The MD of Bonnyville is making camping accessible for everyone, with the help of a federal grant.
As part of their focus for 2019, the municipality has set aside funding to create wheelchair accessible sites at their campgrounds.
To get started, they will be adding four camping stalls to the Crane Lake and Cold Lake parks.
“It’s exciting that we have the grant funding for this, because it’s important that everyone has access to our parks,” stated Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
In total, the MD is receiving $50,900 through the Government of Canada's Enabling Accessibility Fund - Small Project.
According to director of parks and recreation for the MD, Chris McCord, their plan is to pave four stalls at Crane Lake Municipal Park and four at the Cold Lake MD park.
The sites will also have wheelchair accessible picnic tables and be located close to the washrooms.
“This is something that we haven’t had in the past," exclaimed McCord, adding the municipality is over the moon to be offering these campsites.
“Just because you might have some mobility issues, doesn’t mean you can’t come out and enjoy our parks."
Sawchuk said they've had campers request these types of sites in the past, which is why the municipality included it in their 2019 budget.
He noted, Crane Lake and Cold Lake "is just the start."
“We’re doing a ton of work throughout the MD park system, so this just the first two."
The reason the MD selected these two parks for their grant application was simply because they're the busiest, McCord stated.
Overall, the project is budgeted at about $78,000, with close to $51,000 in grant funding and $28,000 from the MD.
McCord is hoping to have work started as soon as possible in order to meet the grant's July 1 deadline.
“That’s when the peak of camping season should be right around the corner,” said Sawchuk.
