By Erika Rolling

County Council Highlights

Large donation, regional accessible transportation and RCMP in Clairmont discussed in County Council

Aug 10, 2022 | 11:15 AM

The County of Grande Prairie Council held its most recent meeting this past Monday.

A plethora of topics were talked about and debated…

Large Donation to Local Organization

Council approved a donation of $25,000 to the Mozart Mission, a group of individuals fundraising for a new piece of equipment for breast cancer screening for more effective and faster treatment.

Reeve Leanne Beaupre says there was a request for sponsorship for the group’s upcoming gala, but council chose a different route of support.

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“We thought this would make more impact by providing them direct funds towards the project and it also helps them leverage more donations as well.”

“I think everyone around the council table and those presenting has been touched by someone that’s either has had breast cancer or lost a loved one due to it,” she says the donation will go a long way for people in the region that can benefit from the machine.

Funds are coming from the Community Aggregate Reserve, which is funded by industry royalties and invested in the betterment of the community.

Potential Regional Accessible Transportation System

Administration has been directed to apply for the 2022 Alberta Community Partnership Intermunicipal Collaboration Grant for funds to hire a consultant and create an operational and funding plan for a potential regional accessible transportation system within the County of Grande Prairie.

Beaupre says the end goal is to blend accessible transportation from surrounding communities into one.

“There’s several busses that only run certain days of the week and there’s different types of transportation that is sitting idle other days of the week. So we think there is an opportunity to have something that runs on a regional basis that meets all the needs of those accessing the accessible transportation.”

She notes there was previously a program the county ran a few years ago where a scheduled transit bus was making stops as far as Hythe and Sexsmith, called the County Connector Regional Transit.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped it to be… this project (Regional Accessible Transportation System) I believe is more geared around seniors and accessible transportation.”

Policing Services in Clairmont

At the July 25, 2022 meeting, Council directed Administration to pen a letter to the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, Tyler Shandro to accept the Hamlet of Clairmont’s population to be 5,135, instead of the 2021 federal census count of 2,808.

The Minister was also requested in the letter to advise the federal government of the county’s request so Clairmont can be policed under a Municipal Policing Service Agreement.

Beaupre says currently the hamlet is being looked after by the Grande Prairie RCMP and Grande Prairie Rural RCMP detachment.

“We get a certain level of policing service from them (federal) because our population is under 5,000. We’ve entered into an agreement with the province and federal government to build a stand-alone police detachment in Clairmont, but because the census doesn’t support the over 5,0000 population we were roadblocked from moving forward in the process.”

She says the community has been confirmed to have over 5,000 residents and their agreement with the province and federal governments need to be revamped to create an RCMP detachment.

“As the city gets larger, it gets harder for that detachment (Grande Prairie) to respond in a timely fashion if they have to go through the city, so just having that separation between the two detachments would actually solidify their roles; rural versus urban.”

County Council will meet again on August 22, 2022.