Welcome to City of Cold Lake

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 – Cold Lake City Council has passed a motion to ask the Government of Canada to consider the effects that Bill C-69 will have on the Canadian Energy Sector and the Canadian economy.

“Our energy companies have a long history of responsible resource development and they have provided Canadians with well-paying, meaningful work for decades,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “The energy sector is wavering because of uncertainties in the market place and Bill C-69 is serving only to increase that sense of uncertainty. This is a time when we need to stand by our industry, not throw additional hurdles in its path.”

The City of Cold Lake is a bedroom community for many workers in the oil patch and has suffered – and continues to suffer – the effects of a deep and prolonged downturn in the economy.

“There were billions of dollars of projects ready to go in our area but these are being shelved or scaled back due to companies’ forecasts,” Copeland said. “The approval regime that C-69 outlines is not increasing confidence – rather, it is further weakening the outlook for the oil patch. Broken promises and inaction on pipeline projects are only piling on an already grim situation.”