municipal leaders would send it out but AltaLink would have that information on our website along with Fortis. We would try to leverage whatever emergency protocols and communications the community already has.” Overall Lee says the open house was a success. “People found it to be reasonable and understood it and I think they all walked away learning more about what AltaLink is doing and who AltaLink is.” One local resident, David McIntyre contacted us to share his perspective that AltaLink isn’t doing everything they should and has a warning for the public. “I believe the most important things for area residents and all Albertans confronting accelerating wildfire threats and
fires are burning headlines into the news.” McIntyre also brought up an electrical company in California facing scrutiny. “Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), in California, is facing billions of dollars in debt and lawsuits, public condemnation, and plunging stock value due to its known, admitted, and/or alleged implications in starting and/or spreading California’s past and current wildfires. What’s clear here in Alberta is that AltaLink and other distributors of electricity are working on a similar—high fuel load, high wind—landscape, and they see the writing and the flames on the firewall. One question among many in California is will PG&E survive California’s wildfires? Albertans, on home turf, might ask a parallel question? There’s an acute need for a concerned public and its elected officials to get involved in wildfire safety, and electrical transmission line reliability and safety,” said McIntyre.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 - Crowsnest PAss herAlD - 3
In the lIne of fIre Between October 28 and November 4, Crowsnest Pass RCMP responded to a total of 47 calls for service including the following reported incidents. One (1) assault, two (2) break and enter (other), one (1) fraud/forgery, two (2) t h re a t s / h a r a s s m e n t s , three (3) mischief (vandalism), six (6) thefts, two (2) other criminal codes, one (1) other provincial statutes, five (5) driving complaints, six (6) motor vehicle collisions, five (5) assistance to general public, four (4) suspicious occurrences, two (2) lost and found, one (1) abandoned vehicle, four (4) assistance to other agencies, one (1) false alarm and one (1) municipal bylaw. Theft On October 29th, 2019, there was a complaint of theft of a skidoo trailer from the ski hill area in Blairmore. On November 1st, 2019, the trailer was located in the Pincher Creek area.
Break In On October 30th, 2019 at approximately 5am, there was a complaint of a break in to a shed in Lundbreck. Some tools were stolen. Suspicious Person On November 1st, 2019, there was a report of a suspicious person at a gas station parking lot in Blairmore. Police located a male in a vehicle that had been reported stolen from the Kamloops area in BC. A 29-year-old male was arrested, charged and released on documents for Pincher Creek Court. Theft On November 1st, 2019, there was a complaint of theft of gas from a vehicle parked in Blairmore. The suspect drilled a hole in the gas tank. On November 1st, 2019, there was a complaint of theft of a license plate from a recreation trailer parked in Coleman. Another plate had been placed on the vehicle.
~ rCMP news ~
Traffic Stop On November 1st, 2019, RCMP completed a traffic stop in Blairmore. The vehicle was not registered or insured. A 29year-old male was issued a ticket for operating a vehicle with no insurance. Stolen Vehicle Recovered On November 1st, 2019, a stolen vehicle was recovered in Redwater. The vehicle was stolen from Blairmore on October 17th, 2019. Disturbance On November 2nd, 2019, there was a complaint of a male causing a disturbance at a residence in Blairmore. The police attended and located a intoxicated 38-year-old male outside of the residence. He was arrested for intoxication and released when sober. Theft On November 4th, 2019, RCMP received a complaint of theft of a 2019 Norstar skid steer 22 foot deck trailer from 17 Avenue in Coleman.
MVC At approximately 4:50 p.m., Crowsnest Pass RCMP responded to a three-vehicle collision on Highway 22 and Range Road 21 south of Maycroft Bridge. A car and a SUV collided head on while travelling on Highway 22. After the initial collision occurred a semitractor collided with the car. The lone 34-year-old male occupant of the car from Leduc AB was pronounced dead at the scene. The 59 year old male driver of the SUV was pronounced deceased at the scene. An adult female passenger of the SUV was transported to Calgary hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Both occupants of the SUV were from Creston BC. The driver of the semitractor was not injured. Crowsnest Pass RCMP along with a RCMP Collision Analyst continue to investigate. Foggy weather conditions were reported at the time of the collision. The names of the deceased will not be released and no further updates are anticipated.
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“Quit crying and start thinking,” said Dad and I took a deep breath, wiped my tears and sobered up. Now sixty-six years later Dad’s advice is still good. Allow me to share it with my fellow Albertans. It works every time. So, our biggest oil consumer became our biggest energy competitor and we are hurting, or at least a quarter of us do. Let’s assess our situation without tantrums, name-calling, empty threats and “nobody loves me” pouting. Oil prices will remain low, public pressure against oil is growing, transporting oil will remain a problem and while investments in clean energy are growing, financial institutions and politicians are divesting. It is the reality if we believe it or not. It will change back in the US also after the next elections. No crying folks, we have more than one basket of eggs here. We have our longneglected farmers, ranchers, tourism, industries, educated workforce, great attractive infrastructure, other natural resources, you name it. Alberta is great. Albertans still on average have the highest income per family in Canada, that is why we pay higher Transfer Payments, and if we don’t force our economy to slow down, we are on a road to recovery. It's all in what we choose to believe. When your car goes into a skid you “look and steer in the direction you want your vehicle to go.” Don’t lock the breaks. Albertans all around me want to blame Trudeau, forgetting that our Premier could be competing with him on a personal level. He would like Trudeau to be out of the way when he may run for PM job someday. If you were the PM and two-thirds of Canadians voted for parties fighting to reduce Climate Change would you openly reduce regulations and advocate increasing the oil production? Justin Trudeau wants the money and is doing all he can regardless of his personal beliefs. He can’t change the minds of all Canadians aside from us by waving a magic wand. Global warming is happening and only the blind are not seeing it. What we hope for is to have a fair share of the market for the transition period. My political hero is the first Conservative Premier of Alberta. He set us up towards a bright future that we are still benefiting from. Thanks to his planning we should have had a large base of technology trained Albertans and could have been by Avner Perl competing with Silicon Valley. We should have had modern cities and towns advanced and comfortable for workers to live and work in. Above all, he set up the Heritage Fund which properly maintained could have been enough to build a brand new economy by itself. No other province or State could compete with us. Peter Lougheed knew that oil was “a temporary boon” based on non-renewable resources. It turned out that we have more oil and gas than we can use, but we must not use it if we wish to go on living. The results are the same. We and our neighbours may fight to keep Hydro Carbon going but will lose. We can’t reasonably demand that the Federal government will commit political suicide and send the army to force millions of people to agree to take a chance on their future when they are already suffering from the changing climate. It is time for Plan B. The temporary irresponsible behaviour of Mr. Trump isn’t going to last. I hope that a wise Prime Minister will find a way to stop Canada from importing oil and use our own. This will not materialize unless we work together forgetting politics for a while. All parties concerned must figure out a strategy, plan implementation and a lot of public education is needed. So far in the last six months, a significant reduction in corporate taxes has made no change. A pipeline is being built and the statistics are the same. I think now we can understand all the Canadian fishing industry people who lost their livelihood a while back. We have to make changes and we may need the help of the rest of Canada someday, but I hope not. If I had a say I would recommend that we get help to build a robust, clean energy sector. I would make higher education free for all who can prove proper aptitude, scrap student debts and properly reward graduates. I would make our health care and tourism industries the best in the world so people will see what we have and wish to live and work here. If Alberta is open for business, I would make it the best place to open and operate small businesses and sing the glory of those who do it right so others will see. We should have the money to do it all in our savings account, the Heritage Fund. If the money is not there, instead of hating the rest of Canada enough to separate, we should investigate who got rid of it and why. We had a workable plan, and if we didn’t follow it I, an Albertan, want to know what replaced it and how it will be fixed now. If I sound upset, I am. It is time to quit crying and start thinking. Every week head offices are moving out and our suicide rates are growing. BC without oil is surpassing us in growth and others soon will. What we need is not more political heroes but smart hard-working Albertans in a leadership capacity. Is there someone like Lougheed and if you know him or her, bring them forward.
The Simple Raven’s Post
Now I am a mad Albertan
Here is a link to my blog: /thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/ Feel free to check other articles and comment.