Canmore Homeowners Seek Up To $1.3 Million Over River Pathway Upgrades

Canmore’s West Bow River Pathway was widened and paved to make a popular route accessible to more people throughout the year. Now, two neighbouring property owners are seeking nearly $1.3 million in compensation, arguing the improvements permanently reduced the value of their land.

The claims have added a new expense to a public infrastructure project completed almost three years ago. On Oct. 6, council approved $150,000 from the town’s general capital reserve to cover legal and appraisal costs associated with defending the claims before Alberta’s Land and Property Rights Tribunal. That includes approximately $48,000 already spent this year and about $100,000 for the anticipated proceedings.

The owners of 14 Van Horne are seeking between $265,000 and $530,000. The owners of 15 Van Horne are seeking between $630,560 and $765,680, according to a report from town solicitor Adam Driedzic.

Those figures represent the compensation requested, not amounts awarded. Hearings for the two claims are anticipated to take place together between November 2026 and January 2027.

At the council meeting, Driedzic confirmed that one possible outcome is no compensation.

The dispute centres on a provision of Alberta’s Municipal Government Act known as “injurious affection.” As explained in the town’s report, it allows certain claims for a permanent reduction in a property’s appraised value resulting from the existence of a public work.

The distinction is narrow: the claimed loss must stem from the infrastructure’s existence, rather than its construction or use.

“Clearly you’re going to need appraisals showing a change in property value,” Driedzic told council. That change, he added, must be attributable to the existence of the public work.

The discussion did not detail the homeowners’ evidence or the specific features of the upgraded pathway they allege reduced their property values. Driedzic declined to get into the parties’ arguments or submissions.

The two cases are what remain before the tribunal from a larger group of claims.

After publishing notice of the pathway’s completion in 2024, the town received approximately 11 claims from landowners in the Van Horne and Prospect Heights areas. According to the staff report, most were dismissed by the town, left unresolved or abandoned without proceeding to arbitration or the tribunal.

Three claimants filed tribunal applications in 2026. One subsequently withdrew, leaving the two claims now before the tribunal.

For the town, the pathway was the culmination of years of transportation planning.

Upgrades appeared in municipal plans as early as 2014. The gravel section extending from the Bow River Bridge toward the Van Horne area did not meet the town’s goals for a continuous transportation network accessible to people of all ages and abilities throughout the year, according to the report.

Following public engagement between March 2022 and June 2023, construction began around July 2023 and finished in January 2024. The work replaced the gravel trail with a wider asphalt pathway.

The final project amount was approximately $3.6 million, funded through a combination of sources that included government grants.

Responding to the compensation claims has already cost $64,767 since 2024. About $48,000 of that spending occurred this year.

The newly approved $150,000 budget will absorb that existing 2026 spending and provide approximately $100,000 for the anticipated tribunal proceedings.

The cases are also prompting the town to reconsider how it budgets for infrastructure.

Staff recommended including money to respond to foreseeable property-value claims in future capital project budgets, alongside other professional services and contingencies. That approach was unavailable for the West Bow River Pathway: the construction project had already been closed before the need to respond to tribunal applications arose.

The pathway is finished. The question of whether its neighbours are owed compensation remains open.