Home Care In Signal Hill, AB

Calgary-Signal Hill Conservative MP Ron Liepert travelled twice to Palm Desert, Calif., since March, his office confirmed Saturday, so he could deal with "essential house maintenance issues."

Liepert, who was Alberta's health and wellness minister under Premier Ed Stelmach, owns a home in the city, which is located in the Coachella Valley.

A spokesperson in Liepert's office said Liepert has travelled twice since March, including during the current parliamentary recess.

"There has been no non-essential travel, and he has complied with all public health guidance, including the Alberta border testing program, each time he has travelled," the spokesperson said in an email.

The spokesperson did not immediately return a request from CBC News inquiring what specific maintenance Liepert had to resolve at his Palm Desert home.

Global Affairs Canada advised Canadians against non-essential travel outside the country until further notice. Alberta also advises against non-essential travel on its travel restrictions page.

International travellers must isolate for 14 days after they return to Alberta unless they participate in the international border testing pilot.

Latest politician who travelled despite direction

Liepert is the second MP revealed to have travelled amid calls by officials for Canadians to stay home during the pandemic.

On Jan. 1, the NDP removed MP Niki Ashton from her critic roles after she admitted she travelled to Greece to see an ill relative, not informing NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh beforehand, according to the party.

"While we are sympathetic to Ms. Ashton's situation and understand her need to be with her family, millions of Canadians are following public health guidelines, even when it made it impossible for them to visit sick or aging relatives," read a statement from the NDP.

WATCH | NDP MP removed from critic roles over travel to Greece:

Various provincial politicians have also come under fire for taking trips and vacations while under strict lockdown measures, including Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips, who resigned, and Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard.

During his time as Alberta's health minister, Liepert faced criticism over his handling of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, with critics intimating that he mishandled the province's immunization program.

CBC News asked a spokesperson for the Conservative Party whether there might be any plans to discipline Liepert for the travel.

"Since becoming Leader, Mr. [Erin] O'Toole has continued to emphasize the necessity for all members of caucus to follow all public health guidance including travel advisories," said Chelsea Tucker, O'Toole's press secretary, in an email. "It is our understanding that all members of caucus have."

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Former Alberta cabinet minister Ron Liepert’s coast to victory in Signal Hill Monday took a sombre turn as he and dozens of campaign volunteers watched the Liberals form the new government.

But Liepert, who ran a strong campaign and had been door-knocking since early August, said he saw the signs of a Stephen Harper loss months ago.

“I saw it right away, in the first-week of door-knocking, there really was a lot of dislike for the Prime Minister at the door, I was actually surprised by it.

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“But 10 years is a long time, and in this media world we live in, you’re constantly under scrutiny. And this campaign result is really just the culmination of a lot of frustrations.”

Despite the Conservative party’s crushing defeat outside of the prairies, Liepert was easily able to keep the Signal Hill seat Conservative, clearly beating out Liberal candidate and lawyer Kerry Cundal and NDP candidate Khalis Ahmed.

Liepert is well-known in Calgary’s political circles, best known for his days at the Alberta legislature, and serving for the PCs as education, health, energy and finance minister from 2004 to 2012 before spending three years in the private sector.

In spite of his popularity, Liepert admits the Conservatives nationally will have to start looking for a new leader and use the loss as an opportunity to rebuild the party over the next four years.

“There really was a lot of top-down control from the Prime Minister’s office.

“I can’t imagine Harper staying on for another term, fighting another election.

“The PCs have to broaden our appeal to include everyone, the entire middle spectrum.”

Ron Alexander, a long-time Tory and Liepert supporter in Signal Hill, agreed, adding once Justin Trudeau started leading the polls over the past week, Harper’s demise was almost certain.

“I think a lot of people will look at that and will want to vote for a winner.

“It’s very tough to carry through to a fourth mandate. And Trudeau, he’s that young, attractive, sexy candidate.

“And I don’t think Harper is doing himself any favours by saying it’s not a popularity contest, when really, it is a popularity contest.”

But Liberal candidate Kerry Cundal says, under a Trudeau government, the country can now look forward to more investment in the middle class, and infrastructure projects that will give Calgarians jobs, including the Green Line LRT.

“The big thing is jobs, from engineers to gas fitters, people need jobs and we need to create jobs through investment and infrastructure projects.”

As Signal Hill’s stony numbers near their first century, a local artist and a city councillor are determined to keep the site’s history alive.

“It’s one of the most authentic sites of First World War history in Western Canada,” said Coun. Richard Pootmans, who has put forward a motion that would designate the numbers a municipal historic resource.

The numbers were assembled on what’s now called Battalion Park as a symbolic exercise, before thousands of local soldiers went off to the trenches. But not everyone knows that.

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“About 15 years ago, when I saw the stones, I thought ‘Wow, what are they?’ And I asked some people, and some said they were real estate numbers; someone said they were put there to help the planes land,” said local artist Phyllis Wheaton, who has even heard theories the numbers are hockey-related.

Wheaton is leading 20 people in a concert tribute this month to commemorate the little-known history of the park.

Camp Sarcee was set up in December 1915 on land leased from Tsuu T’ina Nation. The military expanded from a summer-only camp to prepare soldiers for trench warfare, housing 45,000 troops — the second largest military site in the country — through 20 battalions.

Those battalions would be marked within the camp by vehicle-sized stone assemblies, following British military tradition. But the large numbers seen today are part of symbolic, oversized markers assembled to practise troop logistics and reinforce battalion pride before the men left in the summer of 1916. Many never returned home.

Most of the roughly 20 oversized markers were destroyed in the 1950s when the military constructed a mess hall nearby at Harvey Barracks. Today, roughly 16,000 to 20,000 whitewashed field and river stones remain, with 11 digits forming four battalion numbers that can be seen from miles away.

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Originally called Cairn Hill, the city renamed the site Signal Hill in 1982, stoking public confusion over the numbers’ purpose. And while the “113” geoglyph at the top of the hill was declared a protected Alberta Heritage Site, the other numbers were once moved.

The sloping hill needed to be upgraded, and a developer had plans to bulldoze the stones for new houses. Instead, in 1988, the city had the stones painstakingly moved 200 metres east through a string-grid method, and moved back three years later when the hill was corrected.

“The stones almost had a mind of their own, it’s almost spiritual. Because they weren’t gong to be destroyed; it was all in their time,” Wheaton said.

Local military legions then put a cenotaph and storyboards on the 39,199 square-metre field. They dedicated it as Battalion Park in 1991, and the developer set up walking paths and stairs in the surrounding park.

There are commemorations held at the park every Remembrance Day, but Wheaton is taking a creative approach to keeping the camp’s memory alive.

Alongside other local musicians, Wheaton is organizing a July 26 concert tribute called Take A Pilgrimage, through music, stories and archival photos. It’s part of the annual Herald-sponsored Historic Calgary Week, run by the Chinook Country Historical Society.

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“We’re not glorifying war; we’re simply commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Sarcee Camp, which is no longer there,” said Wheaton, who has had 20 volunteers come forward through word of mouth. “I’ve been very moved by everyone’s support.”

Meanwhile, Pootmans’ proposal for municipal designation would protect the stones, ensuring repair and upkeep follow national guidelines.

“I really look at this site as also an important nation-building exercise. The country was still pretty new in these days, and for Western Canada to contribute the number of soldiers it did to Camp Sarcee is important,” said Pootmans, who is also looking at seeking a national designation, to improve the site’s recognition and help secure funding for upkeep.

“I credit those soldiers with allowing us to live in this society with the freedoms that we do today, and I firmly believe those freedoms were earned for us by their lives.”

The remaining numbers, from the top

113: Lethbridge Highlanders, only parcel designated an Alberta Heritage Site

51: Edmonton battalion

137: Calgary battalion, featuring the largest digits

151: Central Alberta battalion

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Global News Hour at 6 Calgary

Signal Hill business owners push forward as investigators work to determine cause of devastating fire

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Global News Hour at 6 Calgary: May 13

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The cause of a late July blaze in a southwest Calgary shopping centre has yet to be determined, but for the business owners affected, the fire damaged their shops as well as their financial outlook.

Flames tore through one of the buildings in West Market Square, located along Sirocco Drive in the neighbourhood of Signal Hill, in the early morning hours of July 20.

The fire was extinguished but not before it left its mark on six businesses, including Rick Chuk’s restaurant that has been a fixture in the centre since 2005.

Nearly two weeks later, Chuk, the owner and chef of LeVilla Restaurant, stood outside his eatery as restoration work took place inside.

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“It’s devastating,” Chuk told Global News. “Everything’s removed and it looks destroyed. The water came down the roof.”

Despite his predicament, Chuk considers himself lucky as the majority of the damage to his restaurant was the result of smoke. Not all of his fellow business owners were as fortunate.

It will be weeks before LeVilla reopens, with plans in place for a new menu, but Chuk’s heart beaks for his employees are currently out of work.

“It’s tough. Most important is the staff that don’t have a job right now. Last time we talked to the insurance company, they told me that maybe in the middle of September, or the end of September, that we can reopen.”

The fire broke out as his business was starting to recover from the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the businesses in West Market Square that were unscathed by the July fire have opened their doors to affected businesses and provided them with space to sell their wares.

Investigators continue their efforts to source what sparked the fire.

— with files from Global News’ Cami Kepke

An announcement expected soon will likely reveal new tenants have been found for two more vacated Target locations in Calgary.

That would still leave two former Target stores sitting empty more than a year after the U.S.-based retailer pulled out — and one analyst says Alberta’s current economic woes are making filling those spaces a challenge.

Of the six Calgary locations left vacant when Target retreated from the Canadian market last year, only two are currently being redeveloped by a new retailer. Lowe’s Canada is in the process of converting the former Shawnessy and Signal Hill Target locations, two of a total 13 leases previously owned by Target that Lowe’s scooped up as part of its cross-Canada expansion plans. Both the Shawnessy and Signal Hill Lowe’s stores are expected to open this summer.

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The Target sites at Market Mall and Chinook Centre — both of which are owned by Cadillac Fairview — are empty, although an announcement may be forthcoming. Janine Ramparas, a spokesperson for the landlord, said in an email that there are “exciting plans” for the spaces, but declined to say more.

Market Mall manager Darren Milne went a step further, saying the mall hopes to be able to make an announcement “later in May” about who will be occupying the former Target space.

That would leave the vacant Target locations in Sunridge Mall and the Forest Lawn Shopping Centre unoccupied. Sunridge Mall — which is owned by Primaris, a division of H&R REIT — is “working feverishly” on trying to secure a tenant for the space but is not able to announce anything yet, said mall general manager Devon Hutt.

Hutt added the current economic climate in Alberta is making the task challenging.

“There’s a lot of space out in the market these days, and then when you tack on what’s going on in the city and the province — well, it’s taking a while,” Hutt said.

Michael Kehoe of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate in Calgary said filling the 133 stores across Canada that were vacated all at once due to the failure of Target Canada was always going to be difficult for landlords. Having that many large-format retail real estate spaces come on the market at one time is unprecedented in Canada, he said.

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“It’s a once in a lifetime occurrence — we’ll never see it again, I don’t think,” he said.

But in Kehoe’s opinion, the crash in oil prices and resulting downturn in the Alberta economy has aggravated the situation. While desirable locations like Market Mall and Chinook Centre are always attractive to prospective tenants, less high-profile locations are likely to sit on the market for a longer time.

“We have a bit of a red flag on Alberta right now, as people wait and see what’s happening with the economy and oil prices,” Kehoe said. “For some of the other lesser lights (Target locations), it will be a long haul, and the spaces are likely to be subdivided and the space recycled with smaller box store tenants.”

A recent Statistics Canada report showed retail spending in Alberta totalled $6.1 billion in February, down 0.4 per cent from January and 1.8 per cent from a year earlier.

Not everyone agrees the economy is playing a role in keeping former Target sites shuttered, however.

Kole Magnowski, a retail associate with Barclay Street Real Estate in Calgary, said the overall retail vacancy rate in Calgary currently sits at a “healthy” 3 per cent, up from 2.7 per cent at the end of 2015 but still lower than other major markets like Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa.

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“When people look at big, large empty locations like Target they think it must be a sign of the poor economy in Calgary. We don’t think that’s the case. It’s just that it takes a very, very long time to fill a large footprint like Target,” Magnowski said.

He added that while Calgary’s retail vacancy rate is expected to increase slightly over the next quarter, the suburban, small-unit format is still in high demand. He said that’s actually typical of past downturns in Alberta.

“If people are thinking outside of oil and gas, they look into other industries. Sometimes people who are getting laid off look into opening a store they’ve thought about for many years,” Magnowski said.

Target Canada filed for bankruptcy in January 2015, less than two years after entering the market. It had closed all of its stores by April 12, 2015, leaving more than 17,000 layoffs Canada-wide and 2,000 layoffs in Alberta in its wake.

In March 2016, after months of wrangling in the courts, the company announced it had reached a settlement with its creditors and former landlords. Creditors are expected to vote on the proposal on May 25.

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