Fort Macleod compensated 10 million by Redford Gov't

[TBD]

.... This is how the AB PC's spend TAX payers money !

They cancel The new Police training Centre (because Fort Macleod voted WR) and are forced by the courts to compensate.

TBD

... this mean spitful regime, wastes 10 million TAX payers dollars JUST to stick it to the county !

[Scott N]

I don't support the PCs, but Fort Mcleod was promised this training center and invested money towards it. They should be compensated if you ask me.

[rens27]

That Police College was never going to happen. When it was awarded the Minister in charge of the Solicitor General Ministry was Harvey Cenaiko and there was lots of money available. He went ahead and awarded this idea of his to Fort Macleod without ever securing funding for it. He lost his cabinet seat and the next Minister said no thanks to spending that money. On top of that every major police force in Alberta said they were not interested in sending their recruits there or doing much of anything there. Even Lethbridge said they would only ever use the firing range and driving course.

But Fort Macleod had enough on paper to show that they were given a guarantee that this was going to happen. They spent a lot of money on infrastructure and services to the site. 2 years ago Minister Denis said it would go ahead but the funding could never be secured. In the end it was cheaper to give Fort Macleod 10 million rather than spend 130+ million on a facility that would not get used.

It had nothing to do with Fort Macleod voting a certain way. This project was doomed from the start. It just took this long for to all play out.

[HunterDave]

Do you have a link to a news article?

[Rod1960]

Do you have a link to a news article?

Province cuts $10-million cheque for Fort Macleod over cancelled police college

CALGARY — The town of Fort Macleod will get a cheque for $10.26 million from the province to reimburse them for the police college project that was scrapped last year.

In interviews, Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths and Fort Macleod Mayor Shaun Patience said the municipality and province have now reached an agreement to settle the matter.

“Starting a new year, we’ll now put that in our rear-view mirror and move forward and start forging some new plans,” said Patience.

“It’s up to us to now take advantage of the opportunity we’ve got.”

For a town with an annual budget of around $7 million, the cheque will go a long way.

In late August 2012, the provincial government announced that it was cancelling its plans for the $122 million project that was intended to train police and peace officers from across the province and was to feature classrooms, a track, shooting range and residence.

The announcement infuriated the small town in southern Alberta that claimed to have spent $4 million alone in installing services to the site.

A sod-turning ceremony had been held in August 2011 and sketches were later released for the project. But only weeks after the public got a glimpse of what the college would look like, the project was abruptly cancelled leaving the town out of pocket.

Griffiths said the town submitted all their costs in the last eight years related to the project.

“The municipality provided a list of all their expenses and we went through and analyzed each one,” said Griffiths.

“All of them were legitimate expenses they incurred directly related to the police college and for investments made around the police college to facilitate it. It was only right to compensate them for those.”

The agreement does not include the engineering firm that the province had entered into an agreement with, said Griffiths.

“I know that there’s disappointment and I understand their disappointment in the police college not going ahead, and it was a tough decision to make,” said Griffiths, adding that police agencies were not certain they would use the facility.

Police departments in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as the RCMP, said the police college was of little use to them and that it likely would not be used as planned. Instead, police hoped the money earmarked for its construction would go to more pressing policing needs.

MLA Pat Stier said in a statement: “We remain in constant communication with the mayor and look forward to having the town and the community fairly compensated for all of their efforts over the past few years.”

Patience said the work at the site is still ongoing and he doesn’t know what will be built there now. However, with new infrastructure and land being developed, it could be a new opportunity for the small town.

“It’s a different future than we had envisioned and certainly a bright one.”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/Province+cuts+million+cheque+Fort+Macleod+over+can celled/7802223/story.html

[thirty-30]

I'm not defending the Redford regime, but I don't see what was mean and spiteful about any of it?

mean and spiteful would have been telling the town to go play with themselves?

Looks like everything was done above board this time?

[molly]

I don't support the PCs, but Fort Mcleod was promised this training center and invested money towards it. They should be compensated if you ask me.

I agree!

[ganderblaster]

The point is it was Redfords PARTY that created this mess from start to finish. Who the h3ck thinks it's ok to build $130,000,000 dollar buildings that aren't needed by anyone? And all the while people still wait hours in emergency. Spend $130,000,000 on buildings that won't get used or spend it to save lives. Hmmmmmm... That's a tough one:waiting4:

[Okotokian]

10 million now? Town previously said 4 million. So the town council is saying they spent 150% of their yearly budget on preparing for a police college to be built. If my towm council did that I'd be livid. A facility that provides no lifestyle value for me or my family beyond a slight increase in tax revenue. Bad investment.

[Ken07AOVette]

I'm not defending the Redford regime, but I don't see what was mean and spiteful about any of it?

mean and spiteful would have been telling the town to go play with themselves?

Looks like everything was done above board this time?

I agree. Good move.

[Big Daddy Badger]

Never saw that one coming...:angry3:

[TBD]

Why did the RED-ferd PC's string the county along until after the election ??

Wake up people !!

The county was busy planning and spending money the whole time leading up to the election - the responsible thing THEN would have been to come clean "before the election" and save us poor tax payers ten million dollars ....

TBD

P.S. ..... I guess 10 million's and aceptable loss for an incumbent gov't to TRY and secure a riding's vote in the general election.

P.S.S. .... look at Dalton McGuinty - what did he waste in those ON ridings with the power plant FLIP FLOP ? RED-ferd pulled the same stunt .... (little less dollars cause I recall ON taxpayers lost hundreds of millions), but still a flagrant waste of hard - earned, TAX'ed wages just the same.

[TangoKilo]

You think $10 Million is a lot....

Wait until the design and Construction companies are paid out for their contracts!!