Editor:
Another single-minded drive to increase tourism visitation to our fair valley has left a sour taste in my mouth.
As owners of a recreational vehicle here in Canmore, I worked this past week to spring clean my rig, fill it with propane and diesel plus de-winterize the water system. The latter entails the emptying of both our grey and black water tanks, which for many years I have done at the Travel Alberta Canmore Visitor Information Centre.
Surprisingly, the sign on what we travellers commonly refer to as a dump station says “Sani Dump Permanently Closed”, directing RV travellers to either Banff or Lake Louise for a fee or the Kananaskis Country Information Facility on Highway 40 some 40 minutes from Canmore.
Notwithstanding the fact I have purchased a Kananaskis Country Conservation Pass for our RV, I wonder where this money is being directed. How can a sensible government that spends a gazillion dollars promoting visitation to western Alberta hope to endear visitors when they arrive here?
While I’m on this sewage rant, why is there no public highway rest station between the Calgary International Airport and Banff on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway and only one less-than-acceptable toilet facility at the old weigh scale pull-off going east to Calgary?
In many jurisdictions we’ve visited, there are nice places to pull off, rest up, stretch your legs and use the facilities. After a nine-hour flight from say Europe, some visitors rent vehicles in Calgary and travel west for their vacation.
Surely our government must recognize that to be competitive and welcoming these types of facilities are not just nice, but necessary.
Oh well, perhaps the provincial election in the fall of 2027 will bring common sense back to our Government.
Jim Ridley,
Canmore
