African Lake Trail rehab could require consultation; City writes letter

The City of Cold Lake continues to pursue having African Lake Trail as a designated trail for off-highway vehicles, but more work is needed with the province and nearby First Nations until they can move forward.

The topic was addressed at the Tuesday, Dec. 13, city council meeting about the 6.4 kilometre trail that begins near 8th Street, passes through M.D. of Bonnyville lands and Crown land, and finishes near 38th Street and 54th Avenue.

The City will write a followup letter to the province explaining what sort of work they want to do, as they are required at the moment to consult with ten nearby First Nations communities.

“We were looking at fixing that trail up, and the province — we’ve been advised that we have to consult with 10 First Nation communities. And the price tag that the staff came out with was $100,000 possibly that was involved in consultations. We’re only looking at putting about $15,000-$20,000 into the entire trail to bring it up to a certain level,” Mayor Craig Copeland told Lakeland Connect. 

“And so are we’re going to write back to the province and what our approach is, is why can’t myself on behalf of council with the CAO, write to the various First Nations that they want us to work with, and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing, do you have any issues with it?’ And so my costs are built in, so I’d rather go that route in and then spend $100,000 in a city budget, which may not sound like a lot of money, but it really is in the scheme of things.” 

The pave of African Lake Trail, shown where it travels through Crown lands. Image credit: City of Cold Lake.

The proposed realignment the City is looking at for African Lake Trail. Image credit: City of Cold Lake.

City council expressed interest in becoming the steward of the trail in 2021 after annexed lands from the M.D., meant that roughly of the trail was on city land.

However, after crunching numbers on what trail improvements and realignment may cost, roughly $15,000, the City sent a letter to Alberta Environment and Parks about the work they have designed for the portion designated as Crown land.

The application process has input from the Provincial Aboriginal Consultation Office (ACO), which in their pre-consultation research, concluded the City would need to do formal consultations with ten First Nation communities.

“We’re trying to do a good thing…”

Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Nagoya put a price tag of hiring staff for this work at $100,000, costs that may never get that high, but could also go over and above.

City staff was concerned that the formal consultation process has no definitive guideline as to when that process would be considered “adequate” by the ACO and therefore could take years and be more costly.

While the question was raised whether to suspend these efforts, the City made a motion to write back to Environment and Parks as well as the Aboriginal Consultation Office to describe what they want to do, and whether a similar letter sent to surrounding First Nations would be adequate.

“We’re trying to do a good thing. We want to keep the quadders and motorbikes, the big vehicles that utilize that trail — we need a location in Cold Lake for them to do their stuff. And so African Trail is a very popular trail in our area. And then it leads to other trails,” said Copeland.

“So we’re very supportive in our council, and so is the M.D. of Bonnyville by the way, and so we want a win for our area. I’m pretty confident that the various First Nations communities are gonna fully understand it and be supportive. It’s just like, do we really need to hire a consultant to burn up that kind of money?” 

The city undertook GPS mapping and is looking to realign parts of the trail that over the years, encroach on private property.

The estimated total length of trail that would need to be realigned is 1,100 metres.

Established by the Tri Town Trail Society in 1990 as a 6.4-kilometre walking, cycling and skiing trail, the African Lake Bike Trail has degraded over its thirty year life.