Sustainable Banff
Car-free Canada Day celebrations on Banff Ave. Photo: C. DiManno
Banff needs to change to stay the same. Whether it is adapting to climate change or envisioning the future of tourism, we must take measures to ensure we remain sustainable. As a mountain town beloved by so many across the country and beyond, our actions will help to protect our wild spaces and preserve our small-community charm.
Like most municipalities in Canada, we are grappling with how to prevent and prepare for the impacts of a warming world. As a tourism town nestled in a national park, Banff already faces several challenges – affordable housing, cost of living, and vehicle congestion, to name a few – but climate change is the most imminent one because it can cause dramatic change to our lives and livelihoods. Wildfires season is starting earlier, and more fires are occurring across Canada each year. Severe storms are more frequent, as are floods, and the glaciers that feed our water tables are receding faster than ever. As a major tourist destination, we can’t escape the fact that our visitors – arriving, as they do, by road and/or air – are contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions.
As such, we strive to be a model environmental community and are motivated to make a difference locally, while inspiring the four million visitors who we welcome every year.
“These pedestrianization decisions fit into
our track record of sustainability initiatives that we consider leadingedge for a community of 8,000 residents.”
Banff is primed to be an example of how we make use of this precious window of time before it is too late to move the needle. We have set ambitious goals when it comes to climate action: achieving thirty per cent emissions reductions by 2030 and eighty per cent by 2050 (relative to 2016 emissions levels), as well as achieving 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.
Sunday night cruise down the Banff Ave Pedestrian Zone. Photo: C. DiManno
A major area of focus to reduce our carbon footprint is through demonstrating transportation and environmental leadership. As a reminder, the town’s mandate – as directed by the federal and provincial governments – is to provide services to visitors. However, we have too many personal vehicles on our finite road network during peak seasons, and we know cars are a leading factor in contributing to emissions in the Town of Banff and in Banff National Park. We continue to invest in transit from Calgary to Banff through the On-It Regional Transit summer weekend service, and we strongly encourage visitors, once in town, to travel on Roam Public Transit when they are exploring popular destinations in Banff and throughout the park.
More parking lots cannot solve the problem in the long run. Rather, we believe the future depends on affordable and convenient mass transit from Calgary. We look forward to the new Banff National Park Management Plan and Parks Canada’s Expert Advisory Panel on moving people sustainably and Banff National Park’s recommendations for ideas and best practices on managing our capacity of visitors coming by personal vehicle.
Until then, we are slowly developing an ‘active modes’ oasis in Banff, because as a town within Canada’s first national park, we need to advance the values of a national park, which include protection of this place in the Rockies and fostering the behaviours that promote long-term sustainability.
The town is also only four-square kilometres in area, so it just makes sense to promote walking, cycling, and connectivity with transit, and most importantly, to provide the infrastructure to make it an inviting choice. For example, we recently transformed Bear Street, our second main street, into a pedestrian-friendly commercial hub, where drivers quickly realize they are a guest on the street. With public seating, tree cover, bike racks, and paving stones, we have created a European-style plaza in the heart of Banff.
One street over, we renewed our commitment to the Banff Avenue Pedestrian Zone with a two-year pilot for the summers of 2022 and 2023. What started as a project to keep people safe and appropriately spaced during the COVID-19 pandemic is now a way to support economic recovery and to foster environmental sustainability and active lifestyles. By closing Banff Avenue to vehicles, we open the public space to people: pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, wheelchair users, parents with strollers. We want to support the outdoor pursuits that put Banff on the map – skiing, climbing, hiking, paddling, and increasingly cycling – and bring that lifestyle into our urban centre.
Season opener for an active modes summer in downtown Banff. Photo: C. DiManno
These pedestrianization decisions fit into our track record of sustainability initiatives that we consider leading-edge for a community of 8,000 residents. We built our first pedestrian bridge over the Bow River almost a decade ago, and later this summer, we will finish construction on a second pedestrian bridge. Banff created a transit system and grew Roam Public Transit to go everywhere in and around Banff, with connections to Lake Louise and Canmore. Last year, we implemented pay parking in our downtown core to stimulate turnover in short-stay parking and to encourage drivers to park in our free parking lots on the edge of town and then walk the eight minutes to downtown. From the funds received through pay parking, we funded e-bike rebates because many of our neighbourhoods are up hills on the side of a mountain, and we funded fare-free transit on local routes for residents to help them shift from using their cars.
“A major area of focus to reduce our carbon footprint is through demonstrating transportation and environmental leadership.”
The future’s looking bright in Banff. Because together, with the community, the Town of Banff, Parks Canada, and Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, we are developing a sustainability-focused ten-year Tourism Master Plan for the destination. This plan will become a guidepost as we develop our approach to tourism in Banff National Park, by addressing environmental sustainability, community wellbeing, cultural integrity, and economic prosperity. We see this as an opportunity to build forward from the pandemic to ensure we protect our environment while maintaining a strong economy and a healthy community.
We learned just how resilient we can be during the last two years, and we need to carry that grit and resolve into the future as we work together to keep Banff as sustainable as possible.
Corrie DiManno is the current Mayor of Banff, Alberta, but she’s been in and around Banff since she was born. When she’s not doing mayoral stuff, she loves backcountry hut trips with friends, as well as running, biking, and hiking in the mountains.