County council signs letter of support for new lodge

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County council has renewed their support for the proposed Wheatland Lodge project aiming to see construction in Strathmore. 

The topic was once again brought before council during the Jan. 13 meeting at the request of Coun. Glenn Koester, who also chairs the Wheatland Housing Management Board.

Sending a letter in support of the project serves ultimately to take advantage of the Alberta Housing Partnership Program (AHPP) process in the hopes to curry enough favour from the province in order to receive financial aid. 

Without grant funding, the project will not be able to advance. The amounts which will be made available to distribute amongst grant projects in the next session has yet to be determined.

“The announcement will be in the second quarter. It’s a provincial presentation; the province has total control over the process – they have total control over how much money they give; they have total control over who gets it,” said Koester. “All we can do is ask and that is all we are doing now is asking. If we are accepted by the AHPP grant and they say ‘yes, you qualify,’ then we pass on to the next phase and that phase is, we have to get a Class A budget done and that is needed for federal submission.”

The topic of a Class A budget has been of debate for several months due to the cost associated with acquisition.

Koester added the ideal scenario, should the lodge finally be able to proceed with construction, would be to have new 120-bed facility available, as well as to retain the former (current) 94-bed Wheatland Lodge.

“The cost of this Class A budget is shared between the five municipalities. It is also assisted to by WAHS contributions annually to their share of the housing operating expenses,” said Koester. “They also share, which is currently 10 per cent, of all building and planning costs, but that has been ongoing for a while, and they will continue to do that.”

Contributions between the five participating municipalities for the project equate to $10 million. Of this, Wheatland County’s respective share – contingent upon support from the province through the AHPP, is approximately 66 per cent.

A significant portion of council’s debate prior to voting support for the letter was regarding their financial commitments to the project. 

Due to the fluid nature of costs of the project, council voted not to indicate specific dollar amounts in their letter in order to maintain that they are still behind the project without being perceived to be writing a blank cheque to the WHMB.

The votes were carried unanimously following discussion both to remove mention of dollar amounts from the letter of support, as well as for council to sign it.