High River Unfiltered with Mayor Craig Snodgrass

      What happens when you sit down with a mayor who doesn't speak in political talking points?

In this episode of The Okotoks Podcast, I sit down with Mayor Craig Snodgrass for one of the most open and candid municipal conversations I've had. Craig has earned a reputation for saying exactly what he believes, and whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands.

We dive into some of the biggest topics shaping High River today, including:

• The new aquatic centre and how the town made the project a reality.
• Why High River continues to attract new residents and businesses.
• The lessons learned from the devastating 2013 flood and how flood mitigation has transformed the community.
• High River's growing film industry and the economic opportunities it creates.
• The "Water Not Coal" movement and why protecting Alberta's Eastern Slopes has become such a passionate issue for Craig and many southern Albertans.
• What it takes to lead a community through both opportunity and controversy.

Throughout the conversation, Craig answers every question directly, without dancing around the issues. It's a refreshing discussion about leadership, community building, transparency, and making decisions that will shape High River for decades to come.

Whether you live in High River, Okotoks, or anywhere in Alberta, this episode offers valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities facing municipalities today.

🎙️ The Okotoks Podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.

If you enjoy these long-form community conversations, please subscribe, leave a review, and share the episode with someone who cares about the future of our towns.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Welcome to the Okatoks Podcast, where the stories are as solid as the Big Rock. Sponsored by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Today we're heading just 23 kilometers south of Okatokes to High River for a conversation with Mayor Craig Snodgas. Before we get started, I just want to say how much I appreciated Craig's transparency. He doesn't dance around difficult questions or give political answers. He tells you exactly what he's thinking, and whether you agree with him or not, I think you'll appreciate his honesty. In this conversation, we cover High River's recovery from the 2015 floods, growth, development, recreation infrastructure, and the cost of building community amenities. High River films industry, downtown revitalization, some of the great events happening throughout the year. We also dive into the water not coal debate on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. And Craig's thoughts on Alberta politics. I hope you enjoy my conversation with High River Mayor, Craig Snodgrass. Well, Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining me. Absolutely. Um, and as we uh chatted about earlier, you said it's okay that I call you Craig, which is awesome. Um kind of uh will get rid of all the formality, I guess, out the gate, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:52

So I banned your worship on the first my first uh meeting.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Do people still do that? Like really your worship, yeah. That's that's yeah, it's quite the honor, I guess, to be called your worship. It's weird, but absolutely. But uh no, I appreciate you uh uh joining me. Now, have you ever watched uh Corner Gas, like between Okatokes and High River, like you know, corner gas, what was the name of that town? Was it Wallerton or something? That on Cornergas, every time that the people from Dog River ever said the name Wallerton, they spit. I don't think we're that aggressive with them. No, I know uh we are not there. We uh we love coming to High River. Actually, we end up my son and I, especially throughout the um the summer months, we end up in High River every Monday. We golf at the uh Spitzy Golf Course, and what a great uh golf course that is to have the kids. Yes, and then um then you know obviously the the 18? They have 18 holes there, right?

SPEAKER_04 8:57

Yeah, they got 18 and then uh and then the spitzy nine that you guys that are that's great. I take the kids there myself. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

So they actually uh sold out this this year. This is the first time ever that they sold all Spitzy Junior League memberships out. Um, and I I thought I was uh because I usually wait till last minute to do stuff, and I thought I was out of luck, but they I was able to get in there, which is awesome. So it's a great thing for for kids. And um your downtown, your downtown is beautiful. You have a beautiful downtown. Um the the whole vibe in uh high river is uh fantastic. But uh yeah, we end up uh you know just going out and touring uh some of the shops downtown. And then the um I always call it the fake downtown because there's parts that are are there that remain for filming. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Yeah, yeah, I guess so. So yeah, the down the downtown of High River, I'm glad you're I'm glad that's how you're experiencing it because that was our whole um goal after the flood, and we had to we had to dynamite downtown basically. All the streets, every all the sidewalks, everything had to come up. So um, you know, that took six years to rebuild downtown high river. And and for that was our whole thing was to change the vibe, and that's why we went from a you know vehicle-centered atmosphere down there to to more of a pedestrian um accessibility. Um, we wanted people rather than cars downtown. So um, and that's what has created the vibes. There's no question. Um, you look at Fourth Avenue, it has the least amount of parking on it and the biggest vibe. Right. It's just the reality. It it worked. Um, what was your other point there? You you said something else.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Uh just oh, the fake store. The fake yeah, yeah, the fake stuff.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah, there's a lot of movie, yeah. There's a lot of movies um locations that are um, you know, it's great for the landlords because they get long-term leases on it and the taxes are paid and everything is good for the town. Um, but there's still a lot of people in town that would like to see those spaces become something that they could access, you know, and um you know, clothing stores, shoe stores, whatever restaurants, whatever it might be, right? But um, you know, from the town standpoint, you know, we don't get into dictating to landlords who they can and can't lease their properties to. So that's a dangerous road to go down. And um so yeah, they get the landlords are happy and they got a long-term lease, and why will they go?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, for sure. And and filming is a big part of like uh we got Heartland that uh videos down there. Uh is there uh other shows like I know there's there's sometimes I'm watching uh like a Netflix show, and also I'm like, hey, wait a second, that's high river. Uh there was one show I was watching, it was it was High River, but it made it look like it was right in the mountains, right? So it kind of threw me off for a bit and then realized they uh brought in the uh the mountains into High River. But like how often are people filming down there? Is it quite regular?

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Constantly, yeah, constantly in the summer. It's it's all it's all the time. I think Heartland was down there yes, just yesterday, but um yeah, it's just kind of become part of our normalcy in downtown High River that uh these companies come in and they do they do their filming and they leave. And you know that that industry is fascinating to watch. Um how fast they can come in, set up, do their thing, and leave. Like it's it's a rank how efficient what I see as efficiency, anyways. They're probably frustrated, but yeah, because they um yeah, no, it it it creates a creates a cool vibe. And when when shows like um Heartland are filming, you know, it's such a popular thing. And people come from to downtown High River from around the world. Like they come just to see that Maggie's diner in downtown High River. Yeah, yeah. Like I'll I'll you see him down there all the time getting pictures taken. Sometimes you know, walking by and give me your phone. I'm tired of selfies. Give me your phone and I'll take a picture of your family in front. We get talking about it and where you're from. Like a ton of European um people that fly here just to go to Maggie's. Yeah, like I'm like, well, that's that's the old Bradley store to me, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

That's cool. Absolutely. Yeah, there's certainly been times that I've been uh in High River and they've been filming, and yeah, it is it is it is very, very cool. And I imagine that certainly helps uh High River's economy quite a bit as well. The restaurants, the uh the hotels, and different things like that, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:53

Yeah, there's lots of stuff. Uh, you know, the restaurants, you know, the the one thing about the movies is they do bring in their own catering companies and stuff to specifically take care of their people because they need that kind of efficiency and stuff. So that's frustrating for some. But but you got to understand those guys are all working and they're going hard and they're going fast. Um, they don't have time to go to a restaurant and sit down for an hour and a half to have a nice meal. So that's why they do that. But at the same time, you know, you look at our coffee shops downtown, and when they're filming, the coffee shop's busy because they'll zip in and out and grab coffee. They do that, but the other piece is um they do a ton of rental business in High River. A ton. Like all their gears, you know, they they need scissor lifts and everything else. That's that all comes directly from from iRiver. So, you know, there's uh I think our our staff, the Jocelyn that kind of is the liaison between the town and the movies and TV shows. Um, you know, it's a million-dollar um revenue hit to the to the economy for i river for these guys to be in town.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Like a million dollar like annually? Annually, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Really? So yeah, just between, you know, they do surveys with all the different, you know, who what these guys do, and it's the the industry itself keeps track of who they're renting from and everything else. And yes, yeah, so it's yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

And yeah, like we like we said before, you certainly have a great uh setting for that, and it is uh such a cool thing for for a town to do. Now, now uh high river and okotokes. Obviously, uh, you know, we back it up a little bit. When you um you're in your fourth term as mayor uh for High River. Uh so this is your 13th year that you have been mayor. Now, obviously, um a lot of hurdles. Um, you became mayor just after uh the 2013 floods. Was it the very next fall that there was elections after so the flood flood happened in June?

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Uh and the election was in October.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Right. And was it part of the was the flood what one of the reasons why you decided to uh step up and run for mayor because of the the leadership that the town probably needed at that time?

SPEAKER_04 16:21

Yeah, it was the reason. Um yeah. Um, you know, my my home was severely impacted, my business was severely impacted, uh, the whole town was obviously severely impacted. And um, you know, I'm fourth generation in this town. Um and yeah, I'd always considered that, you know, later in life maybe I'd run for council or something. But um after the flood hit, and I was gotten got involved with um, you know, trying to help the business community get up and running somehow and everything. And with the with the uh people the government had put in place, I was put my hand up to be part of that group. And then as that went along, um people were asking me uh to run for counsel, and I go, okay, well, I don't really know what that looks like. And then um then some people started asking me, you know, why just run for mayor? Just we need, you know, the I I guess I have the reputation of make being a decision maker and being able to be pragmatic in that way, and and that's kind of what they were they were looking for when they asked me. And so I said, uh, what the hell? I'll put my hand up for mayor, and I ran against um one of the former counselors from Jamie Kinghorn from the other one. And and uh and yeah, it's a running joke now because Jamie and I are very good friends, and yeah, um so yeah, I I I got him on that one and so became the mayor, and I've been the mayor ever since.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Right. Um yeah, like I'm I'm sure that those must have been very difficult years for the entire community. I know as a as a realtor for for a while, people were hesitant to purchase a home in High River. Um, but then starting to watch, because that's following you guys very closely with all the the mitigation uh that you guys put into place since 2013. And then my line to my clients started to become well, you know what I think high river really needs is a good test of their, you know, not that you want it, but for people to restore the the confidence that High River um, you know, has put the some good mitigation in place. And I I don't think since 2013 we've had a few tests, but nothing too substantial since then, right? No, not even close. So but but in your mind, the uh like that I don't think there was any stopping what what took place, even if you would have had mitigation like that was what are they saying? It's gotta be more than a hundred-year flood.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Oh, far more, yeah. Like it's uh so the mitigation that was in place prior to 2013 um was sporadic, you know, in in you know, the uh uh the highest impact areas along the river, I guess the the dangerous spots is where mitigation had been placed. Um, but it had only been placed to the known at that time, the known uh flood levels, which was at in 1995 or 2005, one or the other. Uh 95 was 770 CMS, 95 was um 900, 95 was 770, 2005 was 990 CMS. So that's the levels that the mitigation in High River was at with berming and diking and different systems that were in place. So in 2013, um, when 1830 CMS came along, well, it just went right over top of anything that we had. It was non-existent, right? So um, so what we did, um, you know, and we got it done because honestly, because Allison Redford, the premier of the day, said we are going to fix this place and we are going to do it right. And and she committed the funding to do so. I'm always grateful to to Allison. I still talk to her every now and then that we um run into each other, but um she committed the funds, and we cannot do it without no community can do it without the funding. Um, but we committed to making the hard decisions. You can have the money, but if you don't have the political will, you're screwed too, right? The political will takes a hell of a lot of um fortitude to be able to fight through the difficult times when you are running um 10 kilometers of berms and dikes um through your the middle of your community. You're you're impacting people's homes. We had to buy out two communities, being Beechwood and and Wallaceville. We bought them out completely. The homes are gone, they're and we turned them back into um river floodplain. Okay. But that was all part of the mitigation to get that done, right? So yeah, it was uh there was a ton there that had to be that had to be done, but it's uh takes political will and it takes the money to do it. I lost ya.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Can you hear me? Yeah, I got I got nothing for ya.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

There we go. I think I uh I accidentally uh my mic is so sensitive, if I bump it, it hits mute on me. So yeah, I'm sorry about that. No worries.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

So did that answer your question with the mitigation and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Abs absolutely. And you know, back to you know, that storm, like I do not remember it raining and it coming down from that direction that it did ever. Um you know, the the the east facing windows of my house were just they rarely get wet in storms, even um were just getting washed. So it was, yeah, obviously uh the as they call it the perfect storm. Um and uh no, it's uh certainly, you know, I feel that as we get further and further away, and you know, uh, you know, it's not uh yeah, people when I'm showing properties in in High River, people are um, yeah, they they bring it up. But I love saying that, you know, they have gone through uh a lot of mitigation and you know, they've had minimal, minimal tests. Like this year, I think everybody's kind of getting ramped up a few weeks ago, kind of thinking, you know, what could possibly happen. But I don't think, you know, seeing your guys' posts, um, you know, even with the flow and all that stuff, uh, yeah, your communication is great, uh, especially when people are starting to get nervous. You are like I noticed that you and your team are well ahead of it because you're giving people the heads up. Hey, folks, we you know, on social media or whatever, and you know, just restoring confidence that you guys are on it and you know, we'll we'll be there if anything, if there's an event that does happen.

SPEAKER_04 23:45

So um, but no, yeah, I'll tell let me I'm gonna touch on just on to finish your question, uh, you know, when you're looking at real estate and the safety of high river and what we've done and everything. So, you know, I could go in to this for two hours talking about every little nicky thing that we did um uh for mitigation. But at the end of the day, we took the 2013 level of 1830 CMS. We mitigated to that, but we also added a meter of freeboard protection, extra protection on all the berms, all the dikes, on the floodgates, on the everything we did had wasn't just built to 2013, it was built for more. Um so right now, what the model, yes, we haven't done a physical test of it. The most we've had since 2013 is 200 CMS. Like it's it's a fart in the wind. Like it doesn't mean anything, right? Like it's well, it depends if you're down with it does in a little bit, but um but they uh so it you know our three we the modeling, Worley Parsons designed all this um systems and they designed the modeling actually prior to the flood, High River in Foothills County invested in um having Worley Parsons design flood modeling that surpasses the government's software, by the way. But anyways, um they won't take my recommendation to take that on, so whatever. Um, but our our modeling tests um we've tested it up to 3,000 CMS now, and it's and we're still protected. I don't want to get to that number.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

No, no.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Um, but that's as far as we've tested it. And you know, so going from 1830 to uh 3,000 CMS of protection, you know, I do still um, you know, looking at you know, even places like uh Winnipeg and the river and the flooding problems they've had there, uh, we are definitely the most well-protected community in Canada from flood risk, hands down.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Really? That's that's that's awesome. That's uh that's good to know. So, and nice that uh, you know, the Alberta government stepped in and and helped uh mitigate that and yeah, just to restore restore confidence in High River. Now let's uh let's just talk a little bit about the real estate market and what you guys are looking at doing. Um you guys are like what you know, it's a little bit of a contentious issue here in Okotoaks is the growth. Um High River Um is starting to become a great option for a lot of people. A lot of people are looking at High River as a place to to land. I'm sure people like here don't love that, you know, the growth aspect of things. But what's what's the growth rate looking at uh high river? Like how much are you guys you know projected to be growing? What what's what's hopeful? What are people comfortable with?

SPEAKER_04 26:36

Or yeah, uh growth. Um very contentious subject, of course, as to you know whether it's beneficial or is it sustainable? Is it um is it is it honestly worth it? Um there's a lot of uh downside that comes with growth, but you can't stop it, right? It's going to come. You can um you can slow it so that it's you know it's a done. Um I don't know as to the sustainably. Yeah, sustainable is bullshit. It doesn't exist. You can't. It doesn't, we we don't have enough um, you know, uh in my opinion, you know, um there's too many people on the face of the planet now. We're starting to get too thick and and we're paying the price for it. But uh there there there is a limit. And and you know, my thing on on growth in these in our communities right now is is based should be based on water, not on want. And when your allocated water um is is up, you're done. Um that's that's the size of your community. That's the the amount of water that you have coming directly out of the watershed you're located on, whether it's the highwood or the sheep or anything. Um you know, I wasn't supportive of the the Okotokes Foothills County water pipeline. Because, you know, now we're going way down the Bow River on, you know, yes, you're still on the South Saskatchewan, you know, river basin, but now you're going way down there with a big long pipeline and sucking it back, sucking it back west, um, just to facilitate more growth. And you know, but I brought that up in regional meetings and you know it got nowhere, but um that's just my thing that you know if you really want your communities to be sustainable, it needs to be based on your water availability. Um growth is growth is expensive. It costs a lot of money to grow. And the it puts tax burden on all residents, not just um not just where the growth is occurring. Everybody pays. Everybody pays for growth. So, you know, I struggle with people. Well, we need to grow, Craig, like this needs, we need to get like this and we need to get like that. And they say, no, no, no. No, let's just let's just think about this for a little bit. What does that actually mean? Because um, some people just like, well, more must be better. You know, if we have more, then we can have more. And it more just means more money. It's just it just gets really expensive. And, you know, then we get into, you know, the amenities that you have to provide for that growth. Well, you know, get into recreation. Well, holy shit, the the costs of recreation are absolutely enormous. The the little swimming pool expansion we're building right now, um, you know, this the new pool portion of it is about sixteen million dollars. And that's in addition to the one that we have. And then we're renovating the old one, we're renovating the lobby. So that project alone is $29 million now. That's crazy. For a town of 15,000 people, you know, now there's people, there were people leading up to that that wanted us to build a whole brand new rec center in town. And I'm like, that's you know, to the level of like the Seton Center or something, right? That's to build the Seton Center, you are minimum of $150 million.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Right.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

Like Olkatoks is looking at just an aquatics facility, just an aquatics facility coming in at $100 million.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's absolutely insane. And I I certainly appreciate where you're coming from inside of the the growth. Um now, uh a phrase that I've heard quite regularly is growth pays for growth. Agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Oh, growth pays for growth? Absolutely. So a new community that's being built, um, that developer must be responsible for all the infrastructure that goes into play. That cannot be on the burden of everybody else in town. Um so you know, growth pays for growth. I think that's I I can't um I can't agree with that more. Um you know, and it has to have off-site levies and everything else that developers absolutely hate. But at the same time, why are residents in established neighborhoods in High River um going to pay for a new fire hall just because of more growth out in the Northwest, right? That that growth has to pay for that fire hall because it's going to service them. So that's where off-site levies come in. And it, you know, you get into the province has rules on what you can and can't charge um off-site levies for, but um, and it's a hard calculation to come up with, and the developers will always push back. And um and we've compromised on a couple of things in High River to uh to facilitate that because it's all based on the timelines as to when all this stuff's gonna happen, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

Um, but yeah, I uh uh Carlon, I'm a hundred percent on growth pays for growth because I don't think it's the responsibility for um the existing people to have to sheld that burden. Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

So with your current uh water license, what's the size that high river could grow to?

SPEAKER_04 32:44

No idea.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

No idea. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

Uh if we've got license for I shouldn't say no idea, because that's that's not uh when I think about it and we've gone through our town plan and everything, like we're we could get to we could get to, I think, 40 to 50,000 on our current licensing. Um but yeah, you know, I have a hell of a time going along with a number like that because um we don't know what drought looks like. We don't know what um you know the future looks like as far as water requirements and as far as and as far as what we need. So, you know, I kinda you gotta you gotta play that game with your with your water licensing. And you know, unfortunately, the Alberta government decided to allow people to pull more water out of the rivers now, and I don't think that's been thought through very well. I think it's uh I think it's been I think it's another placating to developers and I don't I don't agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Aaron Powell Was the is the option ever available to the town of High River uh to tap into the foothills regional pipeline, or is High River not a part of that equation?

SPEAKER_04 34:09

No, we no, we weren't a part of that. Um we didn't, you know, I won't say it wasn't discussed, but it it was never, I don't think it wasn't this big offer that came to the table. It was um, you know, High River, High River Um does have our needed water allocation right now. I I guess in the future, if it would be pretty easy to tap into that water line. Right. If the council of the day so choose to do so, it's gonna be right there. Um not a big deal, but uh I sure as hell don't support doing that. I think if you're, you know, to people come people come to High River, uh, you know, like you, you know, you were talking in that earlier podcast that I was listening to about the number of people from Ontario that have moved here, number of people from Vancouver, you know, they're selling their multimillion dollar properties in these provinces, and they're um they're coming and they're l laying down in Oak Tokes and High River, and you know, you get a $700,000 nice house, and you put $1.4 million in the bank, you're you're good for retirement, right? So that's what's happening. Um but it's you know, the I can't even remember where I was going with that now, but you go back to water, water, water, water, water. And it's um people people want access to it, people want access to fresh water, people want access to you know growth to a point, but they also want all the amenities that are expensive and uh she's a she's a tough, she's a tough gig to manage, don't call that.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah, no, for sure. Well, even you know, talking about those the those values you kicked out to uh $16 million for the up for the new pool, and then the total upgrades almost a uh $30 million or $29 million. Um why did like was like why did you feel that that investment was so important to the town of High River?

SPEAKER_04 36:17

Um well, we always try to keep up with yeah, no, no, I won't say keep up with other communities, um, but you have to provide a certain level of what's needed, right? So the our our our previous aquatics facility uh was just a great big lane pool. That's what was built. And it came um, you know, when I was a kid, we had an outdoor pool in High River, and then um, you know, the rec center is named after my dad. Well, my dad and my a bunch of uh other guys and um people in high river got together and said, you know, let's let's start to build the rec center. We had a curling rink there and a hockey rink there and a pool there. So, you know, late 70s, early 80s, that was the thing. Well, let's get it all into one. Um, so that's what they did. And but, you know, they just kind of replaced what we had, and what we had was a great big lane pool. Nowadays, with these aquatics facilities, you know, it's the zero entry beach style entries. You got to have water slide, you got, you know, some of these fancy amenities for uh kids to have fun in. And um, you know, a lot of our my family is one of them, but my wife was always taking kids to Okotokes for swim lessons when they were really little, right? Just because of the zero entry, a little bit safer, um, funner environment. Not so much for lessons, but just for them to have something to do to go into that. High River was difficult that way. So that's why we really focused on the aquatics facility and and what what should we build? And we looked at, we took two years of uh looking at different styles of pool. Should it be standalone? Do we build a whole standalone thing over here or over there? Or um well, those costs of a standalone aquatics facility just became enormous.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Right.

SPEAKER_04 38:06

Right. Um, and then what do you do with your old one? No, you got to spend money to refurbish your old one into a dry land facility or something else. So that's why we said no. What we need is an updated, more modern aquatics facility. So let's just add on on the current site where we own the land, the servicing is there. Those are two extremely uh expensive items on any construction project, land and servicing. So uh it was all there, so that's why we decided we decided to put it there.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yeah. And when is it officially open now? Or uh slated for September. September, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

Yeah, we're in we're in the renovation to finishing up the renovation portion, which just never building new is pretty easy, but uh well, it's got its headaches along. But going into a renovation of a you know, building that was built in uh 79, 80.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

No, um well, that's uh what a great uh great thing for a town of High River to have something you know uh something like that. Um I'm sure that uh certainly gonna be uh uh envy of Okotokes, that's for sure. Um one thing I missed in uh high river right now is PV Mart. I miss PV Mart just for the record. Yeah, no, everybody does. Yeah, that was uh a great place. Um now we're headed into the uh summer months. What are some of the highlights that uh uh you know, summer months and then you know, things that uh people listening need to mark on their calendars to make sure that they're a part of because I think of uh the events throughout the year that we try to make it to in High River, uh there's a lot of great activities going on in High River.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

Yeah, and I'm sorry, I don't I don't have a list in front of me, but just off the top of my head, of course, you know, in September, um we call it kind of the fall festival, um, that's when the Heritage In International Balloon Festival comes in, which is a massive one. Uh of course, the um the Brian Chip Chase Memorial Car Show, uh the River City Classics puts on, you know, that that's one of the largest car shows in Western Canada, especially that time of year. Um, it's always a massive, massive draw. Um, the rodeos, the chuck wagons, you know, they're always okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

So I um and I'm sorry that I'm cut cutting you off, but the rodeo, I missed the rodeo this year. But when are the chuck wagons? Like when is that's the problem? You're gonna get me stuck in the updates and I don't know them. Well, we we can edit this out. Let me look that up and then we will add this in because I think that's uh. And this is my fault because I didn't get you that. I thought I sent you that list. Uh we had uh we had a phone call this morning and a guy wanted to take us flying, so that kind of threw me uh off.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Uh looks July 23rd to 26th.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

23rd to 26th, okay. Okay, let's let's back that up and make it look like we know what we're talking about. So, Craig, one thing that uh is awesome is the chuck wagons. And the reason why I love the chuck wagons in High River is just the proximity you are to um the track, and you feel the ground shaking. Uh, and it's it's all about the the chuck wagons there, and it's just uh a great environment. When what's the date of those chuck wagons?

SPEAKER_04 41:41

Uh July 26 3rd to the 26th.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

23rd to 26th, yes. And it's um all the people that are in the uh Calgary Stampede, but you're up close and personal with the the horses and the cowboys, and it's it's the outriders, and it's it's it's an amazing thing.

SPEAKER_04 42:00

Yeah, it's a cl it's you know, a close race to the stampede. So the guys are flying and and uh you know, for there's a lot of people that just can't afford or can't get to those stampede races. You know, that's you know, of course, such a cool thing to be a part to go watch. Um, of course, but you know, you can come to High River for you know 10 cents on the dollar and have a great experience because, like you said, you can be physically up against that fence and be within five feet of those of that wagon going by if they're if they're all four breasts coming through, or three, what they hope three they run in high river. Um, yeah, like and and you know, the people that uh you know that don't get to experience that kind of thing very often, it's it's a pretty incredible thing for them to to be able to be that close to it. So so that's definitely a big one. Um Canadian fiddling championships are in high river this year. So it's a big deal, especially when you're a massive bluegrass fan like I am. So that's it's pretty cool. Um yeah, that's uh end August sometime. I don't have the date in front of me.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

I actually used to play the violin.

SPEAKER_04 43:11

Did you? Nice.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

Bring it. My neighbors, well, my my neighbors hated the fact that all of us kids in my family played the uh violin because it, you know, those first few years, it's it's equivalent, maybe even greater than driving parents nuts than the recorders would, right? Scratchiness. Oh my gosh, it's terrible. But no, that's uh and and then in like jumping ahead, we're kind of jumping all over the map here because then in December you have the Santa Claus parade. Yep. And this year, like they even used that parade for some kind of Netflix uh yeah recording as well, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:49

Like it's I don't know the Netflix movie that they filmed while we were during that parade, which was it was pretty funny to watch because you know, you got all your LA actors. That are coming up and it was it was, I don't know, it wasn't that cold, but they were freezing their arse off. And but the but the environment of what they were looking for, it was like we scripted the whole thing because uh just snowing the most perfect snowfall. The temperatures were great, and you know, everybody bundled up because it was a little bit colder. But um, yeah, they talking with the movie guys just before it ran, they were all just blown away as to how the hell we pulled this off for them. But yeah, yeah, we're magic.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

No. And then the balloon festival as well, which is a huge event. Like last year there's some major traffic issues in uh high river, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_04 44:38

Yeah, that's the goal. Yeah. Right. So, you know, we if you uh even on the morning, the morning uh launches for the balloons, um, you know, that's just west of where I'm I am right here. But um, you know, they'll there'll be 2,000 people along that berm watching watching a eight o'clock in the morning uh balloon show. And they're just the flood from Calgary that comes down in the mornings. They stay at the hotels. They'll stay, I got families that stay at the hotels all week because it's hit and miss. You know, they're so weather sensitive, those things. Um, so yeah, there's some people that just want to be here to make damn sure they don't miss them if they actually do go up. So yeah, um, but then you get into the you know, the Friday night glow, they call it, where the balloons they uh put the balloons up, they don't launch, but the balloons go up. Um, and then when they when they hit their burners at nighttime and those balloons just glow like you've everybody's seen pictures. If you haven't, just Google it. It's it's the coolest environment down there, and you can get right up like to the balloon, like everybody's right there. Yeah, and there's yeah, we'd there's been years where we've doubled our population in one night just to do that. So yeah, yeah, is there you know I it people complain about the traffic, and I'm like, this is awesome. Oh, yeah. This is exactly what we're looking for. The whole that whole center streets lined with food trucks, and yeah, yeah, it takes you two hours to get a mini donut, but yeah, it's a good time.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

No, for sure. No, uh lots of life in this uh little town of 15,000 people. Now, you've also come out.

SPEAKER_04 46:20

Uh give me two can you give me just two seconds here? 100%.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Thanks. What business do you run, Craig?

SPEAKER_04 47:32

Uh I own Lyle Reeves' funeral home in High River.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Okay. Yeah. Um your uh family in Okotox also runs the is that through you or is that through Yeah, it's completely separate businesses.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

I okay. Yeah, we split off there 16 years ago. So I started my own. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Um all right. So let's uh go to let's hit more uh two more topics. The one is uh let's hit the water water not cool topic. Craig, you came out a while back uh certainly siding uh for the water not coal side of the the great debate of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, uh the Croznus Pass area. Um what are your thoughts on that inside of the mining? Like, is there any way around it that they could maybe try to do it safely and effectively and not hinder the the water?

SPEAKER_04 48:36

No. Hard stop. It's it's impossible. They can't do it. They don't have the technology to do it. They um, you know, you it's simple. You just look at the Elk Valley and the problems they've got in the Elk Valley. Um they they can't do it. And it stops, it stops long before selenium becomes a problem for me, Carlin. Like it's um I'm far more on the you know, the the immediate land destruction um that reclamation is impossible. They can't, they cannot replace that. It you you just can't. Um and it's again, it's shown in uh in the Elk Valley sparwood. You know, you gotta do is drive sparwood and look up. That's what reclamation looks like, and it's not. Um just because you know there's alfalfa that can grow on there, that's about it, what they say, anyways. Um, but the bigger, you know, long before even that, the economics of the whole thing are an absolute joke. Like there's no royalties um for it. You know, I listened to your podcast with with Amanda, and you know, honestly, I thought Amanda did a did a really you know good job and being fair in lots of places, but um there's no economics that supports this thing. And um, you know, you look the royalties, everybody say, well, we get royalties. Well, the maximum amount of royalties this province has ever got from coal is $20 million. That doesn't build my swimming pool. And that's when that's when coal was flying. Like that was just the normal amount of royalties is under $10 million that that the province gets from coal. So there's no benefit financially to the province. It it does nothing. Um the the the idea that we are going to allow a foreign company, and and these are this is Aussies, you know, we're looking they're all Aussie going up the eastern slopes, they're all Aussie, Aussie companies because they're getting kicked out of their own country, so they're coming to us. Um but you know, we're looking at at the Grassy project down in the pass. You know, that's an Australian coal company that's gonna come in, they're gonna blow up our mountains, they're gonna destroy the landscape. There will be water impacts, there already is from the previous site and from Tent Mountain. There's there's uh unsafe selenium um levels in there if that's if water's your thing. But we're going to let a foreign company come in, blow up our mountains, put them on trains, and send them to China, where China will well, China will burn them to make steel. You know, is that what we're going to do is sell our soul of our of our eastern slopes and and put our watersheds at risk? Is is that what we need? Is is that responsible? Um there are other ways of making coal, and and Amanda made reference of that. But you know, in Switzerland, Sweden, um, they are using hydrogen to, or not to make coal, to make steel. Um they're using hydrogen technology to uh to do those processes, and that just takes investment of the government because they use coal because it's cheap and it's easy, and that's what Amanda was very clear about. That that's um, you know, there is no way to mine um our eastern slopes um responsibly, um safely. Um, you know, the town of Fernie is now looking for backup water, uh new water sources because of the um levels of levels of selenium in the Elk River. So they're going up into uh Lizard Creek and stuff and looking around in there. They gotta get up out of out of that Elk River. Um, you know, I fish a ton down in down in Ferney, and it you constantly catch cutthroat trout with half gill plates, and that's because of birth deformations from from selenium in the in the uh in their uh spawning creeks. So there is no, there is absolutely no way around this. Um I get the people in the past that think this is going to be some kind of an economic boom. Um, but it's not. It's not an economic boom in in Sparwood. It's not, you know, it's not Sparwood isn't this great, big, amazing place because of their coal mine. It's it's a place where people live to work in the coal mine. There's there's no great big economic, you know, thing. You know, it's um, you know, and so the the past did their referendum where you know only 1,700 people you know voted in favor of it, but um that mine isn't even located in the Crow's Nest Pass. It's in the MDR ranch lands. So you know they the government, the Alberta government's been leaning on this. Oh, well, the people in the past want it. So, okay, well, right on. Well, Corb Lund's Water Not Cold petition just blew that out of the water because he got over 200,000 signatures. Right. So, you know, the these the these landscapes are not just owned by the local municipality that gets the say on this. These are Alberta's landscapes, these are our watersheds. If you screw our water, you screw all of us. Right. And this is you're also screwing the other provinces that depend on us to provide them uh clean and water and uncontaminated water, being Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Um, that's our responsibility to make damn sure that that water is safe when it hits their border, too. But you know, it it it it it makes no sense.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

So uh yeah, like I I am obviously no expert on this, but there is no way that you can filter out the selenium from the water once it goes through all the it's it's always once it's in there, you can't get it out.

SPEAKER_04 55:02

That's correct. And uh, you know, they've tried, they've spent you know hundreds of millions of dollars in in that they uh forced tech to make these you know water treatment facilities that that don't work. They and you know when I've I've met with the CEO of North Back Holdings, and um I met with a number of the other CEOs um uh of Atram Cole and Montem. And none of them, I keep telling them, where's your technology to deal with the selenium? And they don't, it doesn't exist. They say, oh, we're using upgrade up, you know, it it's it's audio and optical bullshit, is what they're slinging. It's snake oil, they're saying, well, you're we're using you know uh better technology today. Well, the technology they have today is the exact thing they had yesterday, which is a pond. Right. It's a settling pond. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

So if if let's say that the coal was deeper, it was deeper into the eastern slopes, but they would um now not just uh surface mine it, they would actually have to dig the tunnels and and mine it. Would the risks be less if they were digging into um the mountains as opposed to surface mining?

SPEAKER_04 56:26

Well, not on the water end of things because you got to pull all that rock out, right? And it never it never goes back in. So they it's too expensive to put it back in. So the answer is no. Now I've talked to the guys early on when I was trying to understand this. I didn't know a hell of a lot about it, but um, and I asked the guys, you know, can you can you go underground? Like, is that the better thing? And they said no, the coal's too shallow. Right. The reality is, is yes, it is too shallow and it's too dangerous to do so. But the reality is, is it's just um economically for them to make money, it's cheaper just to blow it up on the surface and and go down after it. That's just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

So if you're dealing with like uh my I always reference back to Cornack, Saskatchewan, where they would uh, you know, it was flatland. Uh I I can't imagine there'd be too many waterways systems around that area. Maybe there was, I don't know. Um but I imagine prairie coal mining is safer uh because you don't you can kind of control where the water's flowing and stuff a little bit better.

SPEAKER_04 57:32

Oh, I'm sure you can. I don't, you know, the what we're fighting against is specifically coal mining on the eastern slope so that we don't destroy our headwaters. That's what we're you know, going back into what Amanda was talking about when um, you know, they decommissioned all the thermal coal mines. Um uh you know, it wasn't that you know, nobody really understood it, you know, too much. But when when the Kenny government uh got rid of the 76 coal policy, it it really opened up the can of worms as to what coal mining was all about and what they were bringing back into Alberta. And and uh that's where we all said, no, this needs to be a hard no. But we're actually fighting against a government that says a hard yes, they're gonna do everything in their power, which Danielle continues to uh prove herself that that she's going on her end, she's gonna do everything in her power to put put things in place for these guys to do it. And and you know, I've had numerous conversations, fights with her about it, that you are selling our selling the soul of Alberta to a foreign company. And you tell me where that makes sense for for no benefit to Alberta, no economic benefit, a handful of jobs, and no amount of money, no amount of jobs is worth uh destroying our our landscapes and destroying our watersheds.

SPEAKER_01 58:55

For sure. And you guys have uh butted heads with the uh UCP government uh previously. And again, I don't know if you want to get uh if we we can delete this if you don't want this in here. But trust me, I'm all in. Okay, right on. Um the uh biodigester and the way that you know I was part of that. I talked to uh Benita uh on the podcast and you know, and uh other residents where it just seems like this this is just getting rammed through. And now it seems like it's no one's talking about it anymore. Um uh but really concerning as how it uh the hearing aids were shut off. Just like, no, this is going, it smells like money. We're going for it. Forget about you, forget about the residents, forget about even the residents of High River and how the, you know, that even to this day, how that feedlot affects um a lot of people on the north side with smells and stuff like that, and lots of complaints to follow that Facebook page as well. Uh, but it just sometimes seems like uh if you're not in the right circles, it doesn't really matter what you think.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:03

100%. That's the way the UCP government operates. If you're if you're friends with them, they'll they'll let me get into that with the biodigester. But um, so that biodigester, I'll give you my own personal. So I used to work out at that feedlot when I was young, so and and another feedlot just further west. Um, so I'm fairly well versed in what I'm talking about when I know when I know kind of how feedlots operate. It was years I worked there. So um, you know, and the smell has always been an issue in a high river, the smell from the feedlot. And it went away when they when they shut western feedlots down. Um, and we I was told it was all going to be sold off and uh the whole feedlot was gonna be ripped out and you know, yay, right on. But then all of a sudden I hear that uh that a new company had bought it and they're they're resurrecting the thing. And okay, okay, well, you know, it's not in my jurisdiction, and you know, they've bought it and they're doing it and it's exists, so away they go. Um but they uh the smell came back and with a vengeance too. Um and so when this biodigester um first started being talked about, I started looking into it and um I thought, okay, well, now you're going from taking all that manure and spreading it on fields, which is a major problem for the smell when you aerate all that manure. Um and now you're gonna be putting in it into this biodigester that contains it and you know, pulls the gas off of it, and then you're left with um can't remember the name, it's been years since we or a couple of years since we talked about this, but so started looking into it. So I took counsel and we all went down to Lethbridge to tour their biodigester, saw what, saw how it operated and you know, paid attention to the smell around it and stuff, which there wasn't hardly anything. Um so I was like, okay, we got a problem with smell in town. Can the biodigester help? Because that's my main goal. Can we, how do we mitigate the smell coming off of that? And will this help? Um, seemed as though it would. So, anyways, the the provincial government gave um, you know, uh I don't know exactly what the number is, but it's somewhere between six and eight million dollars worth of grants for that project to get to get going. And Jason Kenny went out there with, you know, this big green initiative that he did, and they asked me to go out there, and I said no, because at the time I wasn't a real big fan of Jason Kenny, so I said, no, I'm not gonna be seen at this thing. I don't know what it is at that point. And so, no, I said no. Um, then it starts to come out exactly what it is. And and uh thank God I'm not in that picture today. But they uh now, where where is it at? And I've asked our MLA, I've asked the premier, like where where's this, where's the biodigester? Well, we don't know. We don't know if it's gonna be built yet or not. Okay, fair enough. Where's the money? You gave them all these multi-million dollars to build this thing. Who's got the money? And has it all been delivered to them? So, and I haven't got an answer back from from that yet. So um, you know, on Benita's end, you know, Bonita lives right across the street from it. So um I totally understand where where she was coming from. Um, but it today it doesn't exist, it's not built. They've moved a bunch of dirt around that they did, you know, three years ago, and that's where it sits. It's yeah, it's there. And I don't know if there's if there's any plans to continue the thing. But it's actually that's a common thing. Uh it seems though with some other feedlots in Alberta where you know they've they've applied for these things, they've got grants, and then the thing's never built. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

Right. Yeah, for sure. No, my friend, this is uh this is awesome. Um now before we got chatting, uh before we actually hit record, I should say, um, we talked about a little bit uh like I just assumed that uh High River was a part of the Foothills Regional Fieldhouse, but it was not. That was a collaboration between the Oak between Okatoks and uh the Foothills County. I I I assumed that High River was a part of that, but I guess I was wrong.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:38

No, so that's the previous council to when I got on, um 2020 council, um or 2010, 2010 council. Um they were going through the process of whether they were going to partner into this thing or not. Um and I don't know, I wasn't paying much attention to higher politics because I just opened a new business and I was you know forehead ahead doing that thing. So um but they that council voted not um to be a part of the Alderside Fieldhouse, and what they did, they decided to build um our own field house on our rec center directly in High River. And that to me was an extremely positive decision that council made um in order to set up our recreation properly in this town, because um, I believe that your your recreation facilities need to be located in the highest density areas of your community so that you can alleviate as much um necessity of driving to these facilities is possible. And the difference I see between Alderside and my kid plays lacrosse there. Um you know that and my wife plays volleyball and everything there. Everybody has to drive to Alderside. Everybody's in a vehicle to get there. The kids cannot just ride their bike. That is not happening on the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

No, and the seniors like in the wintertime when they like walking the track right and they're looking for tracks to walk, you know, they don't want to you know pick a ball or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:31

So that was the big thing. And you look at our field house and you go look at Friday night, you know, open basketball, it's packed. It's absolutely packed. It's all kids and they none of they're all too young to drive. But they can all access they can ride their bikes their scooters, everything else, walk there. So that's what's really important to me and that's what's um I was saying this we had a little regional um meeting between High River, Okotoks, Foothills County, Black Diamond or Diamond Valley and Nanton the other night and I made my point very clear there that these locilities need to be located um you know not out in the middle of a stubble field somewhere that everybody has to drive to and it's um yeah no I need to be accessible and that's why we built the pool where we did.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

Yeah no absolutely well my friend I appreciate your time I appreciate your uh transparency. Um it's uh very refreshing I uh look forward to chatting with you again sometime on the podcast and uh yeah anytime you want to come on to discuss an issue or whatever just feel free to reach out.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Um but I yes as I say this to every politician that comes on my show I do thank you for for your service service to the community uh I know it's not easy and I know it's not fun but it's so important having uh quality people in there to lead uh the community into the the next uh phase of life or whatever that might be for the community and yeah I I you said a lot of things that I really appreciate Craig so I do thank you for your time appreciate that yeah that it there there's fun parts but the fun part is looking back five years and to make damn sure you got something done that improves your community every day right that that's where it's fun getting through that and getting that stuff done can be absolute hell.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:32

Well because what do they say opinions are like uh podcasts everybody has one yeah for sure yeah and it's it's you know you're you're dealing with people you're dealing with humans there's a there it's uh that's the most difficult part of the whole gig is is uh you know you're making decisions and I always tell council that you know every decision we make affects everybody in high river in a different way every single one of them and you're always going to have pros and cons and people that are against and people that are for um it's up to us to have some kind of strategic vision to push forward on and and uh we've been very successful that and you know I've been very lucky the four councils that are that have been absolutely amazing to uh to set high river in the right direction so I love it but I appreciate this car love conversation yeah we'll do it again thank you so much Craig to care thanks sir bye whether people agree with every opinion or not I think everyone can appreciate someone who answers questions honestly and doesn't avoid the difficult questions high river is clearly doing a lot of things right and from the beautiful downtown to the incredible events throughout the year there's a lot for people to experience just a short 23 kilometer drive from Okedokes if you enjoyed this conversation and really appreciate it if you subscribe to the Okadokes podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast or wherever you listen, leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

What stood out to you from this conversation are there topics you'd like Craig or other municipal leaders to discuss in the future thanks so much for listening and as always thanks for being a part of these conversations that matter to our communities.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:12

We'll see you next time on the Okatokes podcast That's it for today's episode of the Okatokes podcast big thanks to Carlin Lutzer Real Estate for making it happen and thanks to you for listening