Wade from Bow Valley Engage discusses TSMV decision

ROB MURRAY: Speaking with Wade Graham from Bow Valley Engage. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t realize how emotionally invested I was into this big Three Sisters Village Area Structure Plan vote until they made the vote happen. I’m kind of unpacking a bunch of emotions right now.

WADE GRAHAM: I was watching the screen, swearing at it. I was crying. What a ride this has been. What an incredible thing to be a part of.

RM: The Three Sisters Village ASP was defeated 6-1. Did you think it was going to go this way?

WG: I was hopeful and optimistic. Was I confident? No. I thought it was going to be a little bit closer, but I’m happy that Council did hear the concerns of the citizens, and I think there was a lot of thoughtful commentary. This ASP was close in so many ways. It was better, but it wasn’t good enough, and I’m really glad that they didn’t sell us short.

RM: This past weekend, Bow Valley Engage put on…I don’t know, do you want to call it a pop-up public art project? Footprint of Concern, in front of the Civic Centre. Seeing the photos of this, that was quite the visual representation of a lot of community sentiment about this potential development.

WG: You know, to hear that phrase “footprint of concern” come up a couple of times in the meeting we just watched was a testament to that event. To watch children come and paint, and to watch what happened in the photos, and the prayer flags that came out of that thing. Every step of this journey has been incredible, from the open letter to the initial zoom call that we did. We just exceeded our expectations every time. I want to thank everybody that’s supported us along the way.

RM: Bow Valley Engage – you’ve been largely engaged around with the Area Structure Plan proposals for Three Sisters Village and Smith Creek. What’s next for Bow Valley Engage? Are you guys sort of done after this, or are you going to build on this energy?

WG: That’s going to be a group decision. Bow Valley Engage isn’t just Jeff (Mah) and me – I know we’ve done a lot of the PR for this. There’s definitely talk about who and what we want to be after this. I don’t think this is the last you’ll see of us.

RM: The level of community engagement around all of this, and the way that you were able to coalesce that engagement, it must’ve been quite the feeling to be a part of it.

WG: I’ve always loved this place, but I think one of the highlights of my life has been being involved with this. There are a lot of brilliant minds behind it. There were the group of 30 of us working behind the scenes on this, and I’ve never been prouder to be part of a group than this one.