By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
Rocky View school trustees are hoping to improve the eating habits of students across the division.
The board voted unanimously at a June 19 meeting to adopt the Healthy Eating Guidelines policy, a document formulated by a Rocky View School Division stakeholder consultation group.
This document was chosen as an alternative to the more generic Healthy Nutrition Guidelines that was recently circulated by the Province of Alberta aimed not only at schools, but daycares and other recreational settings as well.
Gloria Wells, director of collaborative initiatives for the Rocky View school division, said what makes the policy unique is the fact it was crafted as a result of feedback from stakeholders plus its wording around values and beliefs.
“Sometimes these sorts of documents come from nutritionists sitting in an office, but to have it crafted by the people who have ownership of the issue — that’s a first,” she said.
The document proposes making changes in the classroom, from offering pencils or gift certificates as rewards instead of candy, to stocking vending machines with healthy-food options such as fruit or yogurt.
Wells acknowledges that with childhood obesity becoming a widespread problem, there’s a long way to go.
“But it’s a big first step,” she said. “And part of having had so many stakeholders contribute (to the policy), people have become engaged and have taken ownership of the problem. As schools we’re recognizing we’re a big picture piece of the solution.”
Healthy Eating Guide-lines will be distributed to all Rocky View schools in mid-August.

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By Brad Herron
The Eagle
Springwood Developments unveiled its 333-page remedial action plan (RAP) to bring the former-Domtar site up to an environmentally-commercial standard at an open house at the Cochrane RancheHouse June 18.
The 45-acre site in downtown Cochrane was used by Domtar for over 20 years, from 1963 to 1987, to treat railway ties with coal tar, creosote and pentachlorophenol, commonly known as PCP. When Domtar ceased operations at the facility, extensive contamination was found both along the surface and in the groundwater.
Now, more than two decades later, there is a plan to remediate the surface area of the property, beginning as early as this summer.
Gordon Johnson, a consultant with WorleyParsons Komex, explained that contaminated surface material will be remediated through the use of biological-stabilization technology.
Contaminated dirt, most of which was affected by drippings from treated material, will be moved into large piles, tarped and exposed to active bacteria which, given the right conditions and nutrients, eliminate the contamination during the summer months.
“This stuff is designed to resist treatment, it’s stubborn, but the compounds that tend to go into the environment are the lighter, more soluble ones and remediation has proven to be the most successful on those compounds,” Johnson said.
Philippe Gingras, the project manager from Biogénie, compared the process to industrial composting.
The deeply-contaminated source area, the former pit where creosote, along with other chemicals were poured directly onto the ground, will be treated the same way.
While the contamination on most of the site extends into the ground less than a metre, the source contamination has migrated into the groundwater system. The surface dirt in the Special Management Area (SMA), will be removed, subjected to the bio-stabilization techniques, then put back.
Dirt that goes back in may be contaminated, but its “contamination potential is reduced,” Johnson said.
“The treatment process tends to reduce the concentration of soluble materials, the volatile materials that are riskier than the heavy creosote that are apt to stick to the rocks and stay put,” he added.
Three types of groundwater contamination exist on the site: a dissolved contaminant that moves with water, creosote that has mixed with a carrier fluid (diesel fuel) which floats on top of groundwater, and heavier creosote and tar mixture that sit along the rock bed and moves very slowly.
“It’s not practical to remove it — it may not be possible to remove it, at least not conventionally,” Johnson said about the contaminated groundwater. “So, the idea is to maintain this area separate.”
Springwood will continue to monitor the groundwater contamination on the site. Domtar is controlling the groundwater hydraulically through the use of wells, pipes and trenches underground.
A south trench was built in 1986, followed by a west trench in 1990 and the Griffin Road trench in 2002. The entire system, which included two hydraulic barrier wells and a new ground water treatment plan were installed between 2002 and 2005. The treatment system is designed to recover non-aqueous phase liquid, commonly known as NAPL, and separate suspended particulate from the groundwater.
Martha Walton, a lead consultant from San Francisco, Calif., who has co-ordinated remediation projects across the United States and Canada, said the long-term key will be to remove the “heart of the problem in the original source area.”
Once the remediation project is completed, much of the SMA will be capped by pavement to allow for future remediation. A cover of asphalt will also change the dynamics of the water table, and ultimately cause the amount of local groundwater to shrink, further slowing the leeching of contaminants into groundwater. Springwood plans to not allow any use of groundwater on the property.
The SMA was recently subdivided by council. This area will contain no commercial development, and instead be used for roads and parking. It is owned by Cochrane Properties, but leased to Springwood which will take long-term liability insurance on the property.
Before bio-stabilization starts, the target area, much of which is gravel, will be put through a one-inch screening to sort dirt from rock. The rock, which is less likely to harbour contaminants, will be crushed into gravel for asphalt. This includes piles that have previously been certified as clean soil by Alberta Environment.
Residents will notice work is taking place even if it’s out of view, as the work site will smell.
“It smells like creosote obviously, but I don’t anticipate it will be anything close to when the actual cooking process was being done by Domtar,” Gingras said.
Measures will be installed to mitigate potential health hazards. The outer fence will be maintained throughout construction to keep both people and wildlife off the site and particulate sensors, both onsite and on the perimeter, will be installed for the public and employees.
Included in the remedial action plan is a concept plan dated Feb. 13, which is strictly on the southern half of the site, and calls for a 151,180- square foot major tenant building.
The same concept plan, which encompasses 28 acres of the project including the SMA, proposes 301,430 square feet of development and 1,609 parking stalls.
Nathan Boskers, Springwood’s project manager, said the remediation could take as little as 18 months to complete.
No development will occur until the entire site is remediated.
A copy of the plan is available at the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee’s website, www.cochrane-environment.org.

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By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
When movie and television star Jane Seymour visited Cochrane last week, it gave two young British women the opportunity to greatly enhance their resumé.
Seymour and a crew were in town June 17-19 to film segments of a television movie entitled “Dear Prudence” set to air this fall.
Part of the movie is set in a home outside Cochrane belonging to Sarah Leete.
As luck would have it, staying with her were two University of Stirling, Scotland, graduates named Kelly O’Donnell and Liz Harris. They have been working on Canadian farms as part of the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The group has set up a world-wide directory of farm and ranch owners willing to host overseas visitors who will work in return for food and board.
O’Donnell and Harris, who each graduated with an honours degree in Film and Media Studies, spent a long day on the set June 19, and they say the experience was invaluable.
“Everybody was really nice,” said O’Donnell. “They made us feel like we were part of the team, and they really took the time to tell us what they were doing and why it was important.”
The pair said they were included in all practical aspects of a day on the set from applying nicotine spray on furnishings to make them look older, to messing up a kitchen that was too tidy to suit the character who supposedly lived there.
“We learned a lot and it rejigged my memory of what I’d learned on my course,” said O’Donnell.
Harris agreed.
“It very much reaffirmed this is what we want to do,” she said. “When we made a film at university we were doing it on a shoestring, so it was really great to be around a production like this.”
Harris and O’Donnell said Seymour was friendly and outgoing and that she was charmed when Leete’s curious horses, and even a couple of moose, came to see what was going on.
“I was a bit worried that film people might be a bit pretentious,” said O’Donnell, “but they were so nice. I was a bit starstruck.”
The course of events was all the more remarkable given that last summer O’Donnell and Harris spent the summer in Vancouver trying to find work on a movie set.
“There’s lots of movies filmed there but there’s lots of people applying to work there too,” said Harris. “So it didn’t work out. Then we come to a small town in Alberta and somebody knocks on the door and wants to film a movie right here. It’s fateful that this happened.”

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By Alan Mattson
The Eagle
The eighth annual Banded Peak Challenge on June 21 raised more than $45,000 to send special needs children to camp this summer.
Out of 113 participants, 78 completed the challenge, which is a 13.5 km bike ride to the base of Banded Peak mountain and a five km hike to the summit.
Participants raised funds that will go toward Easter Seals Camp Horizon, a yearly summer camp for 1,000 children with disabilities.
“I think all the participants would say for sure it’s grueling,” said Anna Garcia, director of operations for the camp. “It’s a very tough, physically demanding event, but it’s worth it.”

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By Alan Mattson
The Eagle
Local police declined to respond to a national report that recommends the RCMP curb its use of conducted energy weapons, or Tasers.
Paul Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, released the much-anticipated report on June 18.
Among his recommendations were that Tasers be reclassified as “impact weapons” and only be used when officers are threatened with “death or grievous bodily harm.”
For rural detachments, like Cochrane, Kennedy recommended that only constables with five or more years of experience be allowed to use Tasers.
However, Cochrane and Alberta RCMP refused to respond specifically to the report, including how many members might be affected by that recommendation. They deferred to RCMP headquarters in Ottawa, where officials also refused to comment outside of a statement posted on the RCMP website.
A request for statistics on Taser use at the Cochrane detachment was also refused. An RCMP official said the Taser reports — which officers are required to fill out every time the weapon is used — are only available through a request under the federal Access to Information Act.
“Until Ottawa does give us further clearance to release some of those stats, I can’t even give you anything, really,” said spokesperson Craig Albers.
A Canadian Press/CBC access to information request revealed that Taser use by the RCMP is on the rise in Alberta.
In 2007, over 26 per cent of all Taser uses in Canada were in Alberta, according to the CP/CBC analysis. From 2005 to 2007, Taser uses in Alberta rose by 316 per cent, from 89 to 371.
“Over the years there (are) more members trained, more Tasers out there. Numbers are always going to go up,” said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Greg Cox from Ottawa.
Cox also noted that the RCMP do more front-line policing in western provinces like Alberta, whereas Ontario and Quebec have provincial police forces.
Kennedy’s report stated there is “systematic under-reporting” of Taser use in the RCMP.
Kennedy also recommended that officers should seek medical attention for everyone hit by a Taser; that a new reporting system be implemented (requiring the officer to rationalize why the Taser was used); and that the RCMP release quarterly reports on Taser use.

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By Brad Herron
The Eagle
A public open house was held at the Springbank Airport June 23 to illustrate the facility’s next 20 years of growth.
Larry Stock, the airport manager, said a new 4,400 foot runway parallel to the current north-south runway for visual flight rules (VFR) traffic will be needed within the next 20 years to meet the demand of jets at the airport.
Much has changed since the Calgary Airport Authority took over the Springbank Airport in 1997. Since then, Canada Customs has been introduced, a community fire hall was built and the north-south runway was lengthened and widened.
The Springbank Airport is currently the sixth busiest in Canada.
The 20-year plan also calls for commercial development and another entrance.
In 2007, the airport partnered with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development to create the forest protection base to station water bombers during the summer months.
During the dry summer of 2007, the planes were stationed at the airport. With rain falling constantly this spring the planes have only made infrequent stops in Springbank, but if things dry up that will change.
“Everything between here, mid-way to Rocky Mountain House, right almost to the border with the States is being handled out of here” because the Pincher Creek base is closed for repairs, Stock said.
When the announcement was made in 2007 to include the large water bombers, some residents expressed a concern that the airport could be moving towards commercial traffic.
Stock said these concerns were unfounded and the Springbank Airport will continue to operate as a “reliever to the international airport” in Calgary. There are no plans to add more commercial traffic to Springbank, he added.
Marty Abbot, an active pilot at the airport, has watched the transformation from a “podunk airport” to a “true regional airport.” While impressed with the future growth, he expressed concern about the proposed Harmony development, which could see 10,000 residents living nearby.
“Putting high-density residential near intense industrial activity with projectiles flying around, that’s insanity. Somebody is going to get killed,” Abbot said.
In 2007, the pilot of a small jet misjudged the takeoff requirements and travelled across the ground before taking off. Abbot said this incident, and others like it, illustrate the potential danger.
“If you put homes and schools near runways, inevitably you will have planes crashing into them,” Abbot said.
Randy Charron, also a pilot, said he is disappointed with the M.D. of Rocky View’s residential planning. He hopes the issue is revisited before tragedy strikes.
“Around this airport, it would be a lot better if they zoned it all light-commercial,” he said.
Even the airport manager is concerned about the nearby development.
“Whenever you think of 10,000 residents right next to an airport, you have to question that development,” Stock said.
Harmony is currently in the concept plan stage with the M.D.

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By Alan Mattson
The Eagle
Painters, musicians, dancers, sculptors, actors and poets — all with nowhere to go.
Cochrane badly needs a dedicated arts and culture facility, according to the mayor, a culture expert and local artists.
“It’s been talked about for years,” said mayor Truper McBride. “It has been consistently identified on community surveys dating back to the ’90s that we need a facility like this.”
Recently, town council took $100,000 from the surplus that will likely go to a study to look at the costs, benefits and options for an arts facility.
“This council has identified arts and culture as a fairly high priority,” McBride said.
Marla Blackwell disagrees. She owns an art supply store in town and chairs the Cochrane Community Arts and Culture Committee.
The town isn’t taking the arts seriously, she said, but it’s not entirely their fault.
“I think the main problem is that the town isn’t aware of the need because the artists aren’t letting the town know,” Blackwell said. “The artists need to take responsibility as a group. We need to have a strong voice, and it’s not there.”
Ideally, an arts centre would include a performing space for theatre groups, community choirs, high school bands and dancers.
Visual artists also need well-lit space for working studios, classes and galleries to display their work.
Local painter Shannon Luyendyk, who has been showcased at the Calgary Stampede, said Cochrane needs to preserve its unique western heritage through arts and culture education and promotion.
“It would be nice to have something other than a museum where you can pass that heritage along to future generations,” she said.
The RancheHouse theatre, currently the biggest venue in town, is inadequate for the needs of Cochrane’s residents.
“The RancheHouse isn’t a dedicated performing arts place,” said Karen Ball, a Cochrane resident and director of community investment for Calgary Arts Development.
“It’s a home for conventions, and meetings, and weddings and events, and celebrations, but it’s not a signature performing arts centre for the town. It doesn’t really send the message that Cochrane is a vibrant cultural community.”
McBride said he wants to see the Arts and Culture Committee take a leadership role by creating a business plan and networking to guide the project forward.
Like the model that created the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre, the town could “provide the initial up-front capital,” and hand the facility off to private corporations, developers or community groups.
“Everything’s on the table right now,” McBride said.
Acera Developments, which is creating the 2,300 home Ranche of Cochrane subdivision, has expressed interest in an arts facility on its site.
But Blackwell said her committee is “flustered” and doesn’t have a plan for moving forward on an arts and culture facility. High turnover and burnout on the committee have made things difficult, she said.
One bright point for her has been Coun. Miles Chester, the council representative on the committee, who is “passionate” about the cause.
McBride, Blackwell and Ball all agree that the facility should be located downtown. There are several possibilities, including a one-acre parcel of the former-Domtar lands that Springwood Development will lease to the town.
A downtown location allows the arts to be connected to the rest of Cochrane’s culture, and create significant positive economic impact, according to Ball.
“The economic return is huge,” Ball said. Calgarians already see Cochrane as a weekend destination, and an arts centre would attract people “that are coming in for a $5 ice cream, buying a $20 ticket to see something, then having a meal.”
Communities around Calgary like Airdrie and Okotoks don’t have dedicated arts centres, Ball said, but Calgary is leading the way by budgeting $150 million for space.
The $100,000 feasibility study is a “pretty conservative investment that will have a big return,” Ball said.
The mayor said the topic will likely come up again during budget discussions in November.

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By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
The largest group of students to ever graduate from the Morley Community School received their diplomas June 23.
The 11 students took part in the school’s first cap and gown ceremony, fittingly entitled Making New Traditions.
Principal Dr. Gordon Breen said the increasing number of graduating students is not an anomaly, but a “favourable trend.”
“It’s not a blip on the screen but a solid progression,” he said.
Addressing the students, Breen said: “If you can meet this Alberta high school standard, you can do anything.”
Stoney superintendent Yvonne DePeel also praised their accomplishments.
“A finer group of students you could never imagine to see,” she said.

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Coffee with Warren
by Warren Harbeck
There were several thoughtful responses to last week’s column on Dr. Anne Moore’s ideal of the university.
As you may recall, Anne spoke of three identities of the university at its best: as a place of research, a place of teaching, and more recently, a place for initiating youthful students into an adult world.
Coffee companion Pamela Showler, formerly of our Bow Valley and now doing graduate studies in religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, was not entirely comfortable with Anne’s analysis. She wrote:
Although I agree with Dr. Moore on several accounts, I just wish she wouldn’t pinpoint students as being young. I come up against this all the time. There isn’t an age on this, is there? Otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am today. I began my undergraduate work in my 40s and I have just learned there was someone defending his Ph.D. at 64 years of age.
I just finished reading The Human Nature of a University, by Robert F. Goheen (Princeton University Press, 1969). He was president of Princeton at the time he wrote this. He celebrates the university in its best light with a quote from Woodrow Wilson, who said:
“It is indispensable, it seems to me, if the university is to do the right service, that the air of affairs should be admitted to all classrooms. I do not mean the air of party politics, but the air of the world’s transactions . . . the sense of duty of man toward man, of the presence of men in every problem, of the significance of truth for guidance as well as for knowledge, of the potency of ideas, of the promise and the hope that shine in the face of all knowledge. There is laid upon us the compulsion of the national life . . . . Our recourse for the future lies in careful thought, providence, and a wise economy, and the school must be the nation.”
So, my thoughts to Wilson’s words, synthesized with what Dr. Moore says, are, if the university is failing us, we may want to ask ourselves whether or not we are allowing it to. Are we acting upon our concerns or merely paying them lip service?
— Pamela Showler, Waterloo, Ont.
I asked Anne Moore her thoughts on Pamela’s letter. Anne said:
“Ms. Showler’s quote was great. And I certainly do not mean to imply that university is only for the young. In fact, it is probably the mature students who best preserve the ideals of the university because they usually are there with the understanding of learning about their community, society, and the world. They are less concerned with the job training aspect. She is correct about us doing something about this.”
Canmore coffee companion Dr. Josie Wilson Emmett, recently retired from her Calgary medical practice, picked up on Anne’s concerns over dangers to the classic model of the university. Josie wrote:
Sounds as if Dr. Moore is a professor after my own heart! We have just come back from the home of Socrates and Plato. Where would the Western World be without these great thinkers of antiquity? Did Dr. Moore mention what the proportion of the population was that attended universities in Medieval or even up to mid-19th century times? It seems to be that a lot more young people are attending university now, and while this is good for the “democratization” of society, I wonder if it is one of the factors that has led to the commodification and commercialization of the “degree mill.”
— Josie Wilson Emmett, Canmore
I asked Anne to comment on Josie’s letter. She responded:
“Very interesting comments. Dr. Wilson is correct that the democratization of the university has resulted in the increase of student enrollment compared to the elite status of the universities in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. This did create one of the major paradoxes of current university education. We wanted an informed, intelligent, and critical populace, and believed that one of the best ways to achieve this was to urge people to attend the university. However, this goal of education for the benefit of society is now losing out to the concerns of job training.”
Then there’s something my Grade 9 grandson, Thomas, said recently in a speech. Although his words were in praise of the school he attends in Calgary, they also speak to the professionalism and personal interest that characterize Anne’s ideal university.
One of the things he liked best about his school, he said, was that it had “teachers that cared about both their jobs and their students.”
And so the great conversation continues.
(c) 2008 Warren Harbeck
warren@harbeck.ca.

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