14 February 2006
Freedom's Restraints
Crowsnest Pass - There is an old adage, "A man"s got to do what a man"s got to
do" that, when you reflect on it, is meaningless. You might as well say that "a dog"s going to poop because a dog's
going to poop."
A somewhat parallel take-off on this adage, however, is far from meaningless. It's "the CPR's going to do what the
CPR's going to do," and damn the consequences for the Crowsnest Pass.
The Promoter, in an article and an editorial last week, explained this well. The CPR controls the land use for 50 feet on either side
of its track, and plans to construct a siding about one-and-a-half miles long extending west from the west end of
Blairmore. It would impinge further on the wetlands caused by the Crowsnest River meandering lazily between Blairmore and Coleman and
would end in Coleman.
A CPR representative appeared before the municipal council recently. It was a courtesy visit - while noting that the railway could do
what it wants on its right-of-way, he offered the municipality the choice of three options for the siding.
Council reached no decision, but there was considerable sentiment expressed favouring a siding in the vicinity of Sentinel, west of
Coleman. For the CPR this was not an option.
Several councillors appeared riled, with reason, at the CPR. But they would have been enraged, not merely riled, if the CPR had just
gone ahead without consulting the Pass, which it is entitled to do. It's no secret that across the West the CPR often riled individuals
and communities, but where would we be without it? If the CPR had not come to the Crowsnest Pass more than 100 years ago there would
have been no coal mining because there would have been no way to ship the coal to consumers, among them the CPR itself was a major one.
With no mining there would have been no communities, no Sentinel, Coleman, Blairmore, Frank, Bellevue, and Hillcrest, and hence no
Municipality of Crowsnest Pass extending from the B.C. boundary almost to Burmis. Without those communities there would have been little
or no logging, and logging was, after mining, the major industry of the Pass. We owe our very existence here to the CPR, arrogant
though it often may be.
|
