During Council's meeting on June 16th, there was a discussion on a letter received from Peter Swain, the South Region Director for the Minister of Environment and Parks.

In the letter, Swain highlights three discussion topics including Castle Highway #3 Signage in Crowsnest Pass, Sartoris Road Conditions and Castle Roads.

Here is what was stated in the letter:

Castle Highway #3 Signage in Crowsnest Pass

Advice from Alberta Transportation is that the Adanac and Sartoris roads are not ‘tourist friendly’ and would present unnecessary risks to the public if they were broadly advertised. Before additional signage such as ‘rough road’ or other cautions are used they suggested a road safety audit be performed. This contract has recently been issued for RFP and is expected to take place over the course of the summer, with a late September delivery. Once the safety audit is analyzed, we are in a better position to understand what it will take to improve those roads to a degree that will satisfy requirements for a tourist road.

Sartoris Road Conditions

Last year we were unable to maintain this road – as it is too narrow to fit AT’s contractor equipment, they have indicated that this road is not captured in our MOU and Parks must maintain it. We have been successful in contracting out services this year, and road surface maintenance is ongoing. Another contract RFP is being issued that will address some of the more immediate road concerns such as slumping/washouts etc this fall.

Castle Roads

A signage package RFP to improve directional and other signs within the park is going out next week. This will include signage to direct users to Crowsnest Pass from within the park (the logic being that they are already on the roads, and the likelihood of having a low-skills driver is lessened).

Council is not pleased with the response from Swain.

During discussion, it was mentioned that the reasoning behind Sartoris Road is different this time than the previous discussions that were had.
Previous discussion with Swain on Sartoris was that there was nothing wrong with the road, not that equipment couldn't access it.

After some discussion on what options they have, Council decided to have Mayor Painter send a letter to local MLA Roger Reid and also have a face-to-face with Reid requesting a meeting with Minister of Environment and Parks Jason Nixon, in the Crowsnest Pass to show him the roads in person.

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