MD OF BIGHORN – A new tourism-based helicopter business specializing in sightseeing tours is facing community push back for a proposed site and a 60-year lease on Crown land near the Town of Canmore and in the MD of Bighorn.
Rockies Heli Canada has applied to the provincial government for a 3.3-hectare site near Canmore’s industrial area, close to Elk Run Boulevard and Bow Valley Trail.
The proposed site is near the Alpine Club of Canada’s Canmore clubhouse, Bow Valley Riding Association (BVRA) and less than two kilometres from the Canmore municipal heliport, which Alpine Helicopters operates for tourist sightseeing, firefighting, medivac transportation, avalanche control and rescue operations.
“It’s a big problem. Putting something like a heliport would be a massive change for wildlife moving through there. … We have a mandate to be stewards to that area,” said Lisa Young, a 25-year board member of BVRA.
Young said BVRA has concerns about the environmental and wildlife impact, but also what low flying helicopters could do to horses on its property.
She said horses are often spooked when helicopters fly over for pine beetle tree burning. She noted when Alpine Helicopters does a rescue in the area of Grotto, the heli company sends a text giving the association about 20 minutes notice to secure the horses.
“It’s a huge safety concern for horses and having safe access to ride on our land if it was put in,” said Young.
“We definitely don’t want a heliport there, but I’m guessing a lot of people in town don’t want it. As the riding club, we’re very concerned. It could lose us access to riding safely on our property. … If they put a heliport across the road from us, I’m not sure what would happen to us.”
The Alpine Club of Canada’s Canmore clubhouse is less than one kilometre from the proposed site, which has 57 beds in two cabins and the clubhouse.
Carine Salvy, executive director of the Alpine Club of Canada, said people come to its site due to its affordability, often wanting a more secluded and quiet environment.
“Having a helicopter operation beneath the clubhouse is not what we would like to see. … There’s nothing stopping the noise, so that’s a concern in terms of guest experience,” she said.
“That’s how we differentiate ourselves by being a bit more secluded in the mountain environment, so it would certainly damage our business and the experience of our guests. … People value the isolation.”
Attempts to reach Ralph Sliger, president and CEO of Rockies Heli Canada, and Beth Hansen of Aurora Land Consulting Ltd., were unsuccessful. Sliger is listed as the applicant and Hansen the consultant for the proposal.
Sliger is listed as the owner of Kananaskis Heli Tours and Kananaskis Mountain Helicopters, which formerly had the lease at Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino. The company had a high profile incident in the region when a helicopter crashed into Grotto Mountain in 2012 that killed the pilot. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada found the cause was pilot error.
In an 11-page business plan, it states with the Canmore Municipal Heliport unable to take other helicopter businesses, it left the company looking elsewhere to “answer to the growing demand of tour operators.”
“The Canmore base will be created in response to several international tour operators’ identifying the need for a heli-tour operation capable of efficiently providing a sightseeing experience to motorcoaches travelling between Banff and Calgary on a daily basis,” according to the business plan.
Frank Liszczak, a member of the Bow Valley Helicopter Noise Alliance and part of the Town’s Heliport Monitoring Committee, said there are numerous concerns about such an application.
He said while it would increase noise in the region, it doesn’t account for the impact on nearby businesses and residential units as well as potential overlapping flight paths and where workers will find housing in what is already a housing crisis in the community.
“When you look at what they’re proposing, it’s quite substantial and would create an enormous amount of noise. … I can’t believe the province is even considering it and is actually putting it through the motions,” he said.
“They haven’t learned from local history. They don’t know what happened in the last few years with the lease for the heliport.”
At the January heliport committee meeting, rescue statistics weren’t yet prepared for 2022, but in 2021 Alpine was part of 281 rescues after doing 251 in 2020.
Alpine Helicopters has long operated in Canmore, as well as running flights at the Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino.
The Town of Canmore and Alpine agreed to a 10-year contract, which saw sightseeing tours capped at 35 a day and be a minimum of 25 minutes. The company would also complete a climate action plan before the end of 2023 and look at new technology that would reduce noise and greenhouse gases.
In return, Alpine was given a below-market rate for its lease, while both sides would work with one another to explore potential new locations for a new heliport site.
Canmore Coun. Jeff Hilstad, the Town’s elected representative on the Heliport Monitoring Committee, said the committee learned of the proposal Friday (Feb. 17) when it was passed along to offer comments. He noted with the land being in the MD of Bighorn, it was outside of Canmore’s jurisdiction and couldn’t comment.
He highlighted the heliport committee is focused on the Canmore Municipal Heliport.
Todd Cooper, a long-time rescue pilot with Alpine Helicopters and a member of the heliport committee, said the company’s main concern was safety if another heliport was added close together.
With the municipal heliport and the proposed heliport about a kilometre from one another, he said more information is needed as the application progresses but safety should be paramount.
“Our main concern is for staff and the public and we feel having two heliports within a kilometre of each other with potentially conflicting approach and departure passes, it could be a safety concern. We’ll await more information as this progresses.”
Alpine Helicopters has between 15-20 pilots in the busy tourist months as well as one helicopter for sightseeing, another for rescues and commercial activities and a spare. Five of the pilots are able to do rescues.
He noted during the lease renewal process between the Town of Canmore and Alpine Helicopters, it’s an “extremely competitive industry and we’re not surprised by a new lease application” but that the “main focus is the safety concern with approach and departure paths potentially conflicting between the two operations.”
Members of the committee received documents for the proposal late Friday (Feb. 17) from the Town’s manager of facilities Stephen Hanus, with the potential to provide feedback to the province.
Though the proposal is outside of Canmore’s municipal borders, its proximity means it impacts Canmore-based businesses and residents. And while the proposal sets aside $550,000 for a hangar, offices and residences, it’s unclear how much staff accommodation is being considered, potentially leaving further pressure on Canmore’s housing market.
Jenny Kasprowicz, the senior planner with the MD of Bighorn, said the municipality has not received a development permit application.
The parcel of land going through the province proposal process is in a forestry district. An airport use is listed as a discretionary use in Bighorn’s land use bylaw. If Rockies Heli Canada was to apply for a development permit, it would go to Bighorn’s Municipal Planning Commission for consideration.
An attempt to contact Geoff Smith, the province’s case manager for the site, and Kelton Percival, a senior lands officer with the province, led to Frankie Kerr, a land teams lead in the lands division of the Forestry, Parks and Tourism ministry, to direct all comments to the ministry’s press secretary.
The Outlook didn’t receive a comment from Alberta Environment after requests three days before print deadline.
The business plan outlines the area could accommodate a second helicopter business in the area, with revenue growth estimates of $3-5 million.
It notes the only building on the site is “a liability that represents significant costs for the province to remedy.”
The plan, if approved by the province, is to have operations start on May 1, run seven days a week and have flights focus on the Canadian Rockies.
Under the plan, the base would run year-round, with 30 per cent of business coming from Calgary and the remaining 70 per cent from tourists travelling through the area. The starting price for seats is $99, according to the business plan, and an estimated 20-50 jobs would be created.
The plan adds because the area falls within a previous department miscellaneous lease, it is not a wildlife corridor, but that if there’s Indigenous or Métis consultation needed, work will be done.
The landscape analysis tool report highlights there are grizzly bear habitat linkages and key wildlife and biodiversity areas.
The plan states an application would be submitted to join Tourism Canmore Kananaskis if successful in getting the lease and the company is already a member of Jasper Tourism, Calgary Tourism and Banff Lake Louise Tourism.
The estimated cost to get the base running is $779,300, according to the business plan, with much of the price tag related to building a hangar, offices and residences.
Rockies Heli Canada has a helicopter base for sightseeing tours in the Icefields that is based in Cline River.
The MD of Bighorn previously opposed a commercial helicopter tour operation in 2017 that was pitched to the province by Rockies Heli Canada that would have been at the base of Mount Yamnuska.
According to a provincial document, Shane Yarmoloy purchased the land in 1988 with a department miscellaneous lease. When it expired in 2011, it became a month-to-month lease under the Public Lands Act.
However, the former provincial Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) ministry notified Yarmoloy the tenancy would be terminated July 31, 2017. When they weren’t vacated, AEP ordered Yarmoloy to vacate the lands. According to the site plan from Rockies Heli Canada, Yarmoloy continued to hold the lease as of September 2022.
Yarmoloy runs Yarmoloy Group, a business specializing in commercial and residential properties in Alberta and British Columbia, but primarily in Banff, Canmore and Sicamous.
Attempts to reach Yarmoloy were unsuccessful.
Colleen Campbell, a past president of Bow Valley Naturalists, said the proposal is “heartbreaking” and could have a significant negative impact on wildlife.
She noted it’s not an official wildlife corridor, but it’s proximity to Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, lower and upper silvertip wildlife corridors, the Bow River and the Bow Flats Natural Area frequently has all types of wildlife pass through the region.
“It’s a small footprint physically, but it’s a big footprint in impact,” she said.
“I think it would be a detriment to the ecology and the landscape. It would also hurt civic ecology. Though it’s outside of Canmore’s boundary, it’s like the guy next door banging on metal structures all day long. You don’t have any say over what he does.”
Campbell said the implications “would be disastrous” for both the community and wildlife if the proposal were to come to fruition.
“As a community, we’re already overwhelmed by unfettered tourism,” she said. “I like the idea that tourists who come here should leave knowing a bit more about this area and the community they’ve been in. I’m not sure people getting on helicopter rides are coming into town, going to Elevation Place, artsPlace or walking up Main Street.
For Young, she said the riding association often has fewer than 20 horses in the winter, but in the summer they can have up to 80 horses. The 33 paddocks allow a maximum of five horses, but it’s more suitable for two or three, meaning they typically have around 60 on-site.
The association renewed its lease with the province in 2018 to run for 25 years for the 135-acre property, but the prospect of a commercial helicopter base within a kilometre will impact its operations.
“Anything that happens around it certainly affects what happens on our property. There’s a lot of wildlife that moves through there and it would be a huge detriment for any wildlife moving through our property.”
