Whether he’s a federal bureaucrat dabbling into the affairs of local politics, or a concerned military officer wanting the best for the personnel under his command, CFB Cold Lake Commanding Officer Col. David Wheeler is making a stir in his continuing attempts to alter not only the lines on Lac La Biche County maps, but also the lines in Lac La Biche County’s budget.
The base commander and Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland have united in an attempt by the cash-strapped City of Cold Lake to find a much-needed stream of revenue. That revenue is the $10 million tax assessment currently belonging to Lac La Biche County from oil and gas wells in the Primrose Air Weapons Range. The 71,000 square kilometre land mass is provincial land used by CFB Cold Lake’s 4Wing base for aircraft training and has 20 per cent of its area occupied by oil and gas plants.
Cold Lake’s mayor and the air force boss sent a letter to provincial ministers last Thursday asking to have municipal lines re-drawn to connect the weapons range to the Cold Lake municipality. That way, the assessment dollars would be used for infrastructure needs within the Cold Lake area and new needs associated with the recently announced expansion of the air base. Although the Post has been unable to receive a copy of the actual letter, at a meeting last week in Cold Lake, Wheeler reportedly told Cold Lake councillors that he supports their push to re-route the funding. He told council members that the $4 million per year the base pays to the city isn’t enough to keep up with a growing list of infrastructure issues.
Jerry Ward, a spokesman for Alberta Municipal Affairs said a letter has been received and Minister Hector Goudreau will be examining the issue with other members of Cabinet, but gave no timelines on any further response.
The minister, along with local MLA Ray Danyluk, is expected to meet with Lac La Biche County councillors to discuss the issue on Feb. 3 in Edmonton during the council’s strategic planning sessions at the River Cree Centre.
Lac La Biche Mayor Peter Kirylchuk is no stranger to discussions about the bombing range. The money generated by oil and gas activity in the range has drawn comments from the Cold Lake area in the past. But this time, with the inclusion of the base commander, the mayor is more wary.
“When you have a civil servant involved in the political arena of municipalities — somewhere he go the go ahead,” said Kirylchuk, wondering aloud if the federal government is involved in the issue that is arising. “If not, it’s one way to get your neck in a noose.”
Yet, despite the new challenge to the county’s financial well-being, Kirylchuk said his council is not drawing a line in the sand or turning away from any discussions on the topic. But being a passenger on the ride instead of the driver is not by choice, it’s by law.
“The municipality is an arm of the Province,” Kirylchuk said, “so the province does the steering.”
Those sentiments are shared by neighbouring politician Ed Rondeau, the Municipal District of Bonnyville mayor.
Rondeau is trying to organize a meeting between ministers and local politicians to discuss what he calls ‘sustainability issues’ for communities in the northeast. And while Rondeau realizes the financial pressures of communities in the region, he’s not in favour of municipalities trying to alter maps or take funds from other jurisdictions.
“That is beyond our role as a local government and must be addressed by other levels of government, both provincial and federal,” he said, adding that if Cold Lake wants to ‘merge’ with the bombing range, they first have to go through his municipality.
“They don’t even border the range, we do. If this goes all the way down the line, and they get the range, Lac La Biche gets a piece of Conklin from Wood Buffalo, then what does the MD of Bonnyville get, or Wood Buffalo? At some point, someone’s going to lose”
Attempts to contact the air force colonel were not successful last week. The Post has learned the 4Wing boss may be leaving his job this summer, but attempts to contact representatives from the Department of National Defence to confirm that information or to comment on their involvement in the boundary issue were also not successful.
