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Leanne Beaupre (left) being re-acclaimed as Reeve of the County of Grande Prairie in 2020 (Photo: County of Grande Prairie)
By Abby Zieverink
County of Grande Prairie

Year-End Interview: Leanne Beaupre

Jan 1, 2022 | 6:00 AM

EverythingGP’s 2021 Year-End Interview series officially comes to a close with a final look back at the year that was with County of Grande Prairie Reeve Leanne Beaupre.

Beaupre says 2021 was a year of welcoming and transitioning for the County of Grande Prairie.

“We welcomed a new community and their residents on July 1 from the Village of Hythe and then in October, we said goodbye to five council members, and welcomed five new council members.”

At the municipal election this year, Beaupre was re-acclaimed as Reeve for the County of Grande Prairie. She has been serving in the position since 2012. Councillor Peter Harris was also re-acclaimed to his role as Deputy Reeve following the election in October.

With COVID-19 restrictions continually changing throughout the year, Beaupre suggests 2021 was in some respects, a continuation of 2020.

And like 2020, she says the County worked with neighbouring municipalities, the province, and stakeholders to continue to provide services and programs to ratepayers in the County.

Throughout 2021, Beaupre says the County invested over $6 million into grants for recreation, community culture, libraries, seniors, special needs, transportation, and FCFS grants.

She adds this funding went to various organizations as well as neighbouring municipalities to deliver services on behalf of the County.

“A really important point is that we have various agreements throughout the region with other municipalities, urban and rural, for delivery of services, for things we don’t deliver to our ratepayers,” she added.

“(And) there are organizations, not just municipalities that provide the services, but a lot of not-for-profit organizations, volunteer groups, ag societies and athletic associations that provide those services,” added Beaupre. “We want to make sure that they’re compensated for the work that they do, and that they have the money available to them, to provide those services to the ratepayers of the County of Grande Prairie.”

While the pandemic posed many challenges for the County, Beaupre says it also allowed council and administration to fine-tune a balance between the wants and needs of ratepayers.

She says this led the County to adopt a zero per cent tax increase for residents at the 2022 Budget deliberations in December.

“Even though the economy is a little more robust here and employers are looking for employees, there are still people that are struggling to make ends meet and are still looking for full-time employment and trying to get themselves back to pre-pandemic situations,” she explained.

“So, we knew that we needed to make sure that we held the line as far as trying to put any further roadblocks in their ways.”

Beaupre says throughout the year County ratepayers’ concerns remained a top priority for both council and administration,

A high focus for the County was placed on roads and road improvements in 2021.

“A lot of times our biggest ask that we get or the comments that we get from the ratepayers is about roads and road improvements,” she stated. “We had 56 per cent of our capital budget invested in roads and bridges in 2021.”

She says roads and road improvements will remain a top priority moving into 2022, as a large chunk of funding from the 2022 budget deliberations, has been set to go into public works programs, including critical infrastructure, roads, and bridges.

Beaupre tells EverythingGP the County will continue to fund their portion of Highway 40 until it reaches a state of completion.

She adds the Highway 40 project, although not completed, is still one of the things council is proud of, as the collaboration between municipalities and the province has been key to moving the project along.

“The province understood how important Highway 40 is for the northwest, and that this project would maybe not have moved forward if it hadn’t been for the large investment from the M.D. of Greenview and the County of Grande Prairie portion,” she explained.

“There’s been a lot of work done to date on that road, and the bridgework continues through the winter. The next phase of construction, (which) I believe is going to happen sooner than later. “

Beaupre says the County is working on some of the connections to connect Highway 43 to Highway 40 as they are crucial for not only County ratepayers, but also the City of Grande Prairie and the region as a whole.

“We’ll continue to advocate to the province that they need to make investments into the area where a lot of the economic activity is happening and where it’s driving the economy in the province and for the country.”

However, Beaupre says a concern the County has with that is the province as they said it its fiscal update they are in a better financial position than was originally budgeted for.

“I think they need to recognize where that finance that money comes from. We will have to continue to have that discussion with them, and we’ll continue to make sure that they understand the correlation between the investment and the revenue that they’re receiving, and the investment that they need to make in this area.”

by Abby Zieverink