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Family Connections – Friday Night, Family Night
This evening is all about building the bond. Join us at Cold Lake and District FCSS for an evening of old-fashioned fun. This evening will start with a quick information session followed by board games, a light meal, and a few crafts about your own family traditions.
Parent and Tot Skate
Friday Jan 18th-10:45 AM to 11:45 AM
Bring the little ones, and spend some quality time skating together !
Lunch Time Shinny (Drop-in Hockey)
Imperial Oil Place Arena
Every Tuesday and Friday afternoon 12:15-1:15 PM
Lunchtime Shinny gives anyone 13 & up the opportunity to participate in a drop-in game of pick up hockey. Open to all skill levels.
50+ Shinny
Energy Centre
Every Tuesday and Friday morning 10:45-12:00 PM
50+ Shinny gives anyone fifty and older the opportunity to participate in a drop-in game of pick up hockey. Open to all skill levels.
50+ Shinny is free for members, non-members drop-in rates apply.
Morning Skate
Imperial Oil Place Arena
Every Tuesday and Friday morning 7:15-8:15 AM
For the early risers, come for a morning skate !
Nerf Wars
Energy Centre
Jan 19th, Feb 16th, Mar 16th
2:00 PM-3:30 PM (Family Time)
4:00 PM-5:30 PM (6-10 yrs)
6:00 PM-7:30 PM (11+ yrs)
Nerf Wars is always a great time, no matter what your age! Pre-registration is strongly encouraged but drop-ins are accepted where space is available. As always we provide the ammo, nerf guns, and eye wear.
Cold Lake, AB – Changes have already begun to the Cold Lake Water Treatment Plant, in preparation for the Regional Utility Water Services line that will be bringing water from Cold Lake to the Town of Bonnyville.
The Water Treatment Plant upgrades are required to accommodate the treatment and distribution of additional water required to service the Town of Bonnyville, while still maintaining the level of service required for the City of Cold Lake.
Upgrades to the Water Treatment Plant include a new membrane train, new clear-well, new transfer pumps, new raw water pumps with pump room, new utility room, new standby generator with generator room, chlorine cylinder storage room expansion, intake screen upgrade, new electrical throughout the building, and HVAC upgrade.
In order to accommodate the additional features, the Water Treatment Plant building will be expanding on the north and south sides, as well as adding a second floor to incorporate new office space and a meeting room.
“When we realized the building needed to expand its footprint, we really wanted to make sure the design of the building would suit all the other enhancements along the lakeshore,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “When the first design came in, it was a metal-clad box, so we sent that back to the table. There are a lot of residents in that area who will be staring at this building right next to the lake, so we wanted to make sure it didn’t become an eyesore.”
Click here to see the holiday operating hours for various City of Cold Lake facilities, including: Cold Lake Transit, Special Transportation Services, Cold Lake and District FCSS, Parent Link Centre, and City Hall.
Cold Lake, AB – The City of Cold Lake will be extending the Business Retention and Attraction Incentive Program (BRAIP) for another year.
“We have been receiving a few applications for the program, and decided we wanted to see this continue to help revitalize the downtown area and other commercial businesses,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “Council originally passed this policy to support our business community, and we want to make sure that owners who can take advantage of this are aware of what is available.”
The policy was developed in 2010, and since then, council and the Economic Development Advisory Committee has pushed to ensure businesses are reminded of the BRAIP policy. It was originally set to last for two years, but council has opted to continue extending it, as businesses continue to make use of it.
The program grants rebates based on commercial property taxes. In the case of new commercial construction, the rebate is paid out over three years and is equal to one year’s worth of the increase in municipal property taxes resulting from the construction. The program also includes projects that are primarily cosmetic in nature, as they would not necessarily result in an increase in assessment and municipal taxes paid. Such projects are eligible to receive a one-time grant equal to 10 per cent of the municipal property taxes levied in the year the project is completed.
Cold Lake, AB – Cold Lake City Council passed the 2019 Operating and Capital Budgets with just over $65.1 million in total expenditures, forecasting an average municipal tax increase of about 3.07 per cent.
The 2019 operating budget was passed at about $52.2 million, including a transfer to the Capital Budget of about $9.3 million. Inclusive of the transfer, the Capital Budget sits at just over $22.3 million. For the seventh year in a row, due to an ongoing dispute with the Government of Canada over payment in lieu of taxes for CFB Cold Lake, the city has budgeted a significant allowance for uncollectable taxes. The 2019 allowance sits at $1.8 million, up $100,000 from previous years.
“With our ongoing dispute with the Government of Canada and the province’s decision to no longer abide by the intent of the city’s Air Weapons Range Agreement, our council faced a difficult budget,” Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said. “The 2019 budget finds a balance between staying the course in hard economic times, tackling our infrastructure deficit, and making progress in areas our community will need to accommodate growth when our economic times turn around.”
Recycling rates will increase by $0.68 per month, or 8 per cent, to bring the service to cost recovery. Water rates will also increase by 4 per cent, with sewer rates rising from 60 per cent of water costs to 70 per cent, to better capture the operating cost of water services. In total, the average household can expect a $6.98 increase to its monthly utility bill.
Cold Lake, AB – The City of Cold Lake is working to understand recent comments surrounding the future of the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE) on CFB Cold Lake.
“We have heard comments from the federal government and the official opposition in regards to the future of AETE and, while we do not have all the answers, we are working to understand the situation and any potential impacts,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “Up to this point, the federal government has not reached out to us on this matter and, as far as we know, our local representatives have not been briefed on the situation.”
A recent economic impact study commissioned by the Northeast Alberta HUB noted that AETE, which is located on CFB Cold Lake, brings approximately 165 military and reservist jobs and 22 civilian jobs to the area.
“When you hear the number of high-paying jobs that could be at stake in a community of our size, it is concerning, but our first order of business has to be to collect all of the information we can,” Copeland said. “Because the military base is in our community, decisions made in Ottawa can have a big impact here: We are already engaged in a drawn out dispute with the federal government over its Payment in Lieu of Taxes, which is costing the residents of our community a significant amount of tax revenue.”
The City of Cold Lake has contested the Payment in Lieu of Taxes – or PILT – which the federal government pays to the city for the military base. Since 2012, the city has maintained that the federal government has shorted PILT payments to the city by about $1.8 million a year. In 2015 the City of Cold Lake won a decision at the PILT Dispute Advisory Panel in regards to the 2012 tax payment, but the federal government continues to dispute its payments for 2013 onward.
Cold Lake, AB – The City of Cold Lake’s annexation of lands from the Municipal District of Bonnyville will be official on January 1, 2019.
In June 2017, the M.D. of Bonnyville and the City of Cold Lake submitted a joint agreement to the Municipal Government Board (MGB) for the annexation of 11 quarter sections of land to the City of Cold Lake. On November 27, 2019, the Lieutenant Governor in Council signed an Order in Council to bring the annexation into force.
“This has been a long process but we are finally here,” City of Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said. “We feel that everyone’s interests were respected throughout this journey and we know that the region will benefit from the final result.”
Municipal District of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk says the annexation agreement will provide the opportunity for the City of Cold Lake to expand and grow. “The negotiations were a long process. The final agreement protects the M.D.’s former residents until 2069 and will offer new opportunities to provide services to everyone in the region.”
The annexation began in late 2013 when City of Cold Lake Council passed a resolution to begin negotiations with the M.D. of Bonnyville to work towards a joint annexation submission. The resolution was initiated by a number of needs, including the need to accommodate growth over the next 50 years, the need to allow the City of Cold Lake to grow into a unified and sustainable urban community, and the need to gain the land necessary for the delivery of urban services to current and future residents in a cost-effective manner.
