City council feels the future of Cold Lake is up in the air following the redistribution of ID 349 funds.
The province recently announced changes to the ID 349 municipal funding..
Under the new agreement, the City of Cold Lake goes from receiving about $26-million annually to $16-million. The Town and MD of Bonnyville, the Village of Glendon, and the County of Lac La Biche will now receive a portion of the CLAWR money.
The city has compared the decision to being blindsided, after receiving little indication the option was on the table.
“In March 2016 we were approached by the province because they wanted to see more of the money from ID 349 shared between Bonnyville and Glendon. We gave them two options to look at, and we didn't hear anything back for a long time,” explained Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland. “In August, we felt the minister was leaning closer to an 85 per cent to 15 per cent split funding model.”
Copeland is now wondering about the long-term sustainability of the city.
He said council will have to look at other funding options or put some of their upcoming projects on hold.
“The deal has changed dramatically and we want to know why the city has not been consulted between August and this decision. Taking $10-million out of our $26-million is significant,” emphasized Copeland. “Why wasn't the city consulted? We never saw Municipal Affairs here trying to understand our vision and projects going forward to make Cold Lake a great place to live.”
The decision to cut the city's funding puts council in a serious bind when it comes to drafting the 2018 budget. Recreational infrastructure and low-income programming are services the city may have to look at putting on hold or scrapping altogether.
Residents could also see a further increase in their taxes as council searches for ways to recover from the lost funding.
“Council is going to have to take a look at the numbers for the 2018 budget, and it's not going to be good. Everything will be on the table, but we'll have to hunker down and try to commit to as much as we can. How would any other municipality deal with something like this? We're going to have to look at things from a different perspective,” expressed Copeland.
Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr also voiced his disappointment with the province for the lack of consultation regarding the funding.
Without publicly sharing his thoughts on the redistribution, Cyr lobbied the province to sit down with each municipality prior to the expiration of the previous ID 349 agreement.
“I have requested to all three ministers to be involved in the negotiations in the ID 349 to ensure that all voices were heard at the table. Only to be ignored,” Cyr said in a release. “I respect the views of every municipality involved in this issue, and wanted to play a behind-the-scenes role as a consensus builder so we could have presented a united front to the provincial government as to what is best for the entire region.”
Copeland, however, is unhappy with the MLA's decision to keep quiet.
While he agrees the region should work together to ensure the Town and MD of Bonnyville, and the Village of Glendon get more funding, he doesn't believe that should come from the CLAWR.
The city feels surrounding municipalities lobbying to take funds from range creates massive uncertainty when it comes to their long-term sustainability.
“There's a lot of talk about regional cooperation but we feel we've got a knife in our backs here. There are a lot of groups in Cold Lake that are going to feel this, and it's too bad. The two biggest losers in our city is going to be the kids, who will suffer big time from this, and the poor,” Copeland explained.
As a result of the change, the city's transit system will likely take a hit, and Copeland expects the buildup of recreational infrastructure to come to an immediate stop.
Affordable and low-income housing projects are expected to be put on the back burner, with hot button items such as upgrades to the RCMP detachment taking priority.
While they'll look for ways to recover, Copeland said there's no doubt the changes to ID 349 funding will alter the way council plans for the future.
“We really tried to distribute that money across the board to make this city a great place to live. Now the capital budget is going to be laughable for a city of our size,” he said.
Projects that are already underway, or are set to get underway will be unaffected, as Copeland reassured the city hasn't overspent in their planning.
Still, council will have to make tough decisions going forward, as they adjust to receiving $10-million less from the ID 349 agreement.
“Every project we have on the books right now is funded and money is positioned for it. Cold Lake will come back from this and we will try to rebuild. We've got some hard decisions ahead of us as a council, but all of our current projects are funded,” said Copeland.
