COLD LAKE – Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Scott Cyr stood in front of City of Cold Lake council on Aug. 12, listening to a long list of concerns ranging from waterline grant funding to urgent care timelines and natural gas shortages.
Cyr told council, “I am looking forward to having a discussion really quick on some of the concerns you may have or if you've got some insights that you'd like me to carry back to the province of Alberta that I can move those forward for you.” He noted that when he met with the County of St. Paul earlier in the day, “probably 90 per cent of them were about the roads.”
Water and wastewater funding dominated the first half of the discussion. Coun. Ryan Bailey, chair of the Cold Lake Regional Utility Services Commission, pressed Cyr on discrepancies in the province’s numbers for grant calculations.
Bailey pointed out that Alberta Transportation’s spreadsheets incorrectly showed Frog Lake First Nations receiving water from Cold Lake, while at the same time excluding populations from 4 Wing Cold Lake and Cold Lake First Nations. Bailey warned this could impact funding, “if we're not going to be given parts of grants based on certain specific federal populations . . . that's going to have to put a bit of a strain on the Commission to recoup the money in ways of upping fees.”
Cyr assured council he would follow up, saying he looked forward to receiving their letter and stressed the importance of resolving the issue to prevent local rate increases.
Natural gas availability was another sticking point. Coun. Bill Parker raised the issue of the wastewater treatment plant in the M.D. of Bonnyville lacking access to natural gas.
“Our local natural gas co-op here is incapable or somehow not available to supply natural gas out there,” he said, adding that the problem is regional and hampers economic development.
Cyr acknowledged the long-standing challenge, saying, “We had subdivisions that weren't able to get natural gas, which was a real issue . . . I will commit to reaching out to Northeast Gas to see where we're at with that and sending a response to the Water Commission.”
Healthcare access was also front and centre during the discussion.
Coun. Vicky Lefebvre asked for a timeline on the province’s announced urgent care centre for Cold Lake.
Cyr explained, “Because this announcement was just in May, I'm being told that we have to have a little bit of time to give them a chance to come up with what this is going to roll out as . . . If the City of Cold Lake could maybe write a letter to my office asking for that, that might be helpful.”
Mayor Craig Copeland welcomed the announcement but voiced skepticism about the province’s approach to major projects.
“It's great to make announcements, but if you don't have the funding behind some of this stuff, we should maybe make a pause,” Copeland said, warning that credibility could be at risk if promises aren’t backed by action.
Cyr agreed that optimism must be balanced with results.
“Announcements don't actually put shovels on the ground,” he said. He pledged to keep pressing the province for capital dollars, noting that Highway 28 and the urgent care centre remain top priorities.
The meeting ended with Cyr reaffirming his commitment to bring council’s concerns to Edmonton.
