Homelessness, 4 Wing construction, hot topics ahead of City’s Open House

An upcoming Open House with municipal officials in Cold Lake will shine a light on homelessness, as well as the upcoming 4 Wing hangar construction.

Residents are invited to attend the City Open House at the Lakeland Inn on Thursday, Oct. 24, from 6:30-9:30PM, where they’ll be presentations and the opportunity to ask questions.

Representatives from EllisDon, the company taking on the construction at 4 Wing, are slated to be on hand as well.

Mayor Craig Copeland said during the City’s presentations, homelessness is sure to come up.

“Our council over the years has always been very transparent,” said Copeland on The Morning After. “I’m sure in the presentation there will be some interesting pictures of some of the encampments that have been going on in Cold Lake.

“Some of the camps are quite sophisticated, and we’ll probably show that in our presentation. It’s a tough job for our municipal enforcement employees, the RCMP, the fire department, very challenging. Thank God we have individuals that work in the enforcement, in the fire department, that are willing to go into the woods and take down the camps. One camp recently, there was 7000 kilos of material was brought to the landfill.” 

The City has spent thousands of dollars to provide the land and trailers to the John Howard Society, the group that provides overnight stays to the homeless.

The visibility of the issue has not gone away, and Copeland says, it’s something that is hitting the Lakeland area hard, but everywhere hard as well.

“The province provides the operating money for John Howard to exist. Organizations like the Food Bank are amazing. They provide a lot of food to operate the John Howard. And so people want to give money and food, the Food Bank in Cold Lake is amazing. They don’t turn anybody down,” he said. 

“And we have compassion, and then we have enforcement. We have people living in the bush, rough, and they’re like a community on themselves. There’s multiple different camps, and some of these individuals want to live that way, but they have to understand they’re on private land, and in some camps, there’s weapons, and we are not allowing camps to exist once we work with the private landowner.”

Conversation can span in a variety of directions though during the Q&A.