By Liam Verster

County highlights for 2019

Beaupre reflects on 2019 in the County of Grande Prairie

Dec 25, 2019 | 11:15 PM

Rural policing, assisting in emergencies, infrastructure improvements, and pushing forward with an multi-jurisdiction heavy eco-industrial district are just some of the highlights the County of Grande Prairie was involved in over the course of the year.

Looking back on 2019, Reeve Leanne Beaupre says one point of pride in the County comes from the work done by emergency crews and staff during the Chuckegg Creek fire over the summer.

Beaupre says while both professional and volunteer firefighters were dispatched to battle the blaze up north, staff were also hard at work in the County.

“Here at home, we had our Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Preparedness Operations were enacted, and we received evacuees from those areas, from areas where the fires were imminent,” said Beaupre. “We’re certainly proud of the job that they did here when receiving all the evacuees in the area. They managed to look after the needs of those individuals, and the individuals that were displaced from their home, I believe, were here a lot longer than was expected. Our different departments and volunteers that were asked to help out with the evacuees certainly did a tremendous job.”

The County also did a lot of work on transportation infrastructure this year. More than half of the 2019 budget, $79.4-million, was invested in roads and bridges in the County. Along with upgrading and maintaining infrastructure, mainly the higher trafficked roads and bridges, the County also released an economic impact study on the benefit of twinning 19 kilometres of Highway 40, which Beaupre says contains powerful information that should lead to approval from the Province.

Beaupre says another point of pride this year is the cooperative work of the County, the City, and the MD of Greenview to create a world-class, heavy eco-industrial district South of Grande Prairie called the Tri-Municipal Industrial Partnership.

The project has been in the works for a few years now, and an area structure plan has been identified and work has begun on water licensing. She says they’re at the stage where they can start marketing the land, adding this area has the potential to bring some economic recovery to the province, and this is the bright spot in the economic diversification of oil and gas industry.

Beaupre is also very happy of the recognition the County received from the Province in regards to integrated system of rural policing. The County participated in many webinars and discussions in relation to rural crime, as many municipalities are worried about the rising cost of rural policing. The County was able to advocate their integrated system of enforcement, where they pay for officers in the region, which the Province recognized as good work by the County. The County is also expanding their force, hiring another two RCMP officers, bringing the total up to eight for 2020.

Although there were lots of high points to discuss, Beaupre does acknowledge there were some challenges for the County in 2019. She says the Provincial Budget had some impacts on the County’s municipal funding, and changes were made to shallow oil assessments and gas taxes. Beaupre adds they’ve been forewarned that other changes may come to assessment models in the near future as well.

She also says it’s been a tough year for farmers in the County, mainly because of weather events, which ultimately led to an earlier than usual agricultural disaster declaration by the County, which just adds to the farmers’ challenges.

“There’s about over a third of the crops are still out in the fields. So, not only will those farmers go into 2020 facing taking the crops off, but most of them, their fields have lots of ruts and lots of work that will need to go into the fields prior to them actually putting a new crop in for the spring.”

She says despite these challenges, the farmers in the County are strong, resilient people, and she’s hopeful that they will be able to bounce back in the spring.

Beaupre says looking ahead to 2020, there are some bright spots. Nauticol Energy announced a $2-billion methanol manufacturing facility to be built in the County, and an agreement has been made to have Nauticol buy the land they require. She’s also optimistic about the Tri-Municipal Industrial Partnership bringing in more work to the region and help to strengthen the economy.

She says the County will continue to focus on infrastructure, industry, and growing as a community in the upcoming year.