Rob Murray: Discussions about Teepee Town have been going on for many years. What’s the latest on this?

Mayor John Borrowman: I had spoken earlier about the Municipal Stimulus Grant program that the province has initiated, and I talked about the Quarry Lake plan that we’re looking to have funded through this granting. The second program that we’ll be applying for funding for is for roadwork in Teepee Town. It’s fairly extensive, about a million dollar budget. Unfortunately with that money we won’t be able to repair all of the roads in Teepee Town, but engineering, if the funding comes through, we’ll be identifying the parts of Teepee Town that can be upgraded at this point. It’ll be the road and the sidewalks, that kind of infrastructure. So, again, it’s up in the air. It depends on the provincial approval after October, but it will improve the experience for people driving around Teepee Town if we’re able to move forward with this first project.

Tanya Foubert: The $1 million would get you about 20% of the roads that desperately need work done on them in Teepee Town. It’s to the point where the amount of repair and maintenance work that the streets of roads department has to do on an annual basis makes it even more of a justification to get the work done sooner, even though within the capital plan there hadn’t been a funding source found for it. It’s stormwater, lighting, sidewalks, and roadways. Any of the roads that need deep utility work, which would be way more expensive than a million dollars, aren’t going to be included. It will also come back to council for approval, in terms of the design. I will also expect community engagement on the design as well. So a lot of work this winter for administration

JB: The roads and Teepee Town are among the oldest roadways in Canmore. Because the expectation of continued redevelopment in there we haven’t been able to justify putting that really significant amount of money into completely rebuilding all the roads,  knowing that the roads will continue to be dug up again for new construction. It’s been a real challenge actually for the town because we recognize how bad some of the roads are in Teepee Town, but we also have to be frugal and well-considered in how we spend tax dollars on roadwork. It would be great to get this municipal stimulus grant from the province. I’m looking forward and optimistic that we’ll see that approved in October.

Filed under: Canmore, Mayor John Borrowman, Mountain Insider