The City of Cold Lake’s Finances are in the Black for the First Time in 14 Years. On April 28th, City Council met with their accountant and are pleased to report that The City was not in debt last year.
Vicky Lefebvre, Deputy Mayor for Cold Lake says the City has come a long way in 14 years. “It’s the first time our assets are over our debts in 14 years, which is a really good feeling for The City.” Lefebvre explains the dire straits Cold Lake was in in the past, “Before we had the money from the ID-349 we were unsustainable.” Lefebvre says The City even contemplated the most drastic of measures, “we were looking at giving our keys back to the government.” Lefebvre describes the situation Cold Lake was in, “we had such a high infrastructure debt, we just couldn’t do the work,” continuing to paint a sad picture, “we didn’t have enough money coming in and we didn’t have any in the bank.”
Lefebvre says thing changed for The City with the signing of the ID-349, “that’s allowed us enough money to work on our operations and start working on our infrastructure debt.” Lefebvre says being in the black is great for the residents of Cold Lake, “our growing ability has gone up, so that we can continue being able to look at being able to help our citizens and fix things within The City.”
Through the surge of funds Cold Lake has been able to address some underground issues, such as the sewer lines. Lefebvre says, “we had lots of families who couldn’t get insurance because of our (Cold Lake’s sewer) problems.” Lefebvre continues, “we’re slowly fixing these areas up.” Slow is the term Lefebvre uses only because The City is not able to complete all the projects at once, “we’re working on it and we’re working on getting all those red, highlighted areas cleaned up.” Lefebvre says Cold Lake has its Ten Year Capital Plan in place and by the end The City will be able to get through a large majority and have everything working tip-top shape.”
Lefebvre highlights some of Cold Lake’s achievements over the last few years since the ID-349 deal came into place, “we have a beautiful new FCSS, we’re in the process of building a new firehall, upgrading Kinisoo Beach, and Phase III of The Energy Centre.” The Fire Hall is expected to be completed in 2016, the majority of Kinisoo Beach will be done in time for the summer 2015 season, including the new zip line and splash park, and Phase III of The Energy Centre’s design and planning stage is underway.
Lefebvre credits Cold Lake’s good finances to the Mayor, Craig Copeland, city staff and Councillors who have worked hard to lower the debt and help build up the city through services and infrastructure. “Cold Lake has worked hard, with our Mayor and our City Council at making this (Cold Lake) the place to be.”