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Infrastructure, waterline focuses for local councils in 2016

Both the Town and MD of Bonnyville head into 2016 with their eyes set on implementing infrastructure projects. In addition to resuming long-term road improvement projects, such as continuing redevelopment on 51 Ave.
With the New Year here, the Town and MD of Bonnyville are focused on infrastructure.
With the New Year here, the Town and MD of Bonnyville are focused on infrastructure.

Both the Town and MD of Bonnyville head into 2016 with their eyes set on implementing infrastructure projects.

In addition to resuming long-term road improvement projects, such as continuing redevelopment on 51 Ave., local politicians will also focus on the longstanding issue of securing a waterline for the Town of Bonnyville.

“Our raw water is not the best in the province,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski. “What's happened is that there's been a funding crunch for the last 15 years so it's something that we're advocating for very heavily because it's something that's necessary.”

Sobolewski added that he hopes to see funding from the province through the Water for Life program, which helps smaller municipalities with cost sharing to build regional water and wastewater systems, to secure potential engineers for the waterline in 2016.

For its part, MD council does hope to see dollars from the Water For Life program, but Reeve Ed Rondeau pointed out that it would be a while before the town sees a waterline, especially in light of the slower economy.

“I don't think it's going to be tomorrow by any stretch of the imagination, I think it's a little ways down the road yet, certainly not before the economy gets back up and going again because I don't think the province has the money to play with these things.”

He added, “We cannot afford at any time to just drop it, we have to continue working on it and I think at some point it will happen and it will be to the benefit of all.”

The town will also push to contract out work for road construction, generating employment in slower economic times.

“We're hoping to get some good prices, because the better prices we get obviously the more work we can get done and keep people employed,” Sobolewski noted.

Sobolewski added that continuing doctor recruitment, securing hospital funding and resolving EMS issues would also be among the town's priorities in 2016.

Both councils had to adjust to the realities of a slower economy in 2015. The MD is anticipating a reduction in tax revenue from oil companies shutting down wells in the municipality in 2016. Rondeau estimated anywhere from 300 to 500 wells closed down in the last year, potentially creating approximately a $1 million tax shortfall.

“You just have to live with what you've got, you know you have to spend according to your means, so consequently if you only got ‘x' amount of dollars that's all you spend,” Rondeau said, noting that fewer dollars could be spent on roadwork to offset the lower tax revenue.

In dealing with the effects of an economic downturn, the town hiked taxes by two per cent in 2016 in its preliminary budget. Additionally, council made a $250,000 reduction in the street overlay program, a $95,00 transfer of RCMP reserve funds and a $50,000 decrease in the contingency funds, as well as smaller cuts throughout a variety of departments.

However, 2016 will see some capital projects move ahead, such as a proposal for the expansion of the Bonnyville Municipal Library, with $20,000 set aside for a feasibility study in the coming months.

Rondeau highlighted two noteworthy projects the MD will oversee in 2016: getting the Crane Lake road paved and completing construction of a new public safety building at the public works site.

The MD will continue receiving funding through certain grants like the provincial Municipality Suitability Initiative, but there hasn't been any new funding allocated for the MD in 2016.

“The big cities have gotten their fair chunks, but when it comes to the rest of the province we don't seem to be getting a whole lot of things,” Rondeau said.

MD council would also like to usher in 2016 by inviting Bonnyville – Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr and Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs to a council meeting early in the year.

“We want them to come to council and tell us what they're doing and what they hope to accomplish,” Rondeau explained. “So early in the new year…I want to try to make sure that both the MLA and the MP get an opportunity at some point to come and visit our council.”

The town has also entered 2016 being the largest beneficiary of a new pilot project called the Inter-Municipal Cooperation program (IMC), receiving around $3.84 million from the MD for use of its facilities by MD residents. Sobolewski welcomed the funding as a sign of growing regional cooperation entering 2016.

“I'm cautiously optimistic (entering 2016), but as always, we in the town we continue to persevere.”

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