Strong response to petition, public hearing draws near

Organizers of Save Big Hill Springs Provincial Park say support for its petition has exceeded expectations and continues to mushroom.

As of June 26, just shy of 7,000 people had signed the petition calling for no major industrial development to occur within 5 km of the park.

The group also believes the recommendations of Alberta Environment and Parks and a request by the Stoney Nakoda Nation were not properly addressed during a rezoning meeting for the development.

Rocky View County (RVC) council is holding a public hearing on July 13 on whether or not a permit should be granted to Mountain Ash Limited Partnership for gravel extraction adjacent to the provincial park.

On Mar. 2, the RVC council approved the rezoning of the land for what's called the Summit Pit by a 6-3 margin. 

Aynsley Foss created the online petition after stakeholders were caught off-guard by the rezoning approval. Since then, more volunteers have stepped forward to help. 

"When I reached a thousand, we thought that was fantastic, so it's definitely grown more than we had hoped," says Foss.

She says the petition will be presented at the public hearing and they hope to include the comments made by those signing the petition.

"We've just been overwhelmed with all the comments on how meaningful the park is to the public and their concerns around this."

Three representatives of the group attended the Hwy. 1A sod turning in Cochrane on June 25 to draw attention to the issue, and they hope to attend more events leading up to the public hearing.

Foss says they want the RVC council to delay the decision on the permit until further studies are completed.

The group is disappointed that no action was taken on a letter from Alberta Environment and Parks urging the completion of a thorough environmental review. 

Additionally, Foss says there was no action on a request by the Stoney Nakoda Nation for a traditional land-use study.

"We're trying to reconcile with the First Nations in a lot of different ways, so the lack of respect for the traditional territory was quite shocking for us."

There are other issues, too, like highway safety.

"I had a friend killed on the highway, my dog just got killed on the highway last year, so a lot of it is also about the capacity of the road."

Submissions for the virtual public hearing are being accepted by RVC until July 2. She says participating virtually can be tedious, and isn't particularly transparent because it's difficult to exchange information. 

"I'm trying to coordinate some of those materials, so people who are running into technical difficulties or whatnot can definitely send it to me or email me to get more information."

She can be contacted at savebighillspringspark@gmail.com.

The group has an alliance with the Bighill Creek Preservation Society (BCPS). The two jointly sponsored a study by hydrogeologist and geoscientist Dr. Jon Fennell. 

BCPS president Gerry Bietz says people are encouraged to sign the petition and to become involved in the public hearing. Their society will be making a presentation at the public hearing.

You can find out more about the petition here.

The interview with Aynsley Foss is attached.

Attending the highway ceremony last Friday were, from left, Harry Hodgson, Tom Foss, and Lea Pearce.