BANFF – Most of Banff’s elected officials are wanting to go on a fact finding, problem solving mission to a similar mountain tourism town facing similar housing, transportation, over-tourism and cost-of-living challenges.
Council voted 4-2 to direct administration to reach out to tourism-based towns, in priority order, of Jackson, Wyoming; Breckenridge, Colorado; Whistler, B.C.; and Mammoth Lakes, California, to gauge interest in a community-to-community visit in 2023. A tentative budget is $25,000.
Councillor Grant Canning has been pitching such a trip since 2019.
“As a tourism destination, we really have so much more in common with an Aspen or a Whistler or a Mammoth Lakes than we do with small towns in Alberta like Three Hills or Hanna. That’s not a slight to them in any way, it’s the nature and the difference in our communities and the issues that we face,” he said.
“When I think of Banff, I think of issues with other communities around lack of housing, lack of available land, traffic congestion, transit, parking, over-tourism, visitation, cost-of-living issues. All those issues are very prevalent in our community but, quite frankly, they’re quite prevalent in a lot of other communities, particularly other mountain resort communities as well,” he added.
“You realize when you kind of get out of our bubble that many of these issues are being discussed and addressed elsewhere and there’s an awful lot to be learned through the sharing of those ideas and experiences that these others communities have had.”
While seeing advantages of such a formalized get-together, Couns. Ted Christensen and Hugh Pettigrew voted against the move, saying now is not the time to spend $25,000 given taxpayers are facing an almost 11 per cent increase in the lead-up to budget deliberations in January.
“I am having a hard time considering this request. I don’t see the urgency in this in this current fiscal year,” said Pettigrew.
“I would need some more information to be convinced that this is good value for the taxpayers as a whole.”
Christensen said he couldn’t justify the $25,000 spend at this time either.
“I just want to know how you think it will look that I’m not supporting the community art project and supporting this, although I think the European junket sounds good,” he quipped.
Canning countered that it wasn’t a junket, noting Banff is popular for many meetings and conferences that he doesn’t refer to as junkets.
“We look at ourselves very proudly as being a mountain resort community and we welcome the world, so I do, quite frankly, very strongly disagree that going to another community similar to ours is a junket,” he said.
Administration, which started investigating options when the idea was first pitched back in 2019 but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, now plans to reach out to the leaders from these locations, based on the priority list, to gauge interest.
Administration further recommends that all members of council attend as well as a staff liaison.
Chris Hughes, the director of corporate services for the Town of Banff, said council could also consider inviting a community member from a non-government organization and a business representative to attend to frame this as a community-to-community session.
“It is estimated that a visit such as this would require a maximum budget of $25,000 dependent on the location,” said Hughes, noting that would be to cover only the Town of Banff representatives.
Coun. Barb Pelham, who along with Couns. Chip Olver and Canning, Mayor Corrie DiManno and director of planning and development Darren Enns went to the 2022 Mountain and Resort Town Planners Summit in Aspen, Colorado in October, voiced support for the trip with specific agenda items.
“I realize this is a real brain bender for some other councillors and some in administration, but having had the benefit of going to Snowmass for that mountain resort town planners conference, I can say firsthand it was an incredibly illuminating and educational trip,” she said.
The funds for the trip will come from the budget stabilization reserve. This is on top of the annual $2,900 the mayor and each councillor have for travel/training/conference expenses.
