LAC LA BICHE - With the sound of construction equipment rumbling in the background as work continues on a new $6 million sports field, Alberta's Minister of Infrastructure was at Lac La Biche's Bold Center last week to officially announce another recreation project in the community.
Minister Prasad Panda made an officials visit to the community on Sept. 22 as part of the $5-million commitment the province is making to a new, 30,000 square foot, $15-million aquatic centre slated to be built onto the southeast corner of the Bold Center by the spring of 2024. The federal government will be contributing an additional $6 million to the project, with Lac La Biche County funds making up the remaining four million.
The three-way funding announcement for the new aquatic centre — a facility that will replace the 30 year old community pool attached to Portage College — also coincided with a $32,000 federal grant to the college going towards a dedicated smudging area for Indigenous students.
Panda, who was joined by Fort McMurray-Lac Lac La Biche MLA Laila Goodrige as he spent the lunch-break with municipal councillors, was impressed by his first visit to the community. He highlighted its natural beauty and recent infrastructure projects.
"My first impression? Fantastic. I wish I had time to drive around. Beautiful," he said, taking questions from local media after a 45-minute discussion with councillors and representatives of Portage College in the Bold Center's Viewpoint Room.
College attention
During that discussion, Panda was given an overview of the community as well as the college.
Thanking the minister for his attention to the area, Bev Moghrabi, Portage's vice president of student and college services said the college is always looking for partnerships at local, provincial and federal levels.
"We look forward to being part of the continuing dialogue," said Moghrabi.
If you build it ...
That continuing dialogue and attention, says Panda, is a large part of his role in the ongoing "chicken and egg" scenario facing many Alberta communities during some challenging economic times.
"How do we make the communities viable? It's the chicken or the egg story, right? To attract people to live in these communities, we look at different types of infrastructure. In this particular case we thought this was the right project to provide a better quality of life for local residents so it can also attract new populations to the area," Panda told Lakeland This Week. "We need economies thriving , but at the same time you need the infrastructure to attract people. I think $15 million is a good investment for the future of the Lac La Biche community.
Likening it to the cliche of "if you build it they will come," Goodridge added, "... and they will stay."
The MLA says a new aquatic centre for the community was something she had no difficulty supporting. A high recreation priority by municipal officials for several years, Goodridge said it was also a top choice among residents when she was campaigning through the area before the 2019 provincial election.
"I heard, when I was knocking on doors in this community ... I heard pretty clearly from a lot of families they wanted to see more expansion of this particular facility so they could have more opportunities for their children to be able to grow and expand and to have more recreation opportunities," Goodridge said. "It's something very easy to support ... because I new the community was behind it."
Lakeland projects
The MLA was also pleased to see the federal infrastructure stimulus funding rolling into rural Alberta communities.
In total, 18 projects across northern Alberta are receiving $87.7 million in federal funding grants and $62.4 million from provincial grants in this round of announcements. Through the Lakeland, the projects also include $3.2 million for road upgrades, culverts and drainage in Saddle Lake, $730,000 in grants for lift station upgrades in Elk Point, and $1.5 million towards an adventure park at Kinosoo Ridge in the Municipal District of Bonnyville.
"We want to make sure we are able achieve our fair deal with confederation and get a piece of this federal funding," said Goodridge.
The new, 30,000 square foot aquatic centre project is expected to create 84 local jobs during the construction phase, which Goodridge and Panda expect to see begin "very soon".
The design plans for the new aquatic centre include a water slide, diving boards, steam rooms, a sauna, a viewing area and an competition-size pool.
There have been no official decisions on what will happen to the existing indoor pool. The Portage Pool, which first opened in 1989, is the home to the provincially and nationally-recognized Lac La Biche Whitecaps Swim team, but is technically not long enough to host sanctioned swim meets.
Goodridge said the new pool and aquatic centre will add to the 'welcoming' atmosphere of the community and its amenities.
"Lac La Biche County has done very well in hosting a variety of different games, and this will allow the community an opportunity to compete for a different scale of games," she said, "and you really are welcoming by nature and so it will be wonderful to have one more venue to put Lac La Biche County on the map."
*This article was edited on October 8 to remove one word — "Olympic" — from the description of the pool size. Officials say public consultation will determine many of the aquatic centre's amenities. Olympic pools are 50 m in length. Competiton pools are at least 25 metres in length. The current Portage Pool is just less than 25 metres.
