By Troy Gillard and Josh Hall

Bighorn rally Thursday in Red Deer

Jan 29, 2019 | 9:42 AM

Red Deer will be the site of the latest rally calling for a restart of the consultation process for the Bighorn Provincial Park proposal.

Rally Canada, which has hosted several previous events calling for the consultation process to be halted and started over, is helping local organizers facilitate Thursday’s rally at the Servus Arena (4725-43 Street) starting at 6:30 p.m.

“The consultation, as we see it, is at best inferior and at worst non-existent,” says Rally Canada spokesperson Tom Hinderks.

“There has been no on the ground public information sessions and there has been no on the ground public consultation. The (online) survey itself is flawed. You can actually (use) multiple locations and make multiple submissions, there’s no control. I had out-of-country friends try it and they could submit responses from another country. This is ridiculous.”

Until the consultation process has been halted and restarted, Hinderks says their message will remain the same.

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“People aren’t being consulted on the ground and people aren’t being heard. The information is still dominated by misinformation and there’s being nothing done to counter it,” he says.

“We’ve had several large, good rallies that have dispelled the rumour that people who are opposed to it or wanted the consultation stopped were, for lack of a better term, hostile. We’re not. We simply want good clean information getting to everyone involved. We want people on the ground consulted, particularly the residents who live along the eastern slopes.”

The fact that a provincial election will take place this spring has no bearing on the issues plaguing the Bighorn consultations, Hinderks feels.

“This is a major change in land use. There is going to be effects of this both intended and unintended to people across the region and across the province. The election is irrelevant to that. This has to be done properly and completely. If it’s not people aren’t going to buy into it. If people don’t buy into it it’s going to be an ongoing problem.”

Rally Canada is calling for “peaceful, respectful and civil engagement” at Thursday’s rally and ask yellow vest members attending to leave their vests at home so not to dilute its message.