It may not be considered polite to ask a woman her age at any age but Lois Haskayne offers hers up with a certain pride as she expresses her disdain with the conservative government her family has supported for years.
The soon-to-be-90-year-old, nothing if not polite, apologizes for having to pause to hook up her hearing aid, then apologizes in advance for what she’s about to say (hoping she doesn’t “offend anyone”) and then comes through loud and clear as she launches into her reaction to the UCP government considering a plan that would destroy the Haskayne Legacy Park and a swath of land around it.
When they were in talks with the government about their contribution to create the park east of Cochrane, they were never told anything about a possibility of a new dam on the Bow River looming in the foreseeable future, and only found out about it after the fact.
“Of course we were horrified. If any other people knew about it, they didn’t disclose it to us,” she said.
She makes it clear that she speaks for herself and husband Dick, who will also be 90 in December. She said she cleared everything with him before picking up the phone.
Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA) is studying the feasibility of building a $1 billion dam east of Cochrane, known as the Glenbow East Option, which would wipe out the pavilion building at the newly-opened Haskayne Legacy Park announced just last fall.
The park was built with the Haskaynes’ generous contribution of land valued at $5 million, and they added $2 million towards the construction of the pavilion. In return: a promise from the government the park would be protected in perpetuity.
The Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation has been a vocal opponent of the Glenbow East Option, organizing townhall and petitions to voice their concerns, as their park would be irreparably damaged by flood waters as well.
“The idea of flooding a park like Glenbow Ranch, it’s so obviously and transparently wrong and awful,” CEO Jeromy Farkas said at a recent town hall.
“People don’t realize this is under review. And they also don’t realize it would flood parts of Cochrane and wouldn’t protect Cochrane one tiny bit.”
Farkas said he’s already hearing about a chill in the philanthropic community outside of Alberta, as news of the provincial government reneging on the promise to protect the two parks spreads.
Yet the option remains listed as a possibility by the AEPA group assigned to look into options.
In 2017 the Bow River Working Group recommended that the Alberta government look at three reservoir options on the Bow River upstream of Calgary. The reservoir options are intended to build additional flood and drought storage capacity.
In 2018, the Alberta government initiated the Bow River Reservoir Options (BRRO) project to explore reservoir options located at Morley, a Relocated Ghost Dam and Glenbow East dam. At a town hall meeting in Bearspaw May 29 a project director from the province confirmed the Morley option had been abandoned.
Haul Danielle Smith down here
Haskayne said she and her husband, regular contributors to conservative party campaigns, are not impressed with the way Premier Danielle Smith’s government has handled the dam issue.
“They’ve been rather secretive,” she said.
Haskayne said it may be time to “haul Danielle Smith down here” to look at the two parks and the flood plain that would be created with the Glenbow East dam option.
Haskayne calls Smith a “smart lady” who could solve the dam problem very easily by instructing AEPA minister Rebecca Schulz to abandon the Glenbow East dam in favour of the Ghost Relocation option.
She added she’s concerned about other effects the Glenbow East dam would have, like moving the rail lines, the potential loss of wildlife, and the loss of Indigenous and non-Indigenous historical artifacts.
“My other concern is poor Cochrane – I just can’t even think what’s going to happen to Cochrane if we have another flood,” she said.
The Town of Cochrane is drafting a letter to the province stressing their opposition to the proposed dam, after a consultant recently told Council it would have dramatic implications to the town’s infrastructure.
At that meeting a couple of weeks ago, Mayor Jeff Genung confessed to being “baffled” that the Glenbow East dam proposal is still being considered a viable option.
The UCP’s Infrastructure minister and Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie also has expressed his opposition to the dam.
Haskayne said she’s sure her husband and the Harvies (whose contributions made the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park a reality) would not have made their financial donations had they known “it all could be turned into a lake.”
She said the Haskaynes and the Harvies have been friends forever, and the two families shared the common goal of ensuring the preservation of green spaces and historic ranchlands between Cochrane and Calgary, as opposed to unchecked urban sprawl.
To create Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park the Harvies sold 3,246 acres (1,314 ha) of land to the Government of Alberta in 2006 for less than market value to conserve the land and protect it from development. Appraised at $67 million in 2005 and with an estimated value of $80 million in 2006, the land was sold to the province for $40 million.
Harvie family speaks
Cam Crawford speaks on behalf of the Harvie family.
“The Harvie family is shocked, dismayed and disappointed that this matter is even under consideration,” Crawford said.
He said the Harvies consider this a broken promise.
When the discussions were ongoing about the best way to protect the new Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, the Harvies made a decision.
“We decided the best steward of these lands into the future as a public park and protected area would be the Alberta government, through the Parks (department),” Crawford said.
“So we are very upset we’re now at a point where potentially, the protection of the park is at risk.”
Crawford also worked for three years with the Harvies, Dick Haskayne, The City of Calgary, Rocky View County, and the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation to ensure there would be public access from the west to the Haskayne Legacy Park, and from the east for Calgary visitors.
All of that is in jeopardy as well, as a result of the government’s dam proposal.
“We believe the construction of the Glenbow East dam and the flooding of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park will be a breach of promise, and that was not the deal that was made with the government when (the park) was created,” Crawford said.
He said they are not considering a legal approach at this point.
“We don’t want it to go there,” he stressed. “We want to see a logical solution come about here and we believe the logical solution is to take Glenbow East option off the table, and take it off immediately.”
Lois Haskayne closes her interview with one last check to make sure she didn’t offend anyone, before saying she’s not up to travelling to Edmonton to deliver her message directly to Smith.
But she offered her financial backing if The Eagle wanted to send someone in her place.
“We would pay for your trip,” she said. “I’m serious. I know she’ll listen.”
