The Kinosoo Adventure Park and enhancements at Vezeau Beach are the first two projects the MD of Bonnyville will be submitting for the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
MD council decided to move forward with sending expressions of interest for the two projects at their July 25 meeting, ahead of the grant’s first intake deadline of Aug. 1.
The Kinosoo Adventure Park comes with a price tag of about $1.5 million. Under the community, culture, and recreation stream of the grant, the federal government would cover 40 per cent of the cost. The MD would also be required to secure 33 per cent funding from the province, leaving the remaining $400,000 of the bill up to the municipality.
“A couple of weeks ago, we had the presentation and open house for the Kinosoo Ridge area. We’re talking about enhancing it and expanding it to a year-round facility; the adventure park is one of the main components of that larger enhancement project,” explained grants coordinator Esther Quiambao, adding that the larger scale of the project fits well into what the government is looking for when it comes to the ICIP grant.
“As well, because it’s something that’s been considered over the last couple of years, as far as how we can better enhance the Kinosoo Ridge facility, there seems to be a want and a need for it from the community. It definitely came to the top of the list.”
The second expression of interest the MD will be sending in under the community, culture, and recreation infrastructure stream is for the Vezeau Beach Enhancement Project.
“This one is a new idea that we’ve come up with in discussion with the Lakeland Sports and Recreation Association. We thought it might be a good opportunity to partner with a non-profit on this application,” noted Quiambao.
The project would be spearheaded by the Lakeland Sports and Recreation Association, who currently own and operate Vezeau Beach. While the scope of the project is quite preliminary, it includes the development of a beach area, improvements to the dock and boat launch, enhancing the camping stalls and services that are there, paving the roads, and completing work on the trail system. They would also like to look at a possible expansion to the Shaw House, however, that wasn’t included in the initial estimates.
“There was a site visit done on Monday (July 23) with SE Design to look at a rough cost estimate for this project. A very rough estimate on that is about $1.5 million, so a cost of about $900,000 to the MD,” Quiambao told council, adding that due to the fact they would be partnering with a non-profit group, they wouldn’t be required to secure provincial funding.
The ICIP is a federal program, of which Alberta will be receiving $3.39 billion over the next 10 years. Expressions of interest are sent to the province, who will prioritize the projects and decide which to submit to the federal government for approval.
Broken down into four streams, the community, culture, and recreation infrastructure pot has $140.6 million allocated for projects throughout the province that are community-oriented and open to the public.
The other area the MD is hoping to apply under is the green infrastructure stream, which has $1 billion up for grabs.
For the second intake of expressions of interest, with a Nov. 1 deadline, Quiambao explained they will be submitting an application for the Kinosoo Ridge Solar Farm.
“We call it a solar farm, but normally those are quite large-scale facilities. Ours is definitely not a large-scale facility. It’s going to be some solar panels built next to the current Kinosoo Ridge chalet. The idea is that we’ll generate enough power from that to pay it off in the next two to 10 years, depending on the economy and price of energy.”
The solar farm comes in at an estimated $140,000, with a total cost to the MD of about $37,000 should they be successful in getting the grant.
Once the deadline for the first wave of submissions has past, the province will be reviewing the applications, a process Quiambao said typically takes anywhere from two to four months. Projects that are chosen will then be required to submit a more detailed application form to the federal government.
Quiambao noted, at this stage, any plans are still preliminary, and no municipal dollars were required to be committed to the projects until they get further along in the process.
