The Watch
LATITUDE
CREE NATION’S OUTDATED WASTEWATER SYSTEM GETS $32.5 MILLION IN FEDERAL FUNDING The first wastewater system at Samson Cree Nation was
built in the 1970s to serve 2,500 people. About four decades later, the population has swelled to 11,000—but the system has yet to be significantly upgraded. Residents link the aging infrastructure to ongoing sewer backups and health problems. The community hopes
a $32.5-million investment from the federal government will adequately address their issues. Slated for completion in 2020, the project will upgrade the existing plant to include a new pumping station for wastewater collection and treatment. Samson is one of four Cree nations served by the Maskwacis community, about 70 kilometres south of Edmonton.
WAY OF THE WASTEWATER A typical wastewater outlet lets its contents free. The Samson Cree Nation’s wastewater system is being upgraded with the help of $32.5 million from the Government of Canada.
CONSTRUCTION OF DOWNTOWN HOTEL LAUNCHES CALGARY RISING INITIATIVE A new $100-million, 27-storey hotel is coming to downtown Calgary. Slated for completion in 2020, The Dorian will boast 300 rooms, a main-floor restaurant, conference facilities, a fitness centre, and a top- floor restaurant and lounge with an outdoor patio. The hotel will cater to luxury seekers—a market expected to rebound with Alberta’s economy— but also to cost-conscious business and tourism customers. PBA Land and Development says the Dorian is designed to help boost the Calgary economy and is the first project in its Calgary Rising initiative, created to attract private projects.
SHUTTERED CALGARY NEIGHBOURHOOD RE-OPENS Nearly two decades ago, toxic hydrocarbons and lead were found in the soil of Calgary’s Lynnview Ridge area, where a refinery had operated between 1926 and 1976. Health risks meant most of Lynnview Ridge was permanently evacuated— more than 200 houses and condos in all. Now, a city park is the result of $31 million in
remediation of a 32-hectare site. This summer, an old bike path is reopening to the public. The park itself, dotted with balsam poplars and trembling aspens, will open this fall. The reopened area has been deemed safe for recreational use but not for actual human habitation. The City of Calgary says it will maintain groundwater pumping wells that move subsurface hydrocarbons to a water treatment facility, which will then return clean groundwater to the land. The refinery’s owner, which had bought and demolished homes after the contamination was discovered, is paying for 60 per cent of the work on public lands in and around Lynnview Ridge.
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