A potential sightseeing gondola overlooking Canmore is returning for a new stage of engagement under Alberta’s All-Season Resorts Act.

Stone Creek Resorts and the provincial government have released initial steps for the Silvertip gondola project. Feedback is being accepted until May 14 and an open house at Silvertip Resort will take place April 7 from 3 to 8 p.m.

The project would have three gondola stations, viewing platforms on Mount Lady Macdonald and a day lodge.

Attempts to reach Guy Turcotte, president and CEO of Stone Creek Resorts, for an interview weren’t successful.

In an emailed statement, Stone Creek Resorts said preliminary economic analysis anticipates the project will generate $40 million in tourism revenue for the federal and provincial governments.

“Tourism in this region exists because of the area’s natural environment and the project aims to demonstrate that the project can co-exist with that landscape while contributing to Alberta’s year-round global tourism economy,” the statement reads.

The existing phase is to determine whether provincial park land should be designated for resort use.

Katie Morrison, executive director of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Southern Alberta, said the All-Season Resorts Act should raise concerns of sacrificing conservation for tourism.

“This act is being used as a way for commercial interest to subvert existing land use plans and the Provincial Parks Act for the benefit of private development,” she said.

The project

The project’s footprint would be about 15 hectares and the majority would be in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park.

It’s meant to complement the Silvertip development plan, which allows up to 1,290 resort accommodations, no more than 750 residential units and up to 850 employee housing units.

In 2017, a proposed $1 billion project pitched a 200,000- to 300,000-square-foot conference centre and casino, a 1,300-room hotel, gondola and tea house on Mount Lady Macdonald.

The Stone Creek Resorts statement said its plan will create jobs, add tax revenue and “gondola visits will help generate longer-term tourism revenue across Alberta.”

The process

The All-Season Resorts Act has streamlined potential approvals for year-round resorts.

The project would still have to be designated by the province and complete an environmental assessment and Indigenous consultation.

If successful, it would need amendments to the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan as well as policy amendments from the Municipal District of Bighorn and Canmore councils.

Adam Linnard, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative’s manager of landscape protection, said it’s an opportunity to show the “legitimacy of All-Season Resorts.”

He noted the vision of the policy is to respect conservation while finding ways to promote tourism. He cautioned the province should halt projects that compromise protected areas and are “out of step with a host community’s needs and priorities” and risk a “massive public trust issue.”

Linnard said Albertans have shown restraint when it comes to impacting provincial parks, such as with the Optimizing Alberta Parks campaign and recent engagement with Plan for Parks.

“These parks are meant to support conservation,” he said. “By making them available for infrastructure development that comes along with noise and increased activity, we are permitting an activity that very clearly diminishes the ecological value of that park.”

Province focused on tourism growth

The project could be another cog in the Alberta government’s tourism strategy, as it seeks to increase Alberta’s annual tourism revenue to $25 billion by 2035.

A key component is through the All-Season Resorts Act. Fortress Mountain, Nakiska and Castle Mountain have all been designated. Fortress was the first to come forward with a plan and is reviewing its public feedback.

A 2024 briefing note to Alberta’s former environment minister Rebecca Schulz, obtained via access to information, stated the Silvertip gondola would “provide visitors to Alberta’s legacy destination of Canmore with year-round experiences that support and enhance the tourism economy.”

It added the project would have “significant impact on the growth and diversification of Alberta’s tourism industry.”

‘We don’t have a lot more ground to lose’

Cascade Environmental is reviewing wildlife use in the area, according to Stone Creek Resorts.

It has about 20 years of wildlife movement data, including around grizzly bears, cougars and elk. The region also has the lower and upper Silvertip wildlife corridors, which are about 40 per cent of Stone Creek’s lands.

The Stone Creek statement said the project won’t “introduce new activities in the wildlife corridors,” carry people above those areas and “the corridor will remain intact as is and will not be fragmented in any way.”

Though a sliver of land in Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, Morrison said a redesignation can have a greater impact. Wildland provincial parks are intended to prioritize conservation and limit the amount of human use.

She noted the impact is “much broader than the specific site of the specific development.”

Morrison said when you add more people to an area, wildlife may avoid the region and cut off their ability to move or they could go into areas with people causing “more human-wildlife conflicts.”

“We don’t have a lot more ground to lose in the Bow Valley and still have these functional corridors,” she said.