“Not far from my hometown of Calgary, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, there is a beautiful little town called Okotoks. About 10 years ago, the folks there decided they were going to live within their local environmental means. Today Okotoks can fairly call itself the greenest community in Canada, maybe the world".

It could have easily been me who wrote the above passage since Calgary was my home for 47 years and because Okotoks was one of my favorite places to visit. But it wasn't me who wrote the passage, it was Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Check it out for yourself. It is posted on the Okotoks Community website HERE.

Okotokians have mustered the political will to fully manifest a community vision that is alternative to the prevailing mega-development vision so rampant in the Calgary area. Again, from the Okotoks website:

"The Town, dependent on the Sheep River for its water and its ability to treat and dispose effluent, faced an intersection in its evolution in 1998 - it could continue to "grow without limits" and plan accordingly with access to regional infrastructure, or it could take a "road less traveled" and intentionally choose to live within the carrying capacity of the Sheep River watershed. A community-driven vision - to respond to rather than manipulate the environment that sustains us, chose the latter."

Please correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me that Cumberland's community vision, as stated in its OCP, aligns closely with Okotok's vision to respond to the environment rather than to manipulate it. If Okotoks can do it, why can't we Cumberlanders pull together to do the same? Why must Cumberland succumb to the ongoing saga of over-consumption and forceful manipulation of the environment that comes part and parcel with mega-development? Where is the political will and leadership in this town to take us down a road less traveled?