Prairie Sky Gondola | 76.2m | ?s | Prairie Sky | DIALOG

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    56
TAS said:
D

There have been reports about how much the coliseum costs per year to keep it in its present state.

Does anyone know what yearly costs are for the power plant and what the city has spent thus far on it?
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Not sure on spending to date. I expect it's a lot. I know the City has tried to find a partner for years because of how costly it is.

Here's the current assessmemt & priority rehab project. https://building.edmonton.ca/projects/eB-10670?categoryId=all:&tab=list
 
itom987 said:
They could build the gondola station inside or on top of the power plant eliminating any worries about disturbing the bodies.
I feel that enough commemoration (plaques, ceremonial grounds etc.) has been given to the burial ground to consider the debate resolved.
We shouldn't be worrying about unknown bodies lying all over the place otherwise we will be freaking out about everyone that died since the ice age.
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Given the amount of archeological work already done in the area and the site location I really doubt there will be remains. The power plant goes ~4 stories under ground. And there are catwalks & other infrastructure that expands past it under ground as well. This is the part I really don't understand with all the uproar. Between the power plant building itself, what it must have required in terms of excavation to build it & the extensive archeological work done in the area (24 historic resource impact assessments) I think the Indigenous archeologist knows what he's talking about re: likelihood.

Chief Darlene Misik also mentioned that her community is on-site with Epcor regularly whenever they are doing any work that involves soil disruption etc. She was instrumental in the efforts ~20yrs ago to get the cemetery recognized & protected including filing an injunction. She knows the area very well.

I don't think discounting the possible presence of burial sites is appropriate. It's a very significant prehistorical & historical site. But the likelihood is so low in the location they chose. For that reason I suspect.
The importance of this site is a part of why we should treat it as such & invest in it as PrarieSky is doing. It needs to be done with Indigenous leadership & very thoughtfully, but I think turning this down today would actually undermine that.
 
It's too bad. This would have been a awesome project at least from my perspective and counter to councilor Knack's comments I think this does again spook groups from taking a chance. It's a complicated situation but I wish council could at least give some clear expectations of exactly what they want from the group that would allow them to comfortably support or make a decision. Killing this without giving clear next steps doesn't seem fair.
 
Sunny1 said:
Yes... 😔
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BASE said:
It's too bad. This would have been a awesome project at least from my perspective and counter to councilor Knack's comments I think this does again spook groups from taking a chance. It's a complicated situation but I wish council could at least give some clear expectations of exactly what they want from the group that would allow them to comfortably support or make a decision. Killing this without giving clear next steps doesn't seem fair.
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I think you are absolutely correct. I also contest the idea that this causes less harm knowing some of the history of this land and past City discussions.
 
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^^^^ To be clear the vote was whether or not to take in the Gondola proposal as has been presented to date "as information" and it carried by 12:1. What that means is that the City will no longer devote any administration resources to the project and that it is essentially dead unless the Gondola Group wishes to proceed with all of their studies -- Indigenous, Archaeological, Environmental, etc. to completion without any guarantee that the City will pass their concept at a future meeting. Completing the studies is likely an 18 month effort and it would cost millions of dollars. I think that City Council just rang the "death knell" on the Gondola concept.
 
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