Canmore Estimates June Flood Costs at $2.1 Million

Canmore council has approved a $2.1-million flood recovery project following June’s intense rainstorm, an event officials say also provided the first significant real-world test of the Cougar Creek debris-flow dam built to protect the community.

Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve $2,129,400 for emergency response costs and repairs following the June 28 and 29 storm, when roughly 138 millimetres of rain fell across the Cougar Creek and Stoneworks Creek watersheds in less than 24 hours.

The province is expected to cover 90 per cent of the cost through Alberta’s Hazard Assistance and Resilience Program, known as HARP. That would leave Canmore responsible for $212,940, paid from a municipal reserve established to cover flood mitigation and maintenance costs.

The provincial funding has not yet been formally approved, but town officials told council they are confident it will be.

“We've been in really close collaboration with the grant administrator and our coordinator through the HARP program,” Manager of Engineering Zabrina Pendon said. “Based on their input, we're very confident that it will be approved.”

If the application is unsuccessful, administration would return to council to determine how to pay for the work.

Of the $2.1 million, approximately $232,000 covers the town’s emergency response during the storm. Another $1.9 million is earmarked for recovery, including damage assessments, debris removal and repairs along Cougar Creek and Stoneworks Creek.

A Storm That Escalated Quickly

Canmore emergency officials had been tracking the weather several days before the flooding began.

Caitlin Miller, Canmore’s Manager of Protective Services and Director of Emergency Management, said a deputy director attended an Environment and Climate Change Canada briefing June 26 after forecasts placed Canmore within a narrow band where heavy rainfall was possible.

Officials continued meeting as forecasts evolved, but uncertainty remained over precisely where the heaviest rain would fall.

By 7:30 p.m. June 28, the fire captain on duty had been briefed on specific conditions that would trigger a larger response and additional staff were being called in.

Conditions then “started to deteriorate very quickly,” Miller said.

Canmore declared a State of Local Emergency that evening and activated its Emergency Coordination Centre at the fire hall. Alberta Parks’ Kananaskis Region team, which was dealing with flooding elsewhere in the region, operated from the same facility, alongside Alberta Emergency Management Agency field officers.

The town issued evacuation alerts and ordered the evacuation of one property near Stoneworks Creek. A reception centre was established in case additional evacuations became necessary.

Bow Valley Trail, Palliser Trail and nearby pathways were also closed. Miller said Palliser Trail was shut as soon as crews observed water leaving the creek, before it reached the road.

By the end of June 29, conditions had stabilized enough that the Emergency Coordination Centre did not need to operate overnight.

Despite the severity of the storm, Miller said the flooding largely followed the patterns identified in the town’s hazard modelling.

“Cougar Creek did what we thought it would do,” she said.

The Cougar Creek Dam Gets Its First Major Test

The storm also provided what Coun. Rob Murray described as the “first real-world test” of the Cougar Creek debris-flow retention structure.

Completed as part of Canmore’s extensive flood mitigation work following the devastating 2013 floods, the structure is designed to capture debris and sediment before it can move downstream toward developed areas.

After the June storm, the structure’s engineer of record travelled to Canmore to inspect its performance.

Officials estimate water moved through the dam’s low-level outlet tunnel at approximately 22.7 cubic metres per second, equivalent to roughly a 1-in-50-year flow event.

The reservoir behind the dam rose to an elevation of approximately 1,425 metres, about four metres above the tunnel inlet but still five metres below the point where the trash rack would have been completely submerged.

The structure also captured woody debris and an estimated 5,000 cubic metres of sediment, consistent with what officials described as a moderate debris flood.

“There’s strong evidence that the investment in the structure is protecting the community downstream, based on its performance during this event,” Pendon said.

Miller put the impact more plainly.

“It would have been a much worse event if we did not have that structure in place.”

The most significant damage occurred downstream of the dam.

Erosion stretched for roughly one kilometre between the structure and Elk Run Boulevard, while sections of concrete matting were damaged. Both road approaches to the dam also washed out, temporarily eliminating vehicle access to the facility.

Mayor Sean Krausert questioned whether additional armouring could reduce erosion upstream of the existing protected section.

Pendon said the unarmoured channel was intentionally designed to absorb damage during significant events and dissipate the water’s energy. Extending the armouring could simply transfer that energy elsewhere.

“I feel like all solutions are possible in engineering, but there are trade-offs to every design decision that you make,” she said.

“That's an engineering response right there,” Krausert replied.

Interim Stoneworks Berm Also Worked

The storm provided another test for temporary mitigation work completed along Stoneworks Creek last year.

In 2025, the town constructed additional berming along the creek’s east bank ahead of another forecast storm. During June’s event, officials said that berm helped direct water north, toward Harvie Heights but away from inhabited areas.

The work “really helped us … in the moment of this past event avoid the evacuation of those inhabited areas,” Pendon said.

The newly approved recovery project will restore Stoneworks Creek to its pre-storm capacity and rebuild the interim berm.

It will not, however, provide the permanent mitigation the town ultimately intends to build.

That is being designed separately by an external consultant, with construction currently planned for 2027. The same consultant is involved in the immediate recovery work so repairs made this year do not conflict with, or have to be removed for, the permanent project.

The distinction is partly dictated by provincial funding rules.

“As part of the HARP process, you have to build back to what the structure was ahead of time,” Miller said. “There's some capacity to build back better, but there's not a lot of funding supported with it.”

Pendon also told council that Canmore Community Housing’s development at 100 Palliser Lane can reach occupancy before the permanent Stoneworks mitigation is completed. A second CCH parcel and future development, however, depend on that mitigation being in place.

Canmore Still Carries 10 Per Cent of the Risk

The relatively modest municipal contribution to this storm raised a larger financial question for Coun. Wade Graham.

Under HARP, municipalities are responsible for 10 per cent of eligible costs. Graham asked whether there is a maximum municipal contribution if Canmore were hit by a significantly larger disaster.

There isn't.

“So in larger events, still 10 per cent, no maximum,” Graham said. “And that could be, as in Jasper's case, a very problematic number potentially.”

Canmore’s Flood Mitigation Maintenance Reserve is projected to contain just under $2.7 million by the end of 2026.

Krausert said the latest storm demonstrated why both provincial disaster funding and the town’s own reserve are important.

“Communities just aren't structured to be able to handle these emergency costs themselves, especially if there's successive events or major events,” he said.

He also thanked previous councils for establishing and maintaining the reserve, as well as town staff for their response during the storm.

“Council and the residents of Canmore are very grateful for the efforts of the emergency management in this case,” Krausert said, “and the communications that went out, and all the work to keep us safe.”

More Flood Mitigation Work Remains

Council also approved a minor administrative change to a separate steep-creek hazard mitigation project, replacing Pigeon Creek with Stone Creek in the project description.

The change does not affect the project's budget, scope or schedule. Administration said the project summary had simply not been updated after council changed it during the 2025 budget process.

Stone Creek, which is normally dry and located in Silvertip, is separate from Stoneworks Creek.

Pendon said Canmore is now nearing the end of the extensive steep-creek mitigation work that followed the 2013 flood.