Cold Lake preparing to table budget, tax rate with still no ID 349 decision

Cold Lake is preparing to release a budget for 2020 and set the tax rate, but still have no indication from the provincial government on what money they’ll be receiving from ID 349.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, city council again pushed many funding requests to a later meeting once they know their portion of industrial tax assessment money they’ll be receiving from the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range.

They are still waiting to be paid $16 million from last year’s agreement.

“We had a strategic debate last night on our budget for 2020. It’s extremely stressful right now and a lot of unknowns,” said Mayor Craig Copeland on Friday’s The Morning After.

“We’re hoping the province is going to release those funds and make some decisions. We’ve all given the province our proposals and we did that way back when in December. And we’re still waiting.

“The minister was to announce his decision in March. And it’s getting very stressful. And it’s a very trying time, because very soon we have to set the tax rate for the city.”

The ID 349 agreement currently includes Cold Lake, Bonnyville, M.D. of Bonnyville, Elizabeth Metis Settlement, Fishing Lake Metis Settlement and Glendon after changes were made by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in 2017.

Bonnyville is in a similar situation in waiting to pass their budget amidst the financial uncertainty.

The city’s three proposals to the provincial government were for a regional government, creating one of two specialized municipalities from the City, M.D. of Bonnyville, Town of Bonnyville, Glendon and ID 349 – along the lines of Lac La Biche County in the province – create a land bridge from Cold Lake to ID 349, or an equitable distribution of municipal property tax revenue on a per capita basis after the M.D. of Bonnyville is ensured $2.2 million to maintain the road to CLAWR.

“We have no idea at this point. Are we supposed to get 16 million? Are we supposed to get more? Are we supposed to get less? And it’s the unknown. And I’ve had a lot of construction companies in Cold lake that are always asking are you guys putting out any tenders? Because there’s some companies in Cold Lake area that are barely hanging on,” said Copeland.

“This is money that was stimulating the area for many, many years and now it’s pulled out and we talked about jobs for the local area, that’s $50 million sitting on the sidelines in Edmonton. Bring it back. I mean, look at the wealth our area creates from oil royalties.

“We will respect the decision made by the Minister. We’ve given the minister three options. We came out publicly with our three options. Everybody in the region knows our three options. And so we just want the Minister of Municipal Affairs to make a decision and we can move forward.”