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Province agrees, MD to absorb ID 349

BONNYVILLE - Improvement District 349 will become part of the MD of Bonnyville after the province agreed to annex the land. “A municipal boundary change of this magnitude is a huge deal...
ID 349
The province announced the MD will officially absorb ID 349.

BONNYVILLE - Improvement District 349 will become part of the MD of Bonnyville after the province officially agreed to annex the land.

“A municipal boundary change of this magnitude is a huge deal... MD Council recognized the importance of securing the ID 349 early on. We would like to thank the Government of Alberta, Ministers Madu and Allard, and MLA David Hanson for their openness to our Made in the Lakeland solution. It will benefit our region’s residents for years to come," expressed Reeve Greg Sawchuk in a statement.

The amalgamation was announced by Alberta Municipal Affairs in December 2020, and will see the land, that is current its own district, absorbed into the borders of the MD.

The MD of Bonnyville will act as an administrator and will distribute the tax revenues collected from ID 349 to the City of Cold Lake, Town of Bonnyville, and Village of Glendon. Some of the funds will be retained by the MD for the maintenance and repair of the La Corey North Resource Road, which is used as a main traffic route to ID 349.

Three per cent of the annual tax revenues will go to the MD to cover administrative costs associated with the annexed lands.

The remaining tax revenues will be dispersed according to the provincial government's funding model that was previously agreed to by the municipalities involved. The model is based on the tax revenues received, regional population, and the population of the City of Cold Lake, Town of Bonnyville, and Village of Glendon. 

"It's been in the making, but this is the final checkmark," said City of Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland. "We all agreed to it and it makes a lot of business sense."

The decision also relieves some of the "tensions that were between the municipalities," he added.

Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St.Paul MLA David Hanson said in a statement, "I campaigned on working on a regional resolution to the ID349 funding model... I am thankful that we had a group of local leaders willing to sit down together and come up with a formula that benefits the entire local region.”

Meagan MacEachern, Bonnyville Nouvelle

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