NDP sticks to its guns as controversial Springbank dam price climbs to $432M
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The cost for the proposed Springbank dam has jumped $182 million over the original price tag but the NDP government says it’s sticking with the project.
In a news release Friday, the province said the new cost estimate for the off-stream reservoir project at Springbank is $432 million, with the increased expense coming from engineering and construction costs, as well as the government’s intention to purchase entire quarter-section parcels beyond the dam’s footprint.
When construction is complete, the government intends to resell land that remains outside of the footprint, potentially lowering the project’s total cost to $372 million.
The Springbank dam was conceived in response to the 2013 flood that ravaged Calgary, and the NDP has backed that project over another, at McLean Creek, which the government estimates would cost $406 million.
“Our government committed to the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir project in October 2015, and that commitment has not wavered,” said a statement from Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, who was not made available for an interview.
“This project is the best option to protect the City of Calgary and other downstream communities from another event like the 2013 flood disaster.”
The Springbank dam is intended to divert the Elbow River and temporarily store its water as protection from rising waters.
Former premier Jim Prentice announced the project in the fall of 2014, just days before calling a byelection in the flood-affected riding of Calgary-Elbow. Then, the government maintained the massive flood mitigation dam would cost an estimated $250 million — an expenditure the New Democrats roundly criticized during the 2015 election campaign.
Once in government, the NDP reversed course and declared it would proceed with the controversial off-stream reservoir despite concerns the project would trigger a protracted legal battle with Springbank landowners and questions about whether the project made economic sense. The most recent price tag for the project was $263 million.
While it has support from the City of Calgary and the Calgary River Communities Action Group, the dam is opposed by landowners who will have their properties expropriated and the Tsuut’ina Nation.
Friday’s announcement comes as little surprise to Don’t Dam Springbank spokesman Ryan Robinson, whose group has long criticized the project as misguided and expensive.
“It’s interesting to finally get some more updated numbers, and it’s really interesting that now they’ve come to the same conclusion as our group,” he said.
“The McLean Creek dam, which protects more people, is upstream of Redwood (Meadows,) Bragg Creek and the (Tsuut’ina) Nation — protects all those communities and is cheaper.”
He also questioned the government’s plan to offset the project’s cost by selling surplus land.
“That’s the most interesting thing — since Day 1, the government has said Springbank will be cheap, easy and quick,” he said.
“Suddenly, there’s some kind of weird idea that they would sell some land to someone at some future time — it’s a rich stretch.”
Opponents of the project won a legal victory in June, with a federal court ruling that Environment Minister Catherine McKenna had to decide whether a public review panel will conduct an environmental assessment of the project.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) had previously ordered an assessment of the dam project that would be conducted by the agency itself. A public review panel could have significantly slowed the environmental approval process.
However, McKenna has now personally directed the CEAA to conduct the review as planned and will not order a public review panel, according to an Aug. 8 letter to Tsuut’ina that Chief Lee Crowchild posted on the agency’s website.
The Alberta government released the higher price tag for the Springbank dam as it announced it was implementing some short-term recommendations for drought and flood mitigation from a new report from the Bow River Working Group.
These include expanding existing agreements with TransAlta and using Barrier Lake for flood mitigation purposes rather than drought mitigation. It will also launch discussions with irrigation districts to improve water retention for agricultural use downstream of Calgary.
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