Rocky View County report February

Well we passed a Milestone, Langdon is officially over 5,000 people, Census Canada has released the results and Rocky View County is now 39,407 as of 2016, in 2011, it was 35,754 a change of 10.2%. There are now 13,620 houses in Rocky View County. Langdon at 5,060 is up 20.2% over what it was in 2011. So what does this mean? It means we have grown at a faster rate that most of the communities in Canada. I know why as well, it is because we have a comfortable Community that is friendly, has large lots and nice homes, is well located with a good tax regime and has a ton of potential to just keep getting better. I had proof of that in the last few weeks when I went to the grade three class presentations.
The great Grade three Teachers from Sarah Thompson School had an unbelievable class project with their students. The kids spent about three months working on projects that they believed would improve the quality of life in Langdon. I went to the unveiling and was blown away! They had Movie Theatres and Parks, a Zoo, a BMX track, Gyms, Waterpark, Hotel, Sidewalks, an off leash dog area and many, many more. They invited Mentors in that were experts in different fields and used their expertise. They did surveys, got opinions, had % breakdowns with voting to see how others felt about their ideas. They built models that were built to scale to show their ideas graphically and it was very, very impressive. It is so incredibly refreshing to see ideas from kids, their approach is honest, well thought out and gives a great idea of community building from a prospective we rarely see. It gave me a bit of an idea.
I am the Chairman of the PPC at the County, it is the Policy and Priorities Committee, a forum for people to present concepts and ideas to Rocky View County that aren’t necessarily ready to go before Council. It is a little less formal that Council but is still made up entirely of Councillors, the elected Officials of our Municipal Government, I am the Councillor in our growing Hamlet. Well last Tuesday we didn’t have a very full agenda so I thought maybe we could try something different. I sent an email to all the Councillors and asked if they would mind hearing out a bunch of Grade Threes who had some great ideas, they agreed. I called Principle Doz at the School and invited all three classes to come to Council Chambers to present their ideas. She told me there were a lot of them in the three classes so I asked her if they could narrow it down to about 10. Well somehow they picked 3 from each class, arranged the transportation and 77 grade three kids came and took over Council Chambers.
We ran it like a Council Meeting, the kids stepped up the ladder to the podium or spoke into the mics at the Admin Desks and presented their projects. The Councillors asked questions like they do when Developers present multi-million dollar concepts (maybe a little softer), the kids did great! I have never seen so many projects approved in such a short time! I think the kids enjoyed it immensely, I know the Councillors did. I believe we created lifelong memories that day, for both the kids and the Councillors. Some of the comments I heard over lunch were: “now those were smart kids”, “what a polite bunch”, “were they really grade 3’s” and one comment to me that I am not sure how to take, “Councillor Ashdown, that was the best idea I’ve ever seen from you”.
Congrats and thanks to Faith, Emily, Georgia, Cody, Tristen, Hunter, Liam, Stirling, Jenolyn, Nicholas, Ryan, Carson and Kanden as well as the teachers, parents that snuck in, Rocky View Administration and my Councillor Colleagues. It was an experience I doubt we will ever be able to do again, and one I will never forget.