River Valley News - Aug 18, 2022

Council votes not to lease city land to gondola project
City Council has decided to halt the Prairie Sky Gondola project for the time being. On August 15, councillors voted 12-1 to receive the land agreement with the company proposing the gondola only as information and not to approve the lease of city land for the project.

Then, council unanimously passed a motion that Administration prepare a report to Committee that:
1. Outlines a potential governance structure that empowers Indigenous MOU partners and communities with historical and cultural connections to Rossdale to provide direct input on the implementation of the River Crossing Business plan, Touch the Water and future developments on the Rossdale flats location; and
2. Summarizes the City of Edmonton’s current approach to private development and land use on locations of special cultural, spiritual or historical significance.

Councillor Karen Principe was the lone vote against receiving the proposed Prairie Sky Gondola land agreement as information only. Prairie Sky could revisit the proposal but would need to present additional information to mitigate councillors' concerns with the project. More on the gondola vote at https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/edmonton-river-valley-gondola-project-halted-by-city-council-1.6028363

imeline of Indigenous history in Alberta
The Alberta Teachers’ Association has prepared a document to answer the question; What are the key historical events that have affected the past and current First Nations, Métis and Inuit populations living in Alberta? The events that occurred after Europeans arrived on Turtle Island have been documented in various forms and are therefore more readily accessible than the precontact history of Indigenous people.

The settler history begins with the 1452 papal letter known as the Doctrine of Discovery which was put into law by European monarchies after the Crusades in order to legitimize the colonization of non-Christian lands outside of Europe. This document was part of public discussion during the recent pastoral visit of Pope Francis to Canada in July.

The ATA document ends with the 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal landmark decision on a case brought by Cindy Blackstock. The ruling states that the federal government of Canada has a longstanding practice of underfunding child and family services on First Nations’ reserves and failing to ensure that First Nations’ children can access government services on the same terms as other Canadian children. More at https://legacy.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/For%20Members/ProfessionalDevelopment/Walking%20Together/PD-WT-16e%20-%20Timeline.pdf

Riverlot 56 Natural Area just outside of St. Albert
Riverlot 56 Natural Area is a 108-hectare oasis of public land located in Sturgeon County along the banks of the Sturgeon River, just outside the City of St. Albert, Alberta. It is one of the original parcels of land divided during the settlement of the region during the early 1900’s. The federal government owned and used the site for one of the first Indigenous residential schools before educational services spread to the northern districts.

Diverse habitat types are found within the Natural Area, from upland aspen forests to open and large meadows to stream bed aquatic plant communities. Patches of willow and cattails grow along the banks of the Sturgeon River. Riverlot 56 is populated with many bird species as well as mammals such as muskrat, beaver, deer and moose.

Alberta’s Natural Areas are special parcels of public land, containing natural features representing one or more aspects of the province’s biological and physical diversity. They fall in the middle range of conservation lands in Alberta, between strictly protected lands such as ecological reserves and those lands intensively developed for recreation such as provincial recreation areas. Park guide with map at https://www.albertaparks.ca/media/6496896/riverlot-56-brochure.pdf

Comment or contribution
Please note that articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the wide variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley. Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712

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Comment or contribution
Please note that articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the wide variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley. Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712

River Valley News - Aug 11, 2022

Gondola decision to be made by City Council on August 15
After presentations from 55 people and meeting all day until 9pm, Executive Committee decided to send the gondola decision to a vote at the next City Council meeting on Monday, August 15. Our society addressed two areas of risk posed by the gondola project.

Environmental concerns not addressed by Prairie Sky Gondola include noise, privacy, aesthetics, impact to Queen Elizabeth Park and Edmonton's Indigenous Art Park, as well as slope and bank stability. The river valley is YEG’s most important natural asset and feature, acquired for public benefit over the last 100 years and protected for generations through land use restrictions and environmental regulations.

The $155 million proposed gondola would represent the single most expensive private commercial project ever built in the river valley and raises many questions. But the City does not seem to know whether Prairie Sky has any assets or serious investors. This is not a private developer proposing a commercial development on private lands which it owns.

This is an unknown private developer with no apparent track record proposing a major industrial and commercial project on public land within the river valley, Edmonton’s most important asset. It is a fundamental business principle that one should know who you are contracting with and whether the other party has any means to perform the agreement. Read more at https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-too-many-unanswered-questions-about-edmontons-gondola-project

North Saskatchewan named a Canadian Heritage River
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, and Whitney Issik, Alberta Minister of Environment and Parks, announced the official endorsement of the North Saskatchewan River as a Canadian Heritage River. The nominated section includes the entire 718 km of the river in Alberta from the Banff National Park boundary to the Saskatchewan provincial border.

The river is a traditional gathering place, travel route and home for Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Ktunaxa, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibwe, Saulteaux, Anishinaabe, Inuit, and Assiniboine. The river played a pivotal role as the main transportation and communication route from eastern Canada to the Rocky Mountains, from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Smoky Lake County nominated the river for its outstanding cultural value; its role as a primary exploration, transportation, and settlement corridor in Western Canada for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples, as well as the last four centuries of European and Indigenous exploration, fur trade, and settlement; and for its recreational value, affording many diverse opportunities for river travel and adventure.

The nomination complements the potential new national urban park for the Edmonton region, announced in March 2022 under Parks Canada’s National Urban Parks Program. More at https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2022/08/governments-of-canada-and-alberta-officially-accept-nomination-of-the-alberta-section-of-the-north-saskatchewan-river-as-a-canadian-heritage-river.html

Let's keep Edmonton's historic Rossdale neighbourhood green
In an opinion piece, Eric Gormley states the city plan to take 15 to 20 acres of river valley green space in Rossdale to create a new community is off-key, since the city has worked for a century to preserve the river valley as park and natural area.

A national urban park that included Rossdale green space would have the bonus of preserving an area worthy of national historic site status, not only because Rossdale glued together the parkland prairie west, but also because it was a frequented by myriad First Nations. Rossdale is an in-between place, straddling both plains and northern forest.

Every great city begins as a place that invites. Rossdale is that place. In such a large city, it’s serendipitous that open space remains at its centre in Rossdale. The City of Edmonton has title to 80 per cent of this land, most of it acquired piecemeal in the 1900s. There is an opportunity to preserve it as everyone’s sacred space, open for all to enjoy and reflect upon.

A model for keeping this land as green open space exists: the city’s river valley park system. History teaches us some places are special. Rossdale is one. Let’s celebrate this and let the open space work its magic of blending different voices of past and present. https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-lets-keep-edmontons-historic-rossdale-neighbourhood-green?

YEG flood of 1915 not the first great river flood
The North Saskatchewan river made Edmonton but can exact a steep price. A massive flood in 1830 forced the Hudson’s Bay Company to move Fort Edmonton from Rossdale to what became the legislature grounds. Despite the threat of flooding, by the early 1900s Edmonton’s river flats were home to many businesses and residential neighbourhoods.

On June 29, 1915, the North Saskatchewan river flooded the river valley. At first the river rose slowly, but that changed when the river started rising rapidly every hour until it peaked at almost 13 metres above normal. As the river burst its banks it flooded the river flats, washing away houses, stores, businesses and carrying tons of debris down the river.

City services failed as the Rossdale Power Plant flooded and the city was without electricity. The waterworks plant also closed, meaning there was no safe drinking water. Amazingly no one was killed or seriously injured. Reports at the time suggest 2,000 people were homeless, 50 houses swept away, and 700 severely damaged.

The most recent flood was in July 1986, when heavy rainfall upstream of Edmonton caused the river to swell to 12 metres higher than normal. A section of 87 Street in Riverdale became a canal. Boats were more useful than cars. Watch a 9-minute video on the 1915 flood at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGGnAr1DI6M&t=10s

Big Island, wahkohtowin and maskêkosihk
Mark wrote “I suspect Big Island is no longer an island largely due to the causeway that filled in the upstream access to the back channel. I think this causeway was part of the original gravel pit operations that occurred on the island and developed over a series of years. After the ‘86 flood there was discussion of opening this restriction up to relieve flood pressure on the golf courses across the river from Big Island. I've not looked at this end of the island in some time, but at one time there was a culvert in the causeway that allowed flow into the back channel at high water levels. Let's not absolve the previous abusers of the island and blame Mother Nature!”

Louise Umphreville: Edmonton’s forgotten First Lady
Jane emailed “Just want to say how much I appreciate the items you post, particularly the historical ones. The info about Louise Umphreville was truly fascinating.”

Comment or contribution
Please note that articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the wide variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley.

If you have a comment, concern, or question, contact us at nsrivervalley@gmail.com Please email us river valley photos or event information. Your friends, neighbours and colleagues can sign up for this newsletter on our web site https://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/

Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712

River Valley News - Aug 4, 2023

Gondola proposal raises many questions

The estimated $155 million proposed gondola would represent the single most expensive private commercial project ever built in the River Valley and raises many questions. From a transportation perspective, is the gondola a duplication of existing cross valley means of transport such as bus, LRT, cars, bicycles, streetcar, and the beautiful new pedestrian walkways.

Other concerns not yet addressed include noise, privacy, aesthetics, impact to Queen Elizabeth park and ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ Edmonton's Indigenous Art Park, as well as slope and bank stability. Council needs more information before it can make a fully informed decision on the many questions raised by the gondola project. This information can best be developed in an open and transparent impact assessment process.

Council’s stated goal of protecting our river valley as a legacy for future generations of Edmontonians can be ensured by requiring the proponent to carry out an independent impact assessment, with terms and process dictated by the City but paid for by the proponent.

As with any wise decision making on this scale, this process should be a precursor to any decisions including leases of public lands. We recommend City Council table the approval of all City land dispositions related to the gondola until the completion and approval by Council of an impact assessment process to address all the unanswered questions about this project.

Read comments by Chad Huculak, Edmonton Sun, at https://edmontonsun.com/opinion/columnists/huculak-in-a-city-rife-with-dumb-ideas-the-proposed-edmonton-gondola-is-the-dumbest-of-them-all

and Nisha Patel, former Edmonton Poet Laureate, at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K71UHqYKxJKYGfGc17sFD44L7RvMKjfWLnGiqLtnCH0/edit

Big Island, wahkohtowin and maskêkosihk

At 68 hectares, Big Island is not big and is no longer a true island due to natural processes, but it supports the river valley’s role as a provincially significant wildlife corridor, playing a key role in sustaining ecological connectivity through the Capital Region and holding cultural significance for Indigenous peoples who have lived in amiskwaciywâskahikan, the Cree word for Edmonton, for millennia

Since time immemorial, the River Cree and Western Cree peoples, living in small bands, enjoyed wahkohtowin or kinship with all aspects of nature including trees, plants, fish, birds, abundant game, migrating flocks and herds while trading along the North Saskatchewan River. The land was respected and cared for and in turn it gave abundant provisions to humankind. Plants provided plentiful remedies, some say more than 200 medicines were gathered and used. Land meant, and still means, animate and inanimate family members, culture, identity, and self. The land, spirituality and natural law were intertwined and still are.

The arrival of settlers in the 1880s led to the depletion of traditional food sources, the introduction of diseases, and the creation of reserve lands, which at one time stretched all the way to the North Saskatchewan River adjacent to Big Island. Those lands are known as maskêkosihk, the Land of Medicines, or Enoch Cree Nation, and the living descendants of the original people are known as the maskêkosak, people of the Land of Medicines. The maskêkosak have an intimate connection with the land and their traditional lands once encompassed Big Island.

More about the Big Island Provincial Park proposal, including video, establishment proposal and online survey open until August 21 at https://www.alberta.ca/big-island-provincial-park-engagement.aspx

Louise Umphreville: Edmonton’s forgotten First Lady

Louise was a single mother, when she met John Rowand, an up-and-coming young fur trader in the North-West Company. At the peak of his career, Rowand became Chief Factor at Fort Edmonton and in charge of the vast Saskatchewan District of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Little is known about this Métis matriarch, but Louise Umphreville brought a herd of valuable horses to her “country marriage” with John Rowand, fluency in Cree, and a wealth of contacts and relations among the peoples of the plains who would be Rowand’s trading partners, allies, and suppliers.

Louise exerted authority in the community. Through her personal wealth, her extended family, and her alliance with Rowand, she became one of the most powerful women in the North-West. 

Visiting Alexander Ross praised Edmonton’s propriety and credited not just its male leader. “I had seen very few places in the country where domestic arrangements, either within doors or without, were conducted with so much propriety as at this place. […] The moral and pleasing effect was such as might be expected, and reflects great credit on Mr. Rowand and his family.”

Louise died in 1849 and is recognized in the Traditional Aboriginal Burial ground in Rossdale. This memorial lies below the final site of Fort Edmonton. Louise’s name is engraved on a plaque here, along with the date of her death. Learn more at https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2021/08/10/louise-umphreville-edmontons-forgotten-first-lady/

Photo by Sherry Heschuck, who found this Giant floater mussel on the bank of Whitemud Creek near its entrance into the North Saskatchewan River. The presence of mussels in a water body usually indicates good water quality.

Comment or contribution

Please note that articles may not reflect the position of NSRVCS. River Valley News is meant to be a clearinghouse for the wide variety of opinions and ideas about Edmonton’s River Valley. Email river valley photos, event information, comments, or questions to nsrivervalley@gmail.com

Sincerely yours,

Harvey Voogd

North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society

780.691.1712