The Summer Village of Ghost Lake, the Municipal District (MD) of Bighorn, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation met before a provincial Land and Property Rights Tribunal Public Hearing on August 6 to argue in support, and to oppose, a proposed Ghost Lake annexation of property along the shoreline of the Summer Village that is officially under the jurisdiction of the MD of Bighorn.
Facilitated by letters of opposition to the proposed annexation penned by the Îyârhe Nakoda, the public hearing ran for three hours on August 6, a much shorter time than was allotted for traditional public hearings.
Greg Birch, a consultant hired by the two municipalities to shepherd the annexation plan through said that although the hearing went smoothly, it will take perhaps months before the Tribunal comes to a decision on the annexation proposal.
Birch presented the proposal for the Summer Village takeover of a strip of land along its shoreline as a way to effectively cut back on municipal government inefficiencies. Birch told the Cochrane Eagle that the annexation was planned because the Summer Village wanted the land along its shoreline, and the MD of Bighorn had no problems giving it up.
“This is not the normal expansion type of annexation,” Birch said.
In a letter objecting to the proposed annexation dated March 2022, the Îyârhe Nakoda First Nation stated that the lands flooded by the Ghost Reservoir were removed from Stoney Indian reserves in 1929 for the sole purpose of a hydroelectric development. Once any such lands taken are no longer necessary for that purpose, they revert to the beneficial ownership of the Îyârhe Nakoda Nations, the letter argues.
“This reversionary right applies to some or all of the lands presently leased to the Summer Village,” the letter reads. “The Stoney Nakoda are asserting ownership to the bed and waters of that portion of the now flooded Bow River which includes the subject matter of the proposed … annexation. In addition, mineral rights underlying this land are already wholly owned by a Stoney corporation, Woste Igic Nabi Ltd.”
“The issues [Îyârhe Nakoda] raise,while important, will not be affected by any municipal boundary change,” Birch said. “The matters that they’re concerned about will be managed by the provincial government, the federal government, and if all else fails, the courts. Moving a municipal boundary a couple hundred metres makes no difference to what they’re arguing.”
Birch expects the Tribunal, who gives a recommendation to the Province who then officially decides on the matter, will most likely take months before reaching a decision. Even though he has faith in the Summer Village’s presented argument for annexation, he has no idea how the public hearing went.
“The Tribunal is very good at not showing what they’re thinking,” he said.
