BONNYVILLE - The MD's "drop dead date" has come and gone, and now the muncipality has decided to tackle the Kinosoo Ridge adventure park expense on their own.
This month marked the municipality's deadline on determining whether or not they would forge ahead without financial support from the federal government's Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). After deliberating during their Wednesday, Feb. 5 committee meeting, council decided they couldn't wait any longer.
“Council has already made the drop dead date. We did this back in the fall, and we’re kicking this thing down the road again and again. Are we willing to wait on the federal government and their money? I think this is a project that’s important for our region and I would like to get on it,” expressed Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
The federal government notified the MD on Jan. 8 that their expression of interest for the Kinosoo Ridge adventure park had met the program's criteria and would be moving on to the next stage of the process, which could add an additional six months to the project's already stretched timeline.
During that time period, if MD staff were to complete any work on the adventure park that costs money, their grant application would be "null and void," explained general manager of planning and community services Caroline Palmer.
“But what I can do won’t compromise the grant, and what I would be doing is going to take me that timeframe either way,” she noted.
Over the next few months, Palmer will be elbow-deep in adventure park examples, including those dating back to when the park was first proposed in 2012.
"They aren’t all one in the same. There are many varieties and companies, and what we do through the request for proposals process… is I bring forward what these things look like and once council gives me direction of what they want to see, then we go into a request for proposals,” detailed Palmer.
This is work that could be done while the MD waits for notice on whether they've been approved for the grant. However, with 50/50 odds of receiving the $800,000 they asked for, the majority of council just wants to push ahead.
Councillors Darcy Skarsen and Marc Jubinville were all-for playing the waiting game.
“Three months could make a big difference, and it’s not like they can’t do any leg work while the process is taking place,” Jubinville stressed.
“I’m not willing to wait,” exclaimed Coun. Dana Swigart, noting this has been in the works for over eight years.
"I think this is ridiculous. Every time we bring it forward we pick a different (drop dead) date," he added. “We already made this decision, and we said February."
Jubinville said, “That’s all fine, but if the public hears that we can’t wait three months for $800,000 and we’ve been dealing with this since 2012, what’s another five months?”
Administrative officer Esther Quiambao explained what could delay the park even further is the indigenous consultation and environmental assessments required for the ICIP.
“If we have to enter into the consultation process, that alone could end up taking us six months to a year to go through that whole process,” Sawchuk stated. “That would drag the process on for a long time and perhaps skew the direction of the entire project.”
According to Quiambao, the MD has already completed an environmental assessment, because the adventure park, which is slated to be built at Kinosoo Ridge, falls on Alberta Environment and Parks' land. What the municipality could be lacking is indigenous consultation.
“I know we have done consultations with Cold Lake First Nations, whether or not that would be adequate enough is where the subjective nature (comes in),” she noted.
With all of council in favour except for Jubinville, they moved to go ahead with the project by allocating $800,000 from their own reserves.
Now, Palmer will get to work on finding what's available in terms of structure.
She outlined that depending on what council is looking for, their timeline could vary.
“My understanding again is depending on which one you pick will determine how fast it goes up,” said Palmer. “These are like Lego blocks.”
Once the MD has selected a design, a request for proposals will be made.
"When this was started in 2012, there was never any push to actually get it done because of the funding aspect. Now we’re back tracking a lot of that, and now we’re on track and we’re getting there,” Palmer detailed.
She added, "There are different companies that have opened up since then, and we would be very remiss not to go back and research the information they’ve already tabulated along the way. Everything has changed… We want to be diligent that we’ve investigated all of the types of parks that are available to the MD.”
