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Municipalities given green light for regional projects

Alberta Municipal Affairs has liked what they’ve seen so-far when it comes to projects pitched for the ID 349 Regional Collaboration Fund. “We have received a letter from the Minister of Municipal Affairs saying that we had the project approved.
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The Town of Bonnyville will be using their funding to help offset some of the cost of the Regional Waterline.

Alberta Municipal Affairs has liked what they’ve seen so-far when it comes to projects pitched for the ID 349 Regional Collaboration Fund.

“We have received a letter from the Minister of Municipal Affairs saying that we had the project approved. The question that’s still out there is how much funding are we getting for the project,” emphasized MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk.

The MD requested $1.6-million in order to create a multi-officer Regional Eastern Alberta District Rural Crime Reduction Unit.

It would consist of three RCMP members and a support staff, at a predicted cost of $474,000 annually.

“Before we can go forward, we need to know whether or not the money is in place, then we can go ahead and ask the RCMP to apply for those positions,” Sawchuk detailed.

Although the project was approved by the province, as mandated under the revised ID 349 agreement, the MD has no idea how much they will be getting to put towards their initiative, which could ultimately make or break their plans.

If the municipality doesn’t receive the funding they need, whether or not they forge ahead would be up for discussion.

“That would have to come back to council as a question and for decision on whether or not we would want to move forward unilaterally, or if we would want to reach out to other municipalities or the rest of the group to see if maybe they would support it,” Sawchuk stated.

The idea for the crime reduction team came out of a meeting with the deputy minister of municipal affairs.

Sawchuk described the get together as “frustrating.”

“Many of the projects we felt coming forward weren’t necessarily a benefit to the entire region. When we threw this out there for the group to actually make a decision, it had actually been the City of Cold Lake who had proposed this and asked if we would support it.”

According to Sawchuk, everyone agreed that rural crime is a regional issue that needs to be addressed.

“In talks with the RCMP, they ensured us that a special group like this, formed of three staff members and support staff, could be used to travel throughout the region, and that would be their sole purpose,” expressed Sawchuk. “That was great to hear that we weren’t just adding to the numbers, that they would have a focus to what they would be working on.”

While the MD waits to hear whether they’re project will be getting the financial boost it needs, the Town of Bonnyville’s pitch for the regional waterline, and the City of Cold Lake’s ask for $1-million for their initiative were approved.

With the waterline coming in over budget, the town knew they would have to come up with more funding to cover the shortfall, and decided the Regional Collaboration Fund was the perfect fit.

Town of Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski said the municipality decided to put the money from the fund toward a project they know is region-focused.

“We’re using our money to pay for our portion of the regional waterline,” he noted. “The project was originally budgeted at $79-million and it’s now $83-million, so there are additional costs coming to the town. We’re going to use that ID 349 money to offset our costs to begin with.”

The City of Cold Lake decided to allocate their dollars to an ongoing project.

“We wanted to put it towards commercial air service in Cold Lake, whether that’s going to be a terminal or improvements to runways,” Mayor Craig Copeland said, adding commercial air service has always been a goal for the city. 

“We’re in conversations with 4 Wing and the Department of National Defence about what commercial air would look like,” Copeland continued. “We’re not going to spend money until we know if we’re going to be allowed to have an airport terminal and what the level of expectation is going to be from the federal government for the City of Cold Lake utilizing 4 Wing.”

The deadline to use the funding is Dec. 31.

Sawchuk said that could be “another obstacle, but we’ll deal with that when we get there.”

He added, “We’re very hopeful that we get a letter from the minister saying that the funding we requested is in place, then we’ll be reaching out to the RCMP very quickly.”

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