Live in Lake Bonavista
The first community in Canada built around a man-made lake — and it has two of them.
Lake Bonavista is where the whole idea started. Keith Construction founded it in 1967 and dug the 52-acre lake in 1968, making it the first community in Canada built around man-made water and the prototype every Calgary lake suburb since has copied. A second lake, the 35-acre Lake Bonaventure, serves the homes around it. This is what living here is actually like.
The one that started all of them
Bounded north by Anderson Road, west by Macleod Trail, south by Canyon Meadows Drive, and east by the natural hill above the Bow. Ward 14, inside the City of Calgary, Alberta.
Every other community on this site is downstream of this one. Keith Construction founded Lake Bonavista in 1967 and dug the 52-acre lake in 1968, making it the first community in Canada built around a man-made lake — the prototype that Midnapore, Sundance and everything since has copied.
The excavation did double duty: the earth taken out became a 65-foot hill beside the water, finished with a waterfall. A second lake, the 35-acre Lake Bonaventure, was added later for the homes immediately around it.
Housing mix. Established, affluent and almost entirely owner-occupied, with a median household income of $101,025 at the last long-form census. The housing is 1960s and 1970s stock on generous lots — which by now means both a genuinely mature tree canopy and buildings well past fifty.
Transit. Unusually good for a lake community: Anderson and Canyon Meadows Red Line stations sit on the northwest and southwest corners, so downtown is a single ride with no transfer. Macleod Trail runs along the western boundary.
- Homes here are fifty to sixty years old; budget for major systems, not cosmetics
- Vermiculite insulation, asbestos floor tile and older wiring are all realistic finds at this age
- Aluminum wiring appeared in some Alberta builds of this era and is an insurance flag
- Two associations exist — the LBHA runs the lakes, the LBCA is the community association; they are not the same
- Lake Bonaventure access is limited to the homes surrounding it, not the whole community
How Lake Bonavista got here
- 1967Keith Construction founds Lake Bonavista — the first community in Canada designed around a man-made lake.
- 1968The 52-acre lake is excavated. The spoil becomes a 65-foot hill beside it, finished with a waterfall.
- 1970sLake Bonaventure, a second 35-acre lake, is built for the homes immediately surrounding it.
- 1970s–80sThe model is copied across Calgary's south — Midnapore, Sundance and every lake community after them trace back to this one.
- 2005Median household income recorded at $101,025 — among the higher figures for an established Calgary community.
- 2012Municipal census counts 10,475 residents in 4,106 dwellings. Fully built out and mature.
- TodayNearly sixty years of tree growth make it one of the most established-looking neighbourhoods in the city.
Two lakes, and the hill they came out of
Private and resident-only, run by the Lake Bonavista Homeowners Association. The 52-acre main lake serves the whole community; the 35-acre Lake Bonaventure is limited to the homes around it.
- Due 30 June 2026 for the 2026–27 year
- Administered by the Lake Bonavista Homeowners Association (LBHA)
- The LBHA is a separate body from the Lake Bonavista Community Association — do not confuse the two
- Membership covers lake and facility access for residents and their signed-in guests
- Lake Bonaventure is a separate, smaller lake accessible only to the homes surrounding it
- Contact: lkbonavista.ca
| The lakes as an engineering project | Figure |
|---|---|
| Lake Bonavista surface | 52 acres |
| Lake Bonaventure surface | 35 acres |
| Lake excavated | 1968 |
| Hill built from the spoil | 65 ft, with a waterfall |
| Annual fee (2026–27) | $409.50 incl. GST |
| Fees due | 30 June |
Fish Creek to the south, the Glenmore to the west
Fish Creek Provincial Park — 13.5 km² and 100+ km of trails — begins just south of Canyon Meadows Drive, minutes from the community. The Glenmore Reservoir and the Weaselhead are about fifteen minutes west, and Heritage Park sits on the reservoir's eastern shore.
The resident's angle: this community has the shortest average distance to serious open space of anywhere on this site — a provincial park minutes south, a reservoir minutes west, and two private lakes inside the boundaries. The trade-off is that none of it is at the back gate the way Fish Creek is for Sundance.
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the community centre to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Anderson Road and Macleod Trail at 7–9am and 3:30–6pm will push the longer trips higher — though with two CTrain stations on the boundary, the train is often genuinely faster here.
Every gym within reach
An established part of the city with a community-owned recreation centre, the Southcentre and Willow Park retail clusters, and a private golf club minutes east. Confirm hours before you count on any of them.
- Pool, arena, fitness floor, gymnasium and a full program schedule under one membership
- Southcentre and Willow Park add GoodLife, Anytime and Orangetheory within ten minutes
- The LBHA fee already covers two beaches, courts, boating, skating and the toboggan hill
- Willow Park Golf & Country Club is the other membership worth pricing in this part of the city
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Trico Centre for Family Wellness open | Community-owned recreation centre: pool, arena, fitness floor, gymnasium and a full program schedule. | 5–8 min |
| Lake Bonavista beach houses & courts open | Covered by the LBHA fee — two beaches, tennis and sport courts, function space, and skating and tobogganing in winter. | 1–4 min |
| GoodLife Fitness — Southcentre open | National chain club at Southcentre Mall, just north across Anderson Road. | 4–7 min |
| Anytime Fitness — Willow Park open | 24-hour access chain gym in the Willow Park retail area. | 5–8 min |
| Orangetheory Fitness — Willow Park open | Heart-rate-based group interval training studio. | 5–8 min |
| YMCA — Shawnessy open | Large YMCA facility further south, with pools, gymnasium and programs. | 12–17 min |
| Willow Park Golf & Country Club open | Not a gym, but the other membership worth pricing here — a private championship course minutes east. | 6–9 min |
| Fish Creek Provincial Park trails open | 100+ km of trails immediately south of the community, free and open year-round. | 4–7 min |
The free option is a good one. Fish Creek's 100+ km of trails start minutes south and the Glenmore pathways are fifteen minutes west — and in winter, both lakes and the 65-foot hill are already paid for through the annual fee.
Six schools inside the community
Four public and two Catholic schools sit within the boundaries — Lake Bonavista, Andrew Sibbald and Sam Livingston elementaries, Nickle junior high, and St. Boniface and St. Bonaventure on the Catholic side.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Bonavista School | Calgary Board of Education | Public elementary inside the community. |
| Andrew Sibbald School | Calgary Board of Education | Public elementary inside the community. |
| Sam Livingston School | Calgary Board of Education | Public elementary inside the community. |
| Nickle School | Calgary Board of Education | Public junior high inside the community. |
| St. Boniface School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic elementary inside the community. |
| St. Bonaventure School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic junior high inside the community. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. In a community this established, enrolment patterns and school configurations have shifted over the decades — confirm the current designation for a specific address with the board before you buy.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Both lakes frozen — skating, shinny and ice fishing on your membership
- Tobogganing on the 65-foot hill built from the lake's own excavation
- Trico Centre's arena carries the organised hockey season
- Fish Creek's trails are quiet and walkable, minutes south
- Skating season continues at both beach houses
- Family Day long weekend — LBHA events and rink time
- Chinooks can take the ice out for a few days at a time
- Deer and coyotes move along the Bow escarpment on the eastern edge
- Ice off the lakes late in the month in a warm year
- Spring break — Southcentre and Trico Centre fill up
- First bare pavement on the Fish Creek pathways
- Sixty years of mature trees mean real snow-load and branch cleanup
- Lakes thaw fully; boats and docks return
- The community's mature canopy leafs out — its defining feature
- Goslings and ducklings on both lakes
- Street sweeping clears the winter gravel
- Beaches and courts readied for the season
- May long weekend — first beach evenings of the year
- Fish Creek in full leaf, minutes south
- Watch for the LBHA invoice ahead of the 30 June deadline
- Swimming season opens as the lakes warm
- LBHA fees due 30 June for the year ahead
- Sikome Lake (public) opens late June in Fish Creek Park
- June rains: Calgary's wettest month
- Calgary Stampede — ten days, about 20 minutes up Macleod Trail
- Beaches, boating and fishing at full tilt
- Canada Day at the beach houses is a community fixture
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Warmest water of the year in both lakes
- Spruce Meadows Masters, 18–25 minutes southwest
- Back-to-school runs at Southcentre and Willow Park
- Saskatoon and chokecherry picking along Fish Creek
- The mature canopy turns — the best colour weeks of the year here
- School year starts across all six community schools
- Boats out of the water by month end
- Elk bugling season in Kananaskis, west of the city
- Last reliable dry-trail weeks in Fish Creek
- First hard frosts; furnace season begins
- Leaf cleanup is a genuine chore under sixty-year-old trees
- First snowfall often before month end
- Lakes begin to freeze; stay off until the association flags them safe
- Winter tires on — Macleod and Anderson both ice up in cold snaps
- Christmas lights go up early; dark by 5pm
- Indoor season: Trico Centre and the library pick up
- Lakes typically freeze mid-to-late December — skating season opens
- Shortest days: sunrise about 8:38am, sunset about 4:30pm at solstice
- Chinooks can strip the snow overnight and bring it right back
- New Year's skate on the original Canadian lake community's lake
87 photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed and served from this app — nothing loads from a third party. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 87 photographs.
Honesty note. Lake Bonavista sits in the same south-Calgary corridor as the other communities on this site — the same Fish Creek Park minutes south, the same Red Line south leg, the same skyline — so the shared photo library genuinely applies. Midnapore-specific images are excluded, species shots taken elsewhere in Alberta are labelled as such, and nothing here is presented as a photograph of Lake Bonavista itself.