Thank you.
I'm going to quickly address the primary purpose for Norquay's invitation today, and then I will provide a brief summary of what Norquay has done since to address one of the initiatives identified in the 2013 site guidelines: the feasibility of creating aerial transit between the town of Banff and Norquay ski hill.
To begin, we confirm that Norquay is supportive of the government amending schedule 5 of the Canada National Parks Act to update Norquay's lease to reflect the 2013 Norquay site guidelines. These amendments are detailed in the documentation deposited in the Alberta land titles office in Calgary, Alberta, and we request no amendments.
With that out of the way, I'll now speak to my family's efforts to explore the feasibility of creating aerial transit to Norquay and other green initiatives as part of our science-based approach to vehicle and visitor management, which includes the creation of an eco-transit hub at the Banff train station.
By way of background, I have been a resident of Banff for 22 years. During that time, my family, like so many of our neighbours, has grown increasingly concerned about traffic congestion and parking in the town and around the national park. In fact, as the years went by, it was commonplace to hear members of our community say, “What are they going to do about it?” One day, we stopped and asked ourselves, “Just exactly who is this 'they'?”
You see, there have been many great ideas put forth over the years by various levels of government and private stakeholders to address park congestion, but what became clear to us is that these same groups lacked the real estate and the infrastructure to create meaningful change. For example, intercept parking was identified in 1979 as official Banff town policy, yet 40 years later, not a single intercept parking lot has been built, because the real estate simply was not available.
Passenger rail between Calgary and Banff was discontinued in 1990 because VIA Rail's ridership was suffering due to poor on-time performance as a result of freight understandably being prioritized over passenger trains on the single track.
As well, aerial transit to Norquay, despite being identified for at least 30 years as infrastructure that could enhance the environment of the important Cascade wildlife corridor that runs right through the Norquay access road, had never even had a chance to come to fruition, because the ownership of the Norquay ski hill and the Banff train station had never in Banff's history been in the same hands.
Those initiatives all struck us as transformative, so about four years ago, my family and I decided to become part of the “they” and essentially stand on the shoulders of other people's great ideas and see if we could assist in advancing all three initiatives.
First, my family bought the multi-decade lease to the Banff train station, and subsequently purchased the multi-decade lease for the 32 acres of land that surround the Banff train station, with the sole purpose of creating intercept parking for our community. I am proud to say that Banff's first-ever 500-car, free-of-charge intercept parking lot is under construction now and is scheduled to open this summer.
Second, we've been working to assemble the approximate $800 million in private and public capital to build a Calgary-Banff dedicated passenger rail line within the existing CP Rail corridor. We have been making very encouraging progress in this regard.
Third, last year we bought the Norquay lease, so the possibility of building aerial transit between the train station and the Norquay hill could finally be explored. Since then, we have had experts conduct science-based research on the potential wildlife benefits of a gondola, as a forerunner to conducting a Parks Canada environmental impact assessment to determine if the gondola creates the required substantial environmental gain.
As an extension of these initiatives, on March 25 I stood before Banff town council and proposed that it consider adopting a resident-only vehicle pass for the national park, whereby all day visitors to Banff park for free at one of two intercept lots at the train station that together would offer 2,500 parking stalls.
In this scenario, hotel guests would park at their respective hotel accommodations and both groups would use only buses and shuttles to reach points of interest around the broader national park. Essentially, Banff National Park would become car-free.
Recognizing that a genuine partnership is necessary for a resident-only vehicle pass to truly succeed, I also proposed to town council that, should the town agree to its implementation and upon the gondola becoming operational, my family will lease both intercept lots to the Town of Banff for 30 years for free.
My family firmly believes that the combination of intercept parking, aerial transit to Norquay, the reinstatement of passenger rail and the implementation of a resident-only vehicle pass will create a national model for green transit for other towns and cities across Canada to emulate.
Thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.