Latest news with #Canmore
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Hershey Bears Forward Luke Philp Signs In Sweden
Former Hershey Bears forward Luke Philp has signed a one-yea deal in Sweden with Farjestad BK, it was reported late last week. Philp, who hails from Canmore, Alta., spent the entire 2024-25 season with the Bears, collecting 10 goals and 20 assists for 30 points in 58 regular season games. With the Bears having made the playoffs, Philp put up a further four points in eight games. Having turned pro in 2019, Philp has played in a total of 281 AHL regular season games over the course of his career with the Bears, Stockton Heat and Rockford IceHogs. Philp has also managed to get into three NHL games – all with the Chicago Blackhawks – where he collected an assist. With Philp off to the SHL, he will be someone to monitor on the offensive side of the puck. Always able to produce no matter what level he is playing at, Philp will be a nice addition to Farjestad BK when he steps out onto the ice.
CBC
20-07-2025
- CBC
Grizzly bear bluff charges lead to Kananaskis closures, warnings
Seven bear advisories — five warnings and two closures — are currently in place throughout Kananaskis Country, including at popular hiking trails and in an area near the town of Canmore. Two separate grizzly bear encounters are behind two of the advisories: a warning at the Bill Milne trail from Wedge Pond to Mount Allan Drive effective July 8, and a closure of the Rawson Lake trail and Sarrail Ridge area effective July 11. Both cases involved grizzly bears bluff-charging hikers, according to Alberta Parks. Laurie Brewster told CBC News she was hiking the Rawson Lake trail with her daughter on July 11 when she saw a grizzly bear with cubs charge another group of hikers. "It gets your heart pounding, for sure, when you can see how fast they run, and you're not sure what their intentions are," she said. She was a safe distance away from what happened, but said she reached out to Alberta Parks to provide details of what she witnessed ahead of the closure being put in place. "When she did the bluff charge, we heard people yelling 'bear, bear' really loud," Brewster said. "I understand it probably is not going to result in an attack when you see them bluff charge, but it's still a scary thing to witness," she said. Bluff charges typically occur when a bear feels threatened or is caught by surprise, bear safety expert Kim Titchener said. "If you aren't making noise … the problem now is that bear thinks that you were trying to sneak up on them, and that means that they're going to feel threatened," she said. "And if they have cubs with them, they're going to feel like you must be sneaking up on them because you want to take their cubs away or hurt their cubs." "They hear us coming, or they smell us coming, and they generally get out of the way," she said. But Brewster said the incident she saw seemed to defy that. "The thing about this bluff charge that's surreal is it wasn't a surprise encounter, because [Sarrail Ridge] is fully open and fully exposed," she said. "So that's why I wasn't understanding why she was running, because nobody's surprised her." Alberta Parks bear advisories remain in place until the bears in question leave the area, Ministry of Forestry and Parks press secretary Neil Singh told CBC News in a statement. He said incidents reported between July 11 and 16 include "a grizzly with two cubs charging hikers near Sarrail Ridge, a bluff charge by a grizzly near the University of Calgary Research Station, and a grizzly approaching hikers on the Smutwood Trail before walking away." He did not confirm how many people were involved in any of the incidents or whether there were any injuries. Commonwealth Valley and surrounding area is closed effective July 15 due to "multiple grizzly bears frequenting and feeding in the area," according to Alberta Parks. "The Kananaskis grizzly bear aversive conditioning program, in place since 2000, plays a key role in reducing conflicts and promoting coexistence," Singh said. Warnings for an increase in black bear sightings are in place for Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park and the Grassi Lakes trail system and neighbouring Reclaimer Trail. A warning is in place for all Peter Lougheed Provincial Park campgrounds, effective June 18, after "a black bear accessed and damaged an unoccupied tent at Boulton Creek Campground, which contained food attractants," according to Alberta Parks. It's unclear whether the bear accessed any human food, the warning reads. There have also been other black bear sightings at the campground, contributing to the warning. Titchener said bears are more likely to be seen along trails and near campgrounds at this time of year as they seek out buffaloberries, which often grow in places that have experienced human disturbance. "I know that people often want to walk on some of the more popular trails, or they think, 'Oh, I'm in the campground, I'm fine, I'm not going to see a bear,'" she said. "The reality is that our bear population, they're on the sides of the trails right now, they're in the campgrounds sometimes, because they're seeking out areas where there's lots of berries." Titchener said bears at campsites are also at risk of being exposed to human food and becoming food-conditioned, resulting in them needing to be relocated or euthanized. "The bears are feeding on berries, and they walk by a campsite and [campers have] left the cooler out or any type of food," she said. "That bear might be tempted to come in and feed on that food source, which puts that bear at risk for having to be put down."
CTV News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Canmore-born artist explores mountain life with humour in new artsPlace exhibit
Artist Amery Sandford poses for a photo at the opening reception of her exhibit 'Dare to Ride' at artsPlace in Canmore on Thursday, June 26. (RMO/Leah Pelletier) Canmore-born artist Amery Sandford is back in her old stomping grounds. After leaving the Bow Valley at 17 for art school, the now Montreal-based artist has returned home to explore the spirit of mountain life with humour and fun in her first Canmore exhibit, 'Dare to Ride'. Specializing in illustration and risograph printing, through a series of drawings depicting observations and memories from her hometown, along with a collection of mountain life screen prints, Sandford explores ideas of tourism and the balance of appreciating a special place without exploiting it. 'Because I've been gone for so long, I've seen so many changes [in Canmore] and a big part of visiting here is the landscape but it's also the people, so I feel like I have a lot of really funny drawings of tourists,' said Sandford. 'It's really funny and I hope people can kind of laugh with me. I'm super curious to see how people are gonna react to it.' During a residency at Elevation Gallery last summer, Sandford worked on a drawing-a-day series. Walking around town observing people and places, while revisiting memories of her childhood growing up in the mountain town, the sketches from the project are now on display for the first time in the exhibit. 'I was kind of just going from the things that I have walked by thousands of times in my life, like a picture of the Canmore Hotel with tourists and collecting memories past and present through drawing,' said Sandford. She captures scenes like a proposal at Quarry Lake, hanging out with high school friends on the Canmore hoodoos and tourists snapping selfies at Sunshine Meadows. 'We're all kind of coming [to Canmore] to enjoy and experience this really special thing. I feel like my attention kind of focused on the landscape, but also equally the people, and I thought that was interesting,' she said. Also completing an emerging artist residency at the Banff Centre last winter, Sandford experimented with the idea of recycling her old prints into new paper. 'I love trying to use recycled stuff, old inks that no one's using, and I feel like I'm just trying to create less waste, and I like printing for that reason because … the environmental impact of that is relatively small compared to other things,' said Sandford. Along with her illustrations are a collection of screen prints, murals and Sandford's self-printed artist book PURE ALBERTACANA. Capturing the ski and snowboard life through several of her prints, Sandford's lighthearted style features pops of colour and quirky characters. 'I ended up making some screen prints about ski culture and in Banff, this transient energy of just people coming and like partying really hard and skiing … it felt like this kind of temporary place to push the limit,' said Sandford. 'It's pretty celebratory and fun, but I was just really interested in … the extremeness of mountain life mixed with how we actually enjoy a place without exploiting it.' Having travelled and lived in several places across Canada, Sandford's work is often shaped by the qualities of a place, its local people and landscape. 'I think I'm just really curious as to how we enjoy tourist spaces or any special place intentionally and respectfully because it feels like a conversation that is being had everywhere.' Moving to Newfoundland for a time after school, Sandford noticed a connection between the East Coast community and her hometown back in the Bow Valley. 'In St. John's, they have a lot of similar problems and conversations about tourism and cruise ships and they're trying to shove all these huge cruise ships into the narrows and the infrastructure of the town can barely handle it and the people are frustrated, and it seems like they're looking for solutions on how to make money but also let people who live there live there,' said Sandford. 'I just was really fascinated by how I was just somewhere so far away, but I felt really understood,' she added. While done in a humorous spirit, Sandford's work speaks to current conversations being had in many tourist towns across the country. 'I think it's a really poignant conversation at this moment in time, though, as Canmore is looking at really large-scale projected growth, so this whole conversation around nature and tourism … are really relevant conversations to be having,' said Shanon Fitzgerald, director of programs at artsPlace. 'Amery's work depicts it in a really jovial kind of way.' 'Dare to Ride' is part of the community exhibition program at artsPlace, a program featuring Bow Valley artists, whether professional or emerging. The exhibit runs twice a year. 'The idea behind the community stream is that it's really sort of resonant with the spirit of the Bow Valley,' said Fitzgerald. The exhibit is on display at artsPlace until August 20.
CBC
08-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Canmore council approves 25-year downtown redevelopment plan — with some final changes
Social Sharing Canmore councillors unanimously approved a hefty, 25-year area redevelopment plan for its downtown on Tuesday, after making some final changes to the document. The plan — dubbed 'Connect Downtown: Planning a Vibrant Centre' — is billed as a roadmap to guide the evolution of Canmore's town centre until 2050, as the town navigates an increasing number of visitors and an ongoing housing crisis. It's been in the works since 2023. Council was scheduled to vote on the plan in late May, but after a lengthy public hearing earlier that month, councillors asked administration to make a series of changes to the plan and postponed the vote to July. During that hearing, residents raised concerns, mainly related to density, green space and parking. Proposed changes Among the list of requested changes, councillors wanted to restrict building heights along Main Street and 10th Street to two-and-a-half storeys, with no variances allowed. They also asked town administration to designate Eklof Park as a park space, after previous discussions about rezoning the land for affordable housing came under fire from residents. Councillors also wanted to make it optional rather than permanent for Canmore's Main Street to be closed to pedestrians all year, rather than seasonally as it stands now. Additionally, they wanted to make it clearer that any loss of surface parking space would be offset by increased parking elsewhere in the downtown. Final changes At a town council meeting on Tuesday, council heard town administrators' assessments of some changes. Josh Cairns, senior policy planner and lead of the downtown plan, said Eklof Park can be preserved as a green space without changing the designation. So that lot remains designated as a municipal reserve. But he also said restricting building heights to two-and-a-half storeys would have unintended consequences. "Ultimately, what is going to end up happening is rather than fulfilling council's intent of limiting building heights and minimizing shadowing, it's going to force all developments to adopt a specific roof type, like a gabled or a hip roof," said Cairns. "What that does is it might compromise the character of the area, the appeal and the visual aesthetic of the area without even necessarily minimizing shadows, because you can still have a gabled roof that goes up to a full 11 metres." He added that it could prevent the town from preserving and enhancing some historic resources. After hearing that assessment, Mayor Sean Krausert moved to backpedal on that change. Now, as it did before, the plan states that building heights shall not exceed 11 metres and that design efforts — such as stepbacks — should be made to make third storeys look less imposing. "What I heard was … the concerns that were raised can already be met with the original wording. And so, as such, I decided I'd prefer the original wording and would like to avoid those unforeseen and or unintended consequences," said Krausert. There was an attempt made to remove the option for a year-round pedestrian zone and only keep the seasonal zone, but that was voted down by council. 'This is an excellent document' Canmore's mayor said this plan for the downtown has been needed for a long time. "I think that this is an excellent document," said Krausert. "I believe that there's been excellent public engagement and we had a really excellent public hearing in which we listened and there were changes made as a result of what we heard." A number of councillors thanked each other, administration and the public for their collaboration on getting the plan to the finish line. "Some of the topics that got brought up were not easy. It made us stand up here and think thoughtfully about what we were about to do, and we didn't agree on all of those things all the time. And I think that's actually a good thing," said Coun. Wade Graham.
CTV News
07-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Developers want Alberta government to intervene on Canmore vacancy tax
Mt. Rundle rises behind homes being constructed in Canmore, Alta., in April 2023. An Alberta property developer association wants the province to review Canmore's vacant home tax. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh) The Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) Alberta Association is asking the Government of Alberta to review Canmore's vacancy tax bylaw , citing concerns about the precedent it would establish, according to the provincial lobbying registry. The Town of Canmore passed a bylaw in August 2024 that divided residential properties into five sub-classes and allows the administration to set different tax rates for primary residences, tourist homes and vacant properties. This is the first time a municipality has used its power to establish a higher tax bracket for vacant homes. In April, a Court of King's Bench judge ruled the bylaw was valid after it was challenged by a group of individuals and real estate management companies. Located about 20 minutes east of Banff National Park, Canmore's housing crisis is very different from other Alberta municipalities, and the administration required an equally unique solution, according to Mayor Sean Krausert. 'Like many mountain destinations before us, our limited footprint combined with global desirability leads to housing prices that are out of reach of the average person, and certainly beyond the means of many people who will need to make a living in the community,' Krausert told the IJF. The town has estimated that about 26 per cent of properties in Canmore are second homes that are not occupied by full-time residents. It's aiming to collect $12 million from these vacant properties through the Livability Tax Program. All revenue from the additional tax will be used to support the development of 2,000 non-market housing units. BILD Alberta is also lobbying the province for 'clearer definitions of municipal taxation authorities' and to consider intervention if a municipality's use of its powers 'deviates from their intended purpose.' Krausert said the province encourages municipalities to address their own respective issues where possible, and that 'given the great need and unique circumstances in Canmore, which will not be satisfied in another manner, I have significant concern with potential intervention by the province on our Livability Tax Program.' BILD Alberta did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
