Cold Lake city council took advantage of some one-on-one time with Bonnyville – Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr to quiz him on local issues including funding for Highway 28 and ID 349.
“I think the MLA is going to have to decide what his position is on the ID 349. He has four kids, he has four communities in his riding: Glendon, the town, Cold Lake and the MD of Bonnyville,” said Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
During their Nov. 10 meeting, Cyr was on hand at the council meeting as part of his efforts to be more accessible to each municipality he serves. On the top of council's agenda, was to ask Cyr about his thoughts on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range agreement between the city and province. With the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) coming to an end next year, ID 349 has been brought back into the spotlight with the Town of Bonnyville and Village of Glendon hoping to benefit from some of the funds flowing out of the range.
“(I plan) to work behind the scenes with the different councils and see if we can come up with a solution,” said Cyr, adding that he isn't on one particular side, but is for all residents in the riding.
“The fact is, as I stated during the council meeting, this is a problem the PCs have made. They brought division to the riding and I hope that we can resolve this so that everybody is happy.”
While the town and village are looking to generate additional funds from the Improvement District, the city isn't on board with the proposal to up the mill rate.
“We have more than enough assessment in our region, why in the world would we increase mill rates for industry...especially now. We should be looking at reducing taxes for industries and throwing them a bone,” said Copeland.
Councillors raised concerns over Cyr's ability to fairly represent the city on a provincial level in a matter that's against the town and MD.
“How does Cold Lake feel comfortable that our voice on the table is heard when the other two governments represented you very well in your election campaign?” Coun. Bob Buckle asked Cyr during the meeting.
Adamant that he is no more on one side then another, Cyr voiced his thoughts on the deal, saying that it was flawed since the very beginning. Instead of having an unwritten understanding that administration of CLAWR would be transferred over to the city, the local MLA believes if that were the purpose it would have been added in the MOU.
“If this was structured with the intent to have it all sitting in Cold Lake, then why wasn't it written that way in the beginning. All that did was defer the decision to further in the future and you have this problem.”
With a new Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Municipal Government Act (MGA) review currently underway, Cyr told council he firmly believes there's no point in worrying about it until after the MGA is done.
“I'm saying that the MGA review, in my opinion, is going to affect the linear assessment and it's the linear assessment that really is the key to this right now. If they change the linear assessment to be distributed differently then it could alter what's happening on ID 349.”
Disagreeing with Cyr that the MGA review will have any kind of impact on the air weapons range, city council will be moving forward with the creation of their budget and 10-year capital plan including in it ID 349 funding.
“This nonsense has been going on for years; the residents are getting tired of this,” said Copeland.
Council inquires on budget breakdown
Council also took the time to speak with Cyr about funding for Hwy. 28. A small portion of the highway towards Edmonton is getting redone, but so far the government has yet to make any further announcements on the roadway. Regardless, Cyr told council it's a big step forward just having Hwy. 28 considered by the government.
“When we met with Minister Mason, Hwy. 28 was the 34th worst highway in Alberta. He wasn't planning on doing any work on it; now at least we're getting work done.”
After being approached by local transport companies regarding the high-load corridors, the Bonnyville – Cold Lake MLA worked to get that issue resolved first.
“My focus was the fact that we had industry in Cold Lake and Bonnyville that weren't able to get their high-loads out, which means that people aren't working and my priority is to get people working. I want to make sure that's first and foremost.”
Not all the councillors were in agreement with Cyr's priorities for Hwy. 28, citing public safety issues should have been the number one focus, not the high-load corridors. Now that the high-load corridors have been resolved, Cyr expressed he will be focusing on making sure the “pinch points,” including from Bonnyville to Cold Lake, get looked at.
While he hasn't heard of any additional dollars coming to the Cold Lake or Bonnyville area yet, with all of the deferrals and cut backs, the area should be pleased none of their programs, such as the seniors centre, are being held back. Cyr also noted that the provincial government would be reviewing the funding model for RCMP detachments.
