A workshop held by the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC) on May 23 resulted in a higher turnout than anticipated and a positive reception from the industry, community and municipality stakeholders who were in attendance.
Members of CEAC, including Judy Stewart, facilitated the ‘Aggregate Exploration and Extraction Workshop’.
“We were quite surprised with the turnout,” said Stewart, adding that over 80 people showed up for the full day event, which was held at the Cochrane RancheHouse.
“We got some serious dialogue going…I was really impressed with how respectful everyone was to one another.”
Members of CEAC kept the flow going — from their own presentation, which outlined some of the key issues/concerns surrounding rural aggregate extraction and related legalities; to introducing the variety of speakers, including those from the aggregate extraction industry, citizens with experience in this area from other communities, municipality (Rocky View County), Calgary Regional Airshed Zone society members (who presented on air quality) and even a presenter from Lac Ste. Anne — a community near Edmonton that just put together municipal plan provisions for aggregate extraction in their community, with complex considerations given to their watershed.
Stewart said the ball is in the court of the stakeholders — and that CEAC is opening to assisting in future workshops/info sessions/presentations to promote multi-stakeholder engagements that would seek input from all parties involved in the decision-making process to inform overarching principles to govern aggregate exploration and extraction within the County of Rocky View.
To learn more about CEAC, visit cochrane-environment.org.
