Take Calgary out of the picture and these "oh-so-vibrant" but oh-we're not-bedroom-communities would disappear faster than a snowcone on a hot day at the Stampede.

Cochrane, Okotoks, Strathmore, Airdire - fast growing bedroom community towns ringing Calgary on the 4 points of the compass, using Calgary roads and hospitals (for critical illnesses), working throughout Calgary, shopping in Calgary.

But not paying taxes to Calgary, and believing ( in the case of Cochrane) that they have a God-given right to discharge their raw sewage into the Bow River with nary a thought to the drinking water of the city of 1.2 million people a few miles downstream. Until someone else paid for the necessary infrastructure to avoid it that is.

Nice communities? Meh. But getting a little big for their britches.