Asbestos removal and remediation in Okotoks

What Okotoks’ housing means for asbestos

Okotoks became a town in 1904, had fewer than 2,000 people in 1976, and reached 30,405 in the 2021 Census. Of about 10,500 occupied homes, roughly 235 were built in 1960 or earlier, 935 between 1961 and 1980, and 920 in the 1980s. That is about 2,090 homes — 20 per cent of the town — built before 1991, a higher share than Airdrie, Cochrane or Chestermere. A quarter of all Okotoks homes were built in the five years from 2006 to 2010 alone.

The older housing sits on the original townsite: what the town calls Olde Towne, the heritage streets along McRae, Elma and North Railway, where some houses are more than a century old, and the post-war blocks around them. Those are the houses where flooring, textured ceilings, drywall compound, pipe insulation and attic vermiculite need to be tested before a renovation starts. The town has already had one public lesson in what asbestos does to a project: after the 2015 fire in the Old Creamery Building, asbestos found in the structure made rebuilding unfeasible and council approved demolition instead.

Everything from the 1990s subdivisions outward is a different job. Asbestos is rarely the question there; water, mold, hail and strip-outs are.

How a job in Okotoks runs

The steps below are the same ones on our asbestos removal page, where you can watch a 30-second walk-through of one of our own jobs. Nothing is skipped because the job is in Okotoks rather than Calgary.

If you searched for an abatement company in Okotoks, this is the page.

• Testing. Samples are analyzed by an accredited third-party lab and you receive the result in writing before anything is disturbed.
• Notification. Alberta OHS must be notified at least 72 hours before any work that could release asbestos fibres, per address. We file that notice for every restricted-area job.
• Permits. The Town of Okotoks issues demolition permits for residential and commercial structures through its Building Services office. The provincial requirement that fibre-releasing material be removed before demolition applies whether or not the permit form says so. We will tell you what the inspector expects before you apply.
• Disposal. Okotoks does not have to send asbestos to Calgary. The Foothills Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre on Highway 783, south of Highway 7, accepts asbestos waste with the landfill manager’s approval arranged before hauling. Its published rate for small bagged asbestos is $175 per tonne with a $350 minimum, and larger lined bins are charged at $350 per tonne. Calgary’s Shepard Landfill remains an option under a City permit. Either way the waste is wetted, double-bagged in 6-mil poly and sealed, and you get the weight ticket and manifest.
• Travel. Okotoks is about 40 kilometres south of downtown Calgary on Highway 2 and 2A. Travel is priced into the written quote for every job outside Calgary — there is no separate mileage line and no surprise on the invoice.

The Sheep River and the water question

Okotoks has flooded three times in living memory: 1995, 2005 and June 2013. In 2005 the Sheep River covered almost all the land beside it and briefly reached the main business area. In 2013 the town lost access to its water treatment plant, buried the campground in silt, and became the evacuation hub for the harder-hit communities to the south and west. Since then the town has built a new bridge, strengthened the riverbanks and upgraded its storm sewers. For a restoration contractor the point is simple: the properties nearest the river are the ones most likely to need water extraction, drying and mold work, and the older ones among them need asbestos testing before the wet drywall comes out.

Okotoks is also the town that capped its own growth in 1998 because the Sheep River could not supply more than about 30,000 people. That cap was lifted in 2012, and the pipeline from the Bow River that finally solves the problem reached its valve-turning ceremony in June 2026. Growth that was held back for a decade is now going ahead, which means more infill, more tear-downs of older houses, and more demolition work in exactly the part of town where asbestos is most likely.

Related reading

• A flooded basement: the first 24 hours
• Popcorn ceilings and asbestos: what to know
• What asbestos removal costs in the Calgary area