Support your local small business

Editor:

Seven years ago, an idea was conceived by a local Bow Valley family to start an ice cream shop in Canmore.

Due to high commercial rental rates on Main Street and especially due to very short summer months here in the Canadian Rockies, they knew that they would have to come up with something a little more creative.

Thus, the Old School Bus Ice Cream was born.

We have experienced the ups and downs, (the rain, the snow!), overcome the difficulties of a returning seasonal business, but, most of all, we have become a part of this community.

On March 22, a proposed land use bylaw is attempting to make our business so difficult to maintain that we would have no choice but to discontinue The Bus. The empty lot on Main Street would forever be just an empty parking lot with a huge For Sale sign.

We enjoy selling ice cream in the summer, but we also see a vision for seasonal businesses being an integral part of a vibrant, eclectic downtown core that promotes creativity and diversity.

If you enjoy having an ice cream at The Bus on a hot summer evening, browsing for jewelry, or eating a healthy fast-food alternative, please email the Town of Canmore at planning@canmore.ca and ask them to rewrite bylaw 4.21.0 to encourage seasonal businesses to continue operating.

Blue and Deb Falconer,

Canmore owners of Old School Bus Ice Cream