A proposed Foothills landfill in has galvanized the residents in the Hamlet of Blackie, but a decision should be easy for Foothills MD council.
BFI Canada is proposing to build the Prairie Sky Resource Centre east of Blackie and has purchased six quartersections of land for the project. BFI Canada has already submitted an application to Alberta Environment and is in the process of completing an application with the MD of Foothills to redesignate the land from agricultural to industrial.
The application from BFI should not get further than the redesignation stage because it contradicts the MD’s own mission statement.
The MD’s Municipal Development Plan states it is to protect agricultural land to so it remains the dominate land use in the MD.
To redesignate six quarter-sections of agricultural land to industrial would be a substantial contravention of the Municipal Development Plan.
What would make it more egregious is the fact the proposal is located in the heart of the MD’s grain and cattle farming area.
The land east of Highway 2 is arguably one of the few areas within the MD still agriculturally intact as farmland.
Most other areas in the MD have been fractured by country residential development or by larger acreages.
There is little development in the Blackie area and the residents have made it perfectly clear that is how they want it to remain. In fact, the only industrial development in the area includes an explosives plant and a feedlot.
Should the MD council grant BFI Canada land redesignation away from agriculture, it would have a difficult time making a convincing argument as to why it contravened its own Municipal Development Plan, especially given the fact an ideal location for the Prairie Sky Resource Centre already in place.
The MD, in conjunction with High River and Okotoks, is developing the Highway 2A Industrial Corridor south of Okotoks and the area would be much more suitable for BFI.
It has infrastructure in place, it would not displace agricultural land and it would provide easy access for BFI trucks to Highway 2. Not to mention, compared to Blackie the Aldersyde area is much closer to Calgary — the main source of the waste.
Foothills farmers and ranchers should not be the ones having to deal with Calgary’s garbage, not when a more suitable site already exists.
