The Watch
LATITUDE
LITTLE PLANES ON THE PRAIRIE: CALGARY CREATES DRONE TEST SITE The City of Calgary, an APEGA permit holder, is among the first North American cities to create an urban test site for drones. After a successful pilot project last year, the city has set aside 125 acres of open prairie in its industrial southeast area for the testing of drones, autonomous vehicles, and similar technologies. The Point Trotter Autonomous Systems Testing Area was created in response to increasing requests from Calgary businesses, industry, and researchers, all of them in need of an accessible, low-cost area to test technologies within city limits. Mayor Naheed Nenshi told Calgary media that the testing site will help oil and gas, film, financial services, and other sectors.
DRONE ON The drone rage is still in full flight, as society figures out how to safely use—and therefore test—the humanless aircraft. -photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
and personalities, like Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team. But after more than two years of council debates, committee work, and public education, Calgarians voted to scrap a bid for another Calgary installment in Winter Olym- pics history, this time in the form of the 2026 Games. A turnout nearing 60 per cent voted 56 per cent on the no side, demonstrating clear public opposition to a bid that would have required $5.1 billion from the three levels of government. The city’s share would have been $390 million. The plebiscite isn’t legally bind- ing, but council has voted to respect public opinion and lay down the
torch. Moving forward would have meant no provincial funding at all, which required the yes side winning the day. The decision is a heartbreak for supporters, who argued that the games would revive the city’s de- pressed economy and continue the legacy begun in 1988. Opponents, however, cited high costs, poor return-on-investment from previous host cities, and well-documented corruption within the International Olympic Committee. If Calgary, through some bizarre twist, were to submit a bid in early 2019, it would be up against Stock- holm and an Italian partnership of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
PLEBISCITE TORCHES DREAM OF A SECOND WINTER OLYMPICS IN CALGARY The 1988 Winter Olympics, many have said, put Calgary on the world map. Major venues built for the in- ternational sporting extravaganza are still in use more than a quarter- century later. The city is forever linked to enduring Olympics stories
30 | PEG WINTER 2018
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