Alberta Summer Games Panel Tours Cold Lake

On November 24th, the judging panel that will decide which municipality will host the 2018 Summer Games toured Cold Lake and the MD & Town of Bonnyville to see what the neighbouring communities have to offer. It was an important step towards the three municipalities  bid to host the games, says Mayor of Cold Lake Craig Copeland

“It was a whirlwind tour,” explains the Mayor, “the judges have been going around Alberta since Monday looking at different communities for the summer games, winter games, and 55+ games. In our case Bonnyville, Cold Lake & the MD, put a submission for the summer games in 2018. So the [judges] came to check our facilities.”

Mayor Copeland says he had a good feeling leaving the tour and the judges seemed very impressed with what the City and neighbouring municipalities had to offer. “They’re really impressed with our bid package and our facilities. They asked us some good questions, the administration staff for all the municipalities did a great job preparing the [bid package].”

We feel we have a really good bid – Craig Copeland Mayor of Cold Lake

The bid package couldn’t include future plans, such as Phase III of the Energy Centre, Mayor Copeland explains, “we had to be careful because we couldn’t submit that in the package yet, but we did give them a tour of the centre.”

“What they were really impressed with was the philosophy of the region. One of the judges was taken back by the magnitude of the facilities in Bonnyville and Cold Lake have to offer for families. The judge was really impressed by the philosophies of the administration and Councils that recreation is vital for the quality of life. The judges were really impressed by the dollar per capita the municipalities spend on recreation,” Mayor Copeland says there was nothing but positive feedback on the tour.

If you look at the facilities that we have, whether it’s the Kinosoo Ski Resort, the recreation, the parks, the sports facilities; from soccer to baseball, hockey to track, lacrosse to football, it’s a pretty cool place to live – Craig Copeland Mayor of Cold Lake

Mayor Copeland says the committee, which is made up of members and Councillors from all three municipalities, will find out within the next few months whether or not the bid has been successful.