Amanda Jeffery, Free Press
Anyone who is 55 years or older will soon be able to access a vehicle to get them to all of their appointments in town, and to some appointments outside of the community.
Drake’s Handi-Bus Services is now being contracted by the Town of Drayton Valley to help those who are older than 55 and those with mobility issues (at any age). Annette Driessen, the General Manager of Community Services for the Town, says they put an RSP out into the community, checking to see if there was anyone who wanted to operate the service, and Drake’s was the one who won.
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“Providing accessible transportation in Drayton Valley has been a priority of Council and I am excited to see this important project come to fruition. Town Council remains committed to offering yearly grants to keep this service operating for the betterment of the community,” says Mayor Michael Doerkson in an email statement.
Amy Newberry, of Drake’s Handi-Bus Services, says the name has historical meaning for the community. “The Drakes were the people of our town that named Drayton Valley because of the Postal Code system, and they were also my great grandparents. It’s a form of leaving a legacy for me,” she said via email.
The Community Matt Program is in place again after it was nearly cut due to lack of funding from the provincial government.
Lola Strand, the coordinator for Family and Community Support Services, says now that Premier Jason Kenney has made the announcement for additional funding, the program will be going ahead.
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Strand says normally the mat program is started earlier in the year. However, because they just received notification of the funding, they are hoping to have it start up by Christmas.
Originally, the mat program was started in 2015 and run by volunteers. In 2019 the program was run by staff, and it has continued that way since then. Currently, Strand says they are looking for Mat Program Supervisors so they can get the program operational.
Strand says because of the late start to the program, town council wanted to make it clear that if there were an emergency where temperatures dropped below a certain level, the program would open up temporarily.
Emily Hickman, the mat program manager, says she hopes this will be the last year they have to run the program as they are looking into other options for the future.
“We’re hoping to replace it with something more sustainable, just because relying on the whims of the provincial government to know whether or not we’re going to be able to provide this service is very stressful,” says Hickman.
Right now, she says she can’t give many details about the alternative project. Hickman says the project they are looking at isn’t a guarantee, but if it goes through it would rely less on government funding.
While the program has needed volunteers in the past, Hickman says that isn’t the case right now. They have staff to overlook the service.
What they do need are donations.
After concerns raised at a pair of public meetings late last year, interim CAO for Drayton Valley, Pat Vincent, demonstrated the Town’s commitment to businesses and residents by presenting council with a detailed report that spoke to a range of issues at the last Governance and Priorities meeting.
Erik Bergen, a local business owner, came forward on November 20 with a presentation he had put together after having two open meetings with businesses in the community earlier in the fall. In his presentation, Bergen highlighted three main areas of concern: the homeless population, Town services and communications, and the free enterprise market in the community.
Bergen outlined several of those concerns as well as possible solutions for council to consider.
In the report Vincent brought forward, there were five separate responses from management involved in the areas that the businesses had issue with.
Enforcement services touched on several areas brought forth by Bergen. This included listing the various bylaws and acts that already addressed many of the areas of concern with the homeless population. The Community Standards Bylaw, the Municipal Government Act, and provincial trespassing legislation combined cover sleeping in public places, public disruption, loitering, public urination and defecation, unauthorized encampments, open fire, storage of personal items, and dumpster diving.
Cody Rossing, the manager of enforcement services and emergency management, also outlined areas that the Town could consider to help bolster the current laws surrounding those issues, such as amendments to the Outdoor Restrictions Burning bylaw and some possible amendments to the Community Standards Bylaw.
Rossing also explained that Drayton Valley could not create its own lower level court system to deal with petty crimes. However, he did say the community could petition for more court dates in Drayton Valley, which would allow more time for the courts to deal with all matters.
“Currently, with the scheduling at the Drayton Valley Court of Justice, trial dates are occurring on the same days for criminal code matters, provincial matters and municipal bylaw matters,” he says in his report. “This often results in lower-level offences either being withdrawn, or deals made to have the lower-level items removed so time can be focused on criminal code matters.”
As far as public safety in regards to needles, Rossing says they received only one call in 2023 from a business owner. In the past six months the Town’s Occupational Health and Safety Department only had four reports of Town staff locating needles.
Lola Strand, the manager of community services for the Town, spoke to the number of homeless individuals in the community and the efforts made to address the issue.
She mentioned the 2023 study done by the Rural Development Network, that found there were more than 8,300 individuals in rural Alberta dealing with some sort of housing issue. In Drayton, there were 28 people without homes, 25 people accessing emergency shelters such as the shelter pods or warming hearts, 83 people who were provisionally accommodated through things like couch surfing, and 140 individuals who were at risk of homelessness due to precarious housing.
Strand spoke to the strain enforcement services were dealing with in regard to responding to complaints of unsheltered people. She says the Town received a grant to hire a Community Outreach Worker who is communicating with at-risk individuals to help connect them to resources.
She also pointed out that along with the temporary emergency shelters the Town has put into place, there are also 26 affordable housing units in the community. Humans Helping Humans, the local organization that currently runs the shelter pods, has also built nine homes with grants, donations, and volunteers that have helped 19 families move into the regular housing market.
Strand also suggested the Town could work with the province to build halfway houses, or using grant money to purchase seacans, or trailers that can provide shelters in the encampment around the landfill that many of the homeless population are currently using.
Jenn Stone with intergovernmental relations and communication for the Town, outlined the different ways that the Town communicates with its residents.
The Town has a threefold approach to communication: traditional media, social media, and direct communication.
With advertisements and news stories, the Town works with the Drayton Valley Free Press and Big West Country 92.9. They also have pages on social media, the Town’s website, and YouTube. The electronic sign located at 50 Street and 50 Avenue is also used for communications. On top of those methods, the Town has held open houses, public hearings, direct mail, and door-to-door notices.
By using these different options, the Town is providing several different methods of communication for all age demographics.
Public works also responded to the grievances in the report, specifically in regard to the insect population, weed control, and snow removal.
When it comes to pesticides and herbicides, the individual applying the substances has to be certified and trained in the use of the chemicals. If at any point the Town doesn’t have many employees that meet those criteria, it can be difficult for them to keep up with the applications.
When it comes to insects, the Town only sprays for stinging insects in public spaces. They work to stay on top of the issues and will follow up to check on activity. They also use the public portal the Town provides through their website, to learn about any issues that residents have raised a concern with.
Spraying for weeds also has its challenges. There are limited time frames in which the application will be effective, such as when the weeds are actively growing. Then they also have to work around the weather, as it won’t be as effective if it’s raining. If those two requirements are met, the Town also has to consider any events going on and provide notices to nearby businesses and residents before they begin spraying.
For snow removal on sidewalks, the Town currently clears 53.4 km of asphalt trails and sidewalks in the community. Prior to 2022, the Town was clearing sidewalks in the downtown core, however, an amendment to the snow removal policy in November 2022 removed the downtown core from areas to be cleared.
Public works says if they were to be responsible for removing snow from all sidewalks in the community, they would have to double their staff and equipment to keep up with it. They say it is a common issue with many municipalities and one that is becoming more and more challenging.
The report also addressed the business owners’ concerns surrounding a free market in the community.
Peter Vana, the interim general manager for planning and growth development in the community, says there are legal limits to what the Town can do in regards to limiting businesses.
Vana says the Municipal Government Act grants municipalities the power to regulate businesses, but not prohibit businesses. Vana provided examples of land use regulations in several communities to show the different ways that the issue can be approached.
Along with that, Vana made some suggestions that might help to alleviate the issue, such as making restaurants a discretionary use in all districts, providing varying business license fees, partnering with local businesses to help give them better strategies to succeed.
However, Vana also pointed out some issues with picking a particular sector to regulate. He says were the Town to put in regulations on franchises in the food industry, it should be applied to all industries across the board, including oil and gas, as well as retail, as companies like Walmart or Canadian Tire could be seen as a threat to local businesses.
Vana also mentions that many franchises are owned by local residents, so they are in many ways, just like other local businesses.
Other problems with restricting franchises that Vana brought forward included that the public would like to have competition as it offers options and keeps prices lower. He also pointed out, using pizza restaurants as an example, that there are eight restaurants that mainly sell pizza, nine other restaurants that sell pizza as a sideline, and two other businesses that occasionally sell pizza as well.
Vana questions whether or not the Town would have to be completely aware of the different items each restaurant sells when deciding whether a business should be allowed or not.
Council accepted the report as information after asking several questions of the departments. Vincent says he made the businesses aware the report was being discussed at the meeting, but there were no representatives for council to ask questions of.
The Town of Drayton Valley is looking to the future as the municipality works toward having the utilities in the community be self-sustaining services.
Elvera Thomson, the general manager of corporate services for the Town, says in the past, the surpluses from the Town’s utility operations could be anywhere from $2-3 million. Those surpluses didn’t necessarily go into a fund specifically for water and sewer, but there was lots of money being put into reserves in general.
However, there wasn’t a policy that dictated that a certain amount of funds from the water and sewer revenues had to be put in reserves.
“What ended up happening as the years went on and things got tough, we had a series of events that happened with Covid, cost of living, inflation, and more,” says Thomson. “To manage tax increases, we just put less and less into reserves.”
Now, with the looming bill of repairing and replacing integral infrastructure in the community, the Town is putting a policy in place that will ensure the surplus from the utility services will be put into a reserve fund specifically for infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
“We just got to a point where none [of the surpluses] was going into reserves and we need to get back putting a large portion of those going into an internally restricted reserve for water and sewer,” says Thomson.
Those funds will go toward replacing the aging systems for water and sewer in the community. That way, the Town will not have to rely so heavily on debt funding or government grants for the projects.
While the Town was advised by Matt Delormes with the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network that they need to put away as much as they can to help offset future costs. He told them that the ideal number would be $8 million, but understood that it wasn’t always possible to reach that number.
Thomson says they will not be able to put that amount of money away, but they are now taking conscious steps toward building their reserves.
She says there are many small towns across the country that are in similar situations, as aging infrastructure hasn’t been at the forefront of anyone’s minds until problems are starting to occur.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” says Thomson. “It’s a provincial and federal problem as well.”
Thomson says that after World War II, there was an infrastructure boom across Canada, and many smaller communities were able to expand. This means that most of that infrastructure is coming due around the same time, and the municipalities are going to be looking toward the provincial and federal government to help with the costs of replacement.
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Grant delay impact education assistant funding
Brad Volkman, the superintendent for WRSD, says in the past the funding has come through quickly and without any issues. The grant money is to be used to provide support and services to indigenous youth in the school division.
“Historically, these grants have been approved at the regional level, enabling us to offer critical services without interruption. Based on this expectation, we hired several additional Educational Assistants for the start of the 2024–2025 school year for the purpose of providing support to eligible First Nations students,” says a press release from WRSD.
Human rights tribunal couldn’t meet time demands
However, the Federal Government is currently backlogged when it comes to the grant. A Human Rights Tribunal was held to look into the funding, as it is supposed to be issued quickly as some requests for funds are urgent. They have since ordered the government to take action.
On December 10, 2024, Indigenous Services Canada responded in a report that it was not possible for them to meet the demands of the Tribunal.
Because there is no answer as to when the funding might come through, WRSD had to make the decision for layoffs as they had not budgeted for the positions outside of the grant.
The policy within WRSD is that when layoffs occur, those who are on probationary status, which is 120 days, are the first to be let go. There were 35 part-time and full-time EAs let go because of this policy. However, not all of them worked with Jordan’s Principle students.
One non-probationary EA was laid off, and the remaining ten were voluntary lay-offs, says Volkman.
“What happens is the probationary ones, due to collective agreement requirements, are laid off first, but then we can offer more tenured EAs those positions,” says Volkman.
He says the voluntary lay-offs were EAs working with Jordan’s Principle students who were offered positions with students who have more complex needs. Volkman says they declined the positions and had to be laid off.
“It’s not easy for them because in some cases the job they were offered would have been less hours or [perhaps] they would have been in a location that required them to drive a further distance,” says Volkman.
There are still 95 full-time EAs in the inclusive education department.
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Weather, Insurance and Volunteers an issue
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
The ski hill was built by volunteers and has been running with volunteers since then. Funding was partially provided by grants, fundraising, and rental and usage fees for the hill. These funds went toward bills like insurance and electricity. They were also used for the maintenance of the ski hill and the equipment. None of the volunteers were paid for their time.
When Beckett stepped into the role of president about eight years ago, the club was in debt and the equipment was in need of repair. A government grant of $17,000 and a massive fundraiser in the community gave them enough money to fix things up.
To round out their services, Beckett says they began to offer tubing. The club recognized that not everyone wanted to ski or were able to ski. Tubing was available to everyone and was less hard on the body. Each of the tubes was sponsored by a company, with the funds going toward the maintenance of the hill.
However, the lack of snow over the past few seasons has meant less use of the ski hill, and therefore less funds coming in.
“Unfortunately, Mother Nature has not been kind to us,” says Beckett.
In 2023, much of the local area didn’t have snow for Christmas. Beckett says the ski hill didn’t even open in the 2023/24 season.
“In my seven or eight years, we only opened three years because of snow,” says Beckett.
Insurance companies stepping away from offering coverage to ski hills
Then there was the issue with insurance. After a court case in B.C. where a customer sued a ski resort, many insurance companies stepped away from offering insurance to ski hills. Beckett says there are now only three underwriters in the world who will consider insuring a ski hill.
“Eleven of us little hills got our insurance canceled [a couple of] years ago,” says Beckett.
Previously, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta covered the insurance of the ski hill. When the insurance was cancelled through RMA, they had to find a new underwriter. The bill for the season was $24,000.
“Our insurance was $24,000 last year and we didn’t open,” says Beckett.
Finding volunteers to work the ski hill has also been a challenge.
“Everybody has so many different directions to go now in their lives,” he says. “They have just about everything except for time.”
On average, it took ten volunteers to run the ski hill each day. Beckett and his wife had a list of about 80 volunteers they could call on. However, there were times when they called all of those people and none of them were available to fill a shift for someone who had to cancel.
All three of those factors were at play when Beckett received a call from the insurance company in preparation for this season. They needed Beckett to go through everything on the property again, as they felt much of the equipment and the chalet were undervalued.
Beckett explained to them that it didn’t matter what the replacement value was for the chalet or the lift. If they failed or burned down, Beckett says the club would have to close.
With that in mind, he had put in a lower value for the chalet and other items as they would never be using the insurance to replace them. That was the only way they would be able to afford to run the ski hill. The insurance company explained that if he didn’t cover it for at least 90 percent of the replacement value they would get nothing.
“I said take the insurance off of it, I’ll take the risk,” he says.
Then the insurance company started going into details about the rental equipment, and how all of the people renting the bindings and skis had to be trained by the manufacturers in how to use them.
“What the real issue is, when it comes to insurance companies, is they do not like volunteer organizations in any way,” says Beckett. “Every one of these 11 hills that got their insurance cancelled, I believe, were volunteer organizations.”
Beckett says they feel that the volunteer organizations are unstable, as the volunteers can change regularly and with little notice.
The rental items for the ski hill will be auctioned off by Team Auctions on their December 7 sale. The property will be sold in the new year.
The Free Press asks – “What are your fondest memories of the Drayton Valley Ski Hill?”
“This fills me with nostalgia and gratitude! I started skiing at this hill at just two years old, and it ignited my love for skiing. My parents nurtured my passion by enrolling me in a ski program, and I spent countless weekends racing and growing. Our hill may not have been the biggest, but it was a place we were able to be kids at while not playing hockey or ringette. My dad and papa selflessly served as ski patrols for years, and we reveled in every moment we spent there. My papa’s dedication to the hill was remarkable as he had welded so many pieces there making it the hill it was today, and I’m deeply thankful for the volunteers who helped shape it into the haven it became. All three of my boys learned to ski on this hill, and I’m forever grateful for the escape and liberation it brought us.” – Leslie Anne Fraizer
“I learned to ski on the hill, my kids learned to ski on the hill. We’ve had many get-togethers on the hill with family and friends. As a volunteer I got to see so many littles learn to ski/snowboard and then advance to be on their own then onto the T-bar. They all get excited when they get to go on the big hill. I’ve spent many hours volunteering there as I was on the board for 20+ years and even when my kids weren’t skiing I was there.It was a great hill for many to learn on, it was in our backyard. When we decided to make the tube part it brought more families out which was great to see. It truly will be missed as I wanted my grandkids to learn how to ski/board this year on it.” – Georgia Frost
“Ooh, so many memories of the ski hill. But I would say the best was learning to snowboard there and getting courage to do the jumps off the hills … It was always fun since it was me and my sister. We had a blast, racing down getting to the bottom and the wind burnt faces ‘cause of it.” – Tricia Cottreau
“I was on the tow rope when a porcupine decided to cross… apparently the rope had enough give to allow the people to push a big loop in it. We were able to continue up the hill and the porcupine was able to continue on its walk about” – Helen Maine
“I have so many memories there as a teen in the mid 1980s… from trying to perfect the “daffy”, “backscratchers” and the “kusak” amongst learning how to telemark. This little hill with amazing volunteers taught a ton of youth some amazing skills while maintaining a very safe and supportive environment. I am a ski patrol today because of this little hill and the “gnarly” atmosphere back in the 80s that let youth hone their skills for the mountains.” – Jon Setterlund
“Watching my son Max snowboard for the first time! And he struggled with the T-bar but never gave up!” – Kathy Schwengler
“The time I knocked myself out cold. Couldn’t stop and hit a pole. That was my last time on skis. I now snowboard. I don’t think there’s any photos of that adventure…got a free sled ride behind the skidoo!!” – Jane Marie Ellis
“When Devon broke his arm, all the other kids that broke something and the fact that we all thought we had fresh pow days” – Gord Graham
“Donna and Val Palmer encouraged me to get my Level 1 ski instructor certification and teach ski lessons at the hill. I have so many memories of teaching kids and adults basic skills for skiing. My favourite memories include the Grade 5 visits and instructing a whole class on the tow rope hill. What a great introduction for those kids- who may have never been exposed to skiing.” – Astrid Mitchell
With an increase in demand for the Drayton Valley Food Bank, volunteers are concerned the facility may not keep up for much longer.
Heather and Phil Bell, the vice president and treasurer respectively, have been with the Food Bank for several years. During that time they’ve noticed a concerning trend in the uptick of users.
So far this year, they have given out hampers to 2,275 people, a stark contrast to the 2023 number of 1,653. Last year was a record year for hampers and this year has blown it out of the water.
Alberta food bank sees increased demand
The Bells says a lot of the hampers are going to families who have parents that work.
“The Food Bank, I feel, is an essential service right now, considering the need,” says Phil. “It’s something that’s heavily relied on.”
If things continue the way they have been, they’re expecting to hand out 2,556 hampers by the end of the year.
“It’s not just a blip, either,” says Phil. “This is going to continue on.”
Phil says that though they’ve seen increased usage, the generosity of the community has continued to keep up with the demand. Between food donations from local stores and food drives, the food bank has already received around $270,000 of in-kind donations.
“We have such a generous community,” says Heather. “It’s amazing.”
Heather says they are grateful for the building they’re in and the Town’s generosity in letting them use it for free. She says the location is perfect because it allows people more privacy than a location in a busier part of the community.
“But we’re outgrowing the building,” says Heather. “We’re at the point with our freezer and fridge capacity that the building can’t take anymore fridges and freezers without upgrading the electrical system.”
Space is a challenge for Drayton Valley food bank
Fridge and freezer space are vital in the Christmas season. Heather says in the past, they’ve had to turn away donations of a side of beef because they don’t have the space. Some companies have set up freezers in their buildings and offered the extra storage. Some volunteers also store some items as well.
The Bells say a sea can or some other place where they could store dried goods would be extremely helpful, as well. As it is, they have to store enough food in their building for roughly 30 hampers each pick up day.
At the beginning of November, the volunteers changed their system, and now only offer hampers on Thursdays. Phil says one recent hamper day saw volunteers hand out 86 hampers in three hours.
Creating that many food hampers also has its challenges. There isn’t a lot of room to put the hampers together and organize them, though Heather says they’ve developed a good system. Volunteers are now prebuilding hampers with dried goods for different sizes of families. On pick up days, all they have to do is go to the fridge and freezer to top the hamper off, and it can go out the door.
Thanks to a grant from the Family and Community Support Services, the Food Bank now has a part-time employee that can help with a lot of the administrative tasks. However, some recent Standards of Excellence put forth by the Federal Government is putting pressure on them as well.
The Standards of Excellence requires all Food Banks to have certain policies and procedures in place if they want to continue to be registered with Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks Canada.
Heather says it’s a great idea in theory, but the 78 page document is a massive undertaking for a busy food bank run by volunteers. Their employee is working on some of the documents, but it’s still a challenge.
“A lot of them are great ideas, but for small food banks, it’s quite overwhelming to comply with that,” says Heather.
Originally, the food banks had until March 2025 to have everything in place, but after feedback, they’ve given the smaller food banks more time to work on it.
The Bells say there are many ways for the community to help out the food bank and they won’t turn down donations if they can help it. They have more volunteers who are going through the orientation and are grateful for the continuing generosity of the community.
Community members often perform their civic duties in a variety of ways; some vote, most pay their taxes, and some volunteer their time.
The initiative, This Is Drayton Valley (TIDV), is hoping to make it easier for residents to find ways they can volunteer in their community. They’ve launched an online platform, www.lets-volunteer.com, that helps connect organizations to residents who are looking for a place to volunteer their time.
Jessica Doucette, the chair of the Healthy Community Coalition, says the idea for the platform first began when the HCC were brainstorming ways to offer programs for the clients in the Youth Hub. The biggest obstacle was finding volunteers to help out with the programs.
“We came up with this idea about creating an online platform that would make it easier for people to access volunteer opportunities,” says Doucette.
She says at that time, they were mostly considering the Youth Hub and looking for younger volunteers. They felt that an online platform would be the best way to reach out to that demographic.
When Kickstand Alberta became the parent organization of the Youth Hub, they found more challenges. As they were a newer provincial body, they weren’t ready to take on the project for all of their Youth Hubs. Doucette says rather than scrap the idea, they decided to offer it to the larger community.
“We realized it was actually an issue for everybody,” she says.
Originally, they had approached the Chamber of Commerce, who had already tried to make a similar platform. But as the HCC works under the Red Cross, they were told it wasn’t appropriate for them to work with an organization that only represented businesses. They continued to look and finally connected with Ryan Fynn, one of the founders of TIDV, to bring the idea to life.
The platform has been active for a couple of weeks, now, and as of November 22, there were 14 volunteers and 12 organizations on the site.
Fynn says the platform is similar to dating websites, in that the volunteers input information into a profile and then they can be matched with an organization that would best suit them. He says volunteers are encouraged to list things they are passionate about, their relevant skills, experience as a volunteer, how much time they want to commit, and which days they are open to help. Organizations can search for volunteers based on those parameters.
“For an example, River Valley Players is looking for a part-time musical director,” says Fynn. “If a volunteer says they are passionate about music, they will be connected to them.”
Doucette says the platform can also help people connect with someone with specific skills. “We just recently did a survey through the community parenting coalition, and we found that there’s a large majority of people that are willing to share their gifts with others,” says Doucette. “We just don’t ask the right questions.”
Fynn says it would also work well for finding volunteers for events. By listing their events and indicating what’s all involved in the positions, residents with profiles can find them and help out.
“If somebody wants to help the program out, we do take financial donations which can be made payable through the Town of Drayton Valley,” she says.
Hickman says they can also take some items, though their space for storage is limited. Some of that includes winter gear, such as gently used coats, waterproof gloves, toques, or scarves. She says some items, like crocheted afghans, are too bulky for their clients to carry around, so while the thought is appreciated, they would prefer blankets that can provide adequate warmth while being compact.
She says they have noticed that some people have donated clothing items by leaving them in a park for someone to find. But she says this isn’t a very practical way to get the items to those who need them. “All it takes is a snowfall or rainfall and those items get wet and frozen and are no good to anyone,” she says. The preference is to have the items donated to them so they can see them properly distributed.
In the past, clients were able to cook some food for themselves when they used the mat service. However, Covid has made that difficult, and right now the clients are not allowed to use the kitchen. Hickman says donations of home cooked meals or baked goods also can’t be accepted because of government policies.
What they do instead of the meals, says Hickman, is put together a bag of snacks for their clients. This might include fruit cups, granola bars, puddings, hardy fruit like apples or oranges, and other similar items. She says if someone would like to donate those types of food, they would be able to use them.
Hickman says other items to consider are things like laundry soap, feminine hygiene products, and thermos’ with a good seal on them.
Town responds to business concerns
Drayton Valley addresses homelessness, public safety, Town services, and free enterprise issues through detailed reports, communication strategies, and community solutions.
Drayton Valley builds reserves
Drayton Valley, Alberta, is planning for sustainable utilities by building reserves for future water and sewer infrastructure.
Jordan’s Principle Grant funding delays are disrupting education in an Alberta schools
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Drayton Valley Ski Hill Closes After 60 Years | Challenges with Weather, Insurance, and Volunteers
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
There appears to be little movement in the arbitration process between the Town of Drayton Valley and Brazeau County.
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In response to a question at the public input session at Tuesday’s meeting, County Reeve Bart Guyon said his municipality was waiting for clarification on exactly what issue is at stake.
“We’ve asked the Town what is the question the arbitrator will answer … the Town hasn’t got back to us,” he said. “Would you go to court not knowing what the issue is?”
The Town and the County were engaged in a mediation process throughout March in an attempt to come to a mutually agreeable resolution which would lead to the creation of an Intermunicipal Development Plan and an Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework, both of which are required by the province.
After concerns raised at a pair of public meetings late last year, interim CAO for Drayton Valley, Pat Vincent, demonstrated the Town’s commitment to businesses and residents by presenting council with a detailed report that spoke to a range of issues at the last Governance and Priorities meeting.
Erik Bergen, a local business owner, came forward on November 20 with a presentation he had put together after having two open meetings with businesses in the community earlier in the fall. In his presentation, Bergen highlighted three main areas of concern: the homeless population, Town services and communications, and the free enterprise market in the community.
Bergen outlined several of those concerns as well as possible solutions for council to consider.
In the report Vincent brought forward, there were five separate responses from management involved in the areas that the businesses had issue with.
Enforcement services touched on several areas brought forth by Bergen. This included listing the various bylaws and acts that already addressed many of the areas of concern with the homeless population. The Community Standards Bylaw, the Municipal Government Act, and provincial trespassing legislation combined cover sleeping in public places, public disruption, loitering, public urination and defecation, unauthorized encampments, open fire, storage of personal items, and dumpster diving.
Cody Rossing, the manager of enforcement services and emergency management, also outlined areas that the Town could consider to help bolster the current laws surrounding those issues, such as amendments to the Outdoor Restrictions Burning bylaw and some possible amendments to the Community Standards Bylaw.
Rossing also explained that Drayton Valley could not create its own lower level court system to deal with petty crimes. However, he did say the community could petition for more court dates in Drayton Valley, which would allow more time for the courts to deal with all matters.
“Currently, with the scheduling at the Drayton Valley Court of Justice, trial dates are occurring on the same days for criminal code matters, provincial matters and municipal bylaw matters,” he says in his report. “This often results in lower-level offences either being withdrawn, or deals made to have the lower-level items removed so time can be focused on criminal code matters.”
As far as public safety in regards to needles, Rossing says they received only one call in 2023 from a business owner. In the past six months the Town’s Occupational Health and Safety Department only had four reports of Town staff locating needles.
Lola Strand, the manager of community services for the Town, spoke to the number of homeless individuals in the community and the efforts made to address the issue.
She mentioned the 2023 study done by the Rural Development Network, that found there were more than 8,300 individuals in rural Alberta dealing with some sort of housing issue. In Drayton, there were 28 people without homes, 25 people accessing emergency shelters such as the shelter pods or warming hearts, 83 people who were provisionally accommodated through things like couch surfing, and 140 individuals who were at risk of homelessness due to precarious housing.
Strand spoke to the strain enforcement services were dealing with in regard to responding to complaints of unsheltered people. She says the Town received a grant to hire a Community Outreach Worker who is communicating with at-risk individuals to help connect them to resources.
She also pointed out that along with the temporary emergency shelters the Town has put into place, there are also 26 affordable housing units in the community. Humans Helping Humans, the local organization that currently runs the shelter pods, has also built nine homes with grants, donations, and volunteers that have helped 19 families move into the regular housing market.
Strand also suggested the Town could work with the province to build halfway houses, or using grant money to purchase seacans, or trailers that can provide shelters in the encampment around the landfill that many of the homeless population are currently using.
Jenn Stone with intergovernmental relations and communication for the Town, outlined the different ways that the Town communicates with its residents.
The Town has a threefold approach to communication: traditional media, social media, and direct communication.
With advertisements and news stories, the Town works with the Drayton Valley Free Press and Big West Country 92.9. They also have pages on social media, the Town’s website, and YouTube. The electronic sign located at 50 Street and 50 Avenue is also used for communications. On top of those methods, the Town has held open houses, public hearings, direct mail, and door-to-door notices.
By using these different options, the Town is providing several different methods of communication for all age demographics.
Public works also responded to the grievances in the report, specifically in regard to the insect population, weed control, and snow removal.
When it comes to pesticides and herbicides, the individual applying the substances has to be certified and trained in the use of the chemicals. If at any point the Town doesn’t have many employees that meet those criteria, it can be difficult for them to keep up with the applications.
When it comes to insects, the Town only sprays for stinging insects in public spaces. They work to stay on top of the issues and will follow up to check on activity. They also use the public portal the Town provides through their website, to learn about any issues that residents have raised a concern with.
Spraying for weeds also has its challenges. There are limited time frames in which the application will be effective, such as when the weeds are actively growing. Then they also have to work around the weather, as it won’t be as effective if it’s raining. If those two requirements are met, the Town also has to consider any events going on and provide notices to nearby businesses and residents before they begin spraying.
For snow removal on sidewalks, the Town currently clears 53.4 km of asphalt trails and sidewalks in the community. Prior to 2022, the Town was clearing sidewalks in the downtown core, however, an amendment to the snow removal policy in November 2022 removed the downtown core from areas to be cleared.
Public works says if they were to be responsible for removing snow from all sidewalks in the community, they would have to double their staff and equipment to keep up with it. They say it is a common issue with many municipalities and one that is becoming more and more challenging.
The report also addressed the business owners’ concerns surrounding a free market in the community.
Peter Vana, the interim general manager for planning and growth development in the community, says there are legal limits to what the Town can do in regards to limiting businesses.
Vana says the Municipal Government Act grants municipalities the power to regulate businesses, but not prohibit businesses. Vana provided examples of land use regulations in several communities to show the different ways that the issue can be approached.
Along with that, Vana made some suggestions that might help to alleviate the issue, such as making restaurants a discretionary use in all districts, providing varying business license fees, partnering with local businesses to help give them better strategies to succeed.
However, Vana also pointed out some issues with picking a particular sector to regulate. He says were the Town to put in regulations on franchises in the food industry, it should be applied to all industries across the board, including oil and gas, as well as retail, as companies like Walmart or Canadian Tire could be seen as a threat to local businesses.
Vana also mentions that many franchises are owned by local residents, so they are in many ways, just like other local businesses.
Other problems with restricting franchises that Vana brought forward included that the public would like to have competition as it offers options and keeps prices lower. He also pointed out, using pizza restaurants as an example, that there are eight restaurants that mainly sell pizza, nine other restaurants that sell pizza as a sideline, and two other businesses that occasionally sell pizza as well.
Vana questions whether or not the Town would have to be completely aware of the different items each restaurant sells when deciding whether a business should be allowed or not.
Council accepted the report as information after asking several questions of the departments. Vincent says he made the businesses aware the report was being discussed at the meeting, but there were no representatives for council to ask questions of.
The Town of Drayton Valley is looking to the future as the municipality works toward having the utilities in the community be self-sustaining services.
Elvera Thomson, the general manager of corporate services for the Town, says in the past, the surpluses from the Town’s utility operations could be anywhere from $2-3 million. Those surpluses didn’t necessarily go into a fund specifically for water and sewer, but there was lots of money being put into reserves in general.
However, there wasn’t a policy that dictated that a certain amount of funds from the water and sewer revenues had to be put in reserves.
“What ended up happening as the years went on and things got tough, we had a series of events that happened with Covid, cost of living, inflation, and more,” says Thomson. “To manage tax increases, we just put less and less into reserves.”
Now, with the looming bill of repairing and replacing integral infrastructure in the community, the Town is putting a policy in place that will ensure the surplus from the utility services will be put into a reserve fund specifically for infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
“We just got to a point where none [of the surpluses] was going into reserves and we need to get back putting a large portion of those going into an internally restricted reserve for water and sewer,” says Thomson.
Those funds will go toward replacing the aging systems for water and sewer in the community. That way, the Town will not have to rely so heavily on debt funding or government grants for the projects.
While the Town was advised by Matt Delormes with the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network that they need to put away as much as they can to help offset future costs. He told them that the ideal number would be $8 million, but understood that it wasn’t always possible to reach that number.
Thomson says they will not be able to put that amount of money away, but they are now taking conscious steps toward building their reserves.
She says there are many small towns across the country that are in similar situations, as aging infrastructure hasn’t been at the forefront of anyone’s minds until problems are starting to occur.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” says Thomson. “It’s a provincial and federal problem as well.”
Thomson says that after World War II, there was an infrastructure boom across Canada, and many smaller communities were able to expand. This means that most of that infrastructure is coming due around the same time, and the municipalities are going to be looking toward the provincial and federal government to help with the costs of replacement.
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Grant delay impact education assistant funding
Brad Volkman, the superintendent for WRSD, says in the past the funding has come through quickly and without any issues. The grant money is to be used to provide support and services to indigenous youth in the school division.
“Historically, these grants have been approved at the regional level, enabling us to offer critical services without interruption. Based on this expectation, we hired several additional Educational Assistants for the start of the 2024–2025 school year for the purpose of providing support to eligible First Nations students,” says a press release from WRSD.
Human rights tribunal couldn’t meet time demands
However, the Federal Government is currently backlogged when it comes to the grant. A Human Rights Tribunal was held to look into the funding, as it is supposed to be issued quickly as some requests for funds are urgent. They have since ordered the government to take action.
On December 10, 2024, Indigenous Services Canada responded in a report that it was not possible for them to meet the demands of the Tribunal.
Because there is no answer as to when the funding might come through, WRSD had to make the decision for layoffs as they had not budgeted for the positions outside of the grant.
The policy within WRSD is that when layoffs occur, those who are on probationary status, which is 120 days, are the first to be let go. There were 35 part-time and full-time EAs let go because of this policy. However, not all of them worked with Jordan’s Principle students.
One non-probationary EA was laid off, and the remaining ten were voluntary lay-offs, says Volkman.
“What happens is the probationary ones, due to collective agreement requirements, are laid off first, but then we can offer more tenured EAs those positions,” says Volkman.
He says the voluntary lay-offs were EAs working with Jordan’s Principle students who were offered positions with students who have more complex needs. Volkman says they declined the positions and had to be laid off.
“It’s not easy for them because in some cases the job they were offered would have been less hours or [perhaps] they would have been in a location that required them to drive a further distance,” says Volkman.
There are still 95 full-time EAs in the inclusive education department.
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Weather, Insurance and Volunteers an issue
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
The ski hill was built by volunteers and has been running with volunteers since then. Funding was partially provided by grants, fundraising, and rental and usage fees for the hill. These funds went toward bills like insurance and electricity. They were also used for the maintenance of the ski hill and the equipment. None of the volunteers were paid for their time.
When Beckett stepped into the role of president about eight years ago, the club was in debt and the equipment was in need of repair. A government grant of $17,000 and a massive fundraiser in the community gave them enough money to fix things up.
To round out their services, Beckett says they began to offer tubing. The club recognized that not everyone wanted to ski or were able to ski. Tubing was available to everyone and was less hard on the body. Each of the tubes was sponsored by a company, with the funds going toward the maintenance of the hill.
However, the lack of snow over the past few seasons has meant less use of the ski hill, and therefore less funds coming in.
“Unfortunately, Mother Nature has not been kind to us,” says Beckett.
In 2023, much of the local area didn’t have snow for Christmas. Beckett says the ski hill didn’t even open in the 2023/24 season.
“In my seven or eight years, we only opened three years because of snow,” says Beckett.
Insurance companies stepping away from offering coverage to ski hills
Then there was the issue with insurance. After a court case in B.C. where a customer sued a ski resort, many insurance companies stepped away from offering insurance to ski hills. Beckett says there are now only three underwriters in the world who will consider insuring a ski hill.
“Eleven of us little hills got our insurance canceled [a couple of] years ago,” says Beckett.
Previously, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta covered the insurance of the ski hill. When the insurance was cancelled through RMA, they had to find a new underwriter. The bill for the season was $24,000.
“Our insurance was $24,000 last year and we didn’t open,” says Beckett.
Finding volunteers to work the ski hill has also been a challenge.
“Everybody has so many different directions to go now in their lives,” he says. “They have just about everything except for time.”
On average, it took ten volunteers to run the ski hill each day. Beckett and his wife had a list of about 80 volunteers they could call on. However, there were times when they called all of those people and none of them were available to fill a shift for someone who had to cancel.
All three of those factors were at play when Beckett received a call from the insurance company in preparation for this season. They needed Beckett to go through everything on the property again, as they felt much of the equipment and the chalet were undervalued.
Beckett explained to them that it didn’t matter what the replacement value was for the chalet or the lift. If they failed or burned down, Beckett says the club would have to close.
With that in mind, he had put in a lower value for the chalet and other items as they would never be using the insurance to replace them. That was the only way they would be able to afford to run the ski hill. The insurance company explained that if he didn’t cover it for at least 90 percent of the replacement value they would get nothing.
“I said take the insurance off of it, I’ll take the risk,” he says.
Then the insurance company started going into details about the rental equipment, and how all of the people renting the bindings and skis had to be trained by the manufacturers in how to use them.
“What the real issue is, when it comes to insurance companies, is they do not like volunteer organizations in any way,” says Beckett. “Every one of these 11 hills that got their insurance cancelled, I believe, were volunteer organizations.”
Beckett says they feel that the volunteer organizations are unstable, as the volunteers can change regularly and with little notice.
The rental items for the ski hill will be auctioned off by Team Auctions on their December 7 sale. The property will be sold in the new year.
The Free Press asks – “What are your fondest memories of the Drayton Valley Ski Hill?”
“This fills me with nostalgia and gratitude! I started skiing at this hill at just two years old, and it ignited my love for skiing. My parents nurtured my passion by enrolling me in a ski program, and I spent countless weekends racing and growing. Our hill may not have been the biggest, but it was a place we were able to be kids at while not playing hockey or ringette. My dad and papa selflessly served as ski patrols for years, and we reveled in every moment we spent there. My papa’s dedication to the hill was remarkable as he had welded so many pieces there making it the hill it was today, and I’m deeply thankful for the volunteers who helped shape it into the haven it became. All three of my boys learned to ski on this hill, and I’m forever grateful for the escape and liberation it brought us.” – Leslie Anne Fraizer
“I learned to ski on the hill, my kids learned to ski on the hill. We’ve had many get-togethers on the hill with family and friends. As a volunteer I got to see so many littles learn to ski/snowboard and then advance to be on their own then onto the T-bar. They all get excited when they get to go on the big hill. I’ve spent many hours volunteering there as I was on the board for 20+ years and even when my kids weren’t skiing I was there.It was a great hill for many to learn on, it was in our backyard. When we decided to make the tube part it brought more families out which was great to see. It truly will be missed as I wanted my grandkids to learn how to ski/board this year on it.” – Georgia Frost
“Ooh, so many memories of the ski hill. But I would say the best was learning to snowboard there and getting courage to do the jumps off the hills … It was always fun since it was me and my sister. We had a blast, racing down getting to the bottom and the wind burnt faces ‘cause of it.” – Tricia Cottreau
“I was on the tow rope when a porcupine decided to cross… apparently the rope had enough give to allow the people to push a big loop in it. We were able to continue up the hill and the porcupine was able to continue on its walk about” – Helen Maine
“I have so many memories there as a teen in the mid 1980s… from trying to perfect the “daffy”, “backscratchers” and the “kusak” amongst learning how to telemark. This little hill with amazing volunteers taught a ton of youth some amazing skills while maintaining a very safe and supportive environment. I am a ski patrol today because of this little hill and the “gnarly” atmosphere back in the 80s that let youth hone their skills for the mountains.” – Jon Setterlund
“Watching my son Max snowboard for the first time! And he struggled with the T-bar but never gave up!” – Kathy Schwengler
“The time I knocked myself out cold. Couldn’t stop and hit a pole. That was my last time on skis. I now snowboard. I don’t think there’s any photos of that adventure…got a free sled ride behind the skidoo!!” – Jane Marie Ellis
“When Devon broke his arm, all the other kids that broke something and the fact that we all thought we had fresh pow days” – Gord Graham
“Donna and Val Palmer encouraged me to get my Level 1 ski instructor certification and teach ski lessons at the hill. I have so many memories of teaching kids and adults basic skills for skiing. My favourite memories include the Grade 5 visits and instructing a whole class on the tow rope hill. What a great introduction for those kids- who may have never been exposed to skiing.” – Astrid Mitchell
With an increase in demand for the Drayton Valley Food Bank, volunteers are concerned the facility may not keep up for much longer.
Heather and Phil Bell, the vice president and treasurer respectively, have been with the Food Bank for several years. During that time they’ve noticed a concerning trend in the uptick of users.
So far this year, they have given out hampers to 2,275 people, a stark contrast to the 2023 number of 1,653. Last year was a record year for hampers and this year has blown it out of the water.
Alberta food bank sees increased demand
The Bells says a lot of the hampers are going to families who have parents that work.
“The Food Bank, I feel, is an essential service right now, considering the need,” says Phil. “It’s something that’s heavily relied on.”
If things continue the way they have been, they’re expecting to hand out 2,556 hampers by the end of the year.
“It’s not just a blip, either,” says Phil. “This is going to continue on.”
Phil says that though they’ve seen increased usage, the generosity of the community has continued to keep up with the demand. Between food donations from local stores and food drives, the food bank has already received around $270,000 of in-kind donations.
“We have such a generous community,” says Heather. “It’s amazing.”
Heather says they are grateful for the building they’re in and the Town’s generosity in letting them use it for free. She says the location is perfect because it allows people more privacy than a location in a busier part of the community.
“But we’re outgrowing the building,” says Heather. “We’re at the point with our freezer and fridge capacity that the building can’t take anymore fridges and freezers without upgrading the electrical system.”
Space is a challenge for Drayton Valley food bank
Fridge and freezer space are vital in the Christmas season. Heather says in the past, they’ve had to turn away donations of a side of beef because they don’t have the space. Some companies have set up freezers in their buildings and offered the extra storage. Some volunteers also store some items as well.
The Bells say a sea can or some other place where they could store dried goods would be extremely helpful, as well. As it is, they have to store enough food in their building for roughly 30 hampers each pick up day.
At the beginning of November, the volunteers changed their system, and now only offer hampers on Thursdays. Phil says one recent hamper day saw volunteers hand out 86 hampers in three hours.
Creating that many food hampers also has its challenges. There isn’t a lot of room to put the hampers together and organize them, though Heather says they’ve developed a good system. Volunteers are now prebuilding hampers with dried goods for different sizes of families. On pick up days, all they have to do is go to the fridge and freezer to top the hamper off, and it can go out the door.
Thanks to a grant from the Family and Community Support Services, the Food Bank now has a part-time employee that can help with a lot of the administrative tasks. However, some recent Standards of Excellence put forth by the Federal Government is putting pressure on them as well.
The Standards of Excellence requires all Food Banks to have certain policies and procedures in place if they want to continue to be registered with Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks Canada.
Heather says it’s a great idea in theory, but the 78 page document is a massive undertaking for a busy food bank run by volunteers. Their employee is working on some of the documents, but it’s still a challenge.
“A lot of them are great ideas, but for small food banks, it’s quite overwhelming to comply with that,” says Heather.
Originally, the food banks had until March 2025 to have everything in place, but after feedback, they’ve given the smaller food banks more time to work on it.
The Bells say there are many ways for the community to help out the food bank and they won’t turn down donations if they can help it. They have more volunteers who are going through the orientation and are grateful for the continuing generosity of the community.
Community members often perform their civic duties in a variety of ways; some vote, most pay their taxes, and some volunteer their time.
The initiative, This Is Drayton Valley (TIDV), is hoping to make it easier for residents to find ways they can volunteer in their community. They’ve launched an online platform, www.lets-volunteer.com, that helps connect organizations to residents who are looking for a place to volunteer their time.
Jessica Doucette, the chair of the Healthy Community Coalition, says the idea for the platform first began when the HCC were brainstorming ways to offer programs for the clients in the Youth Hub. The biggest obstacle was finding volunteers to help out with the programs.
“We came up with this idea about creating an online platform that would make it easier for people to access volunteer opportunities,” says Doucette.
She says at that time, they were mostly considering the Youth Hub and looking for younger volunteers. They felt that an online platform would be the best way to reach out to that demographic.
When Kickstand Alberta became the parent organization of the Youth Hub, they found more challenges. As they were a newer provincial body, they weren’t ready to take on the project for all of their Youth Hubs. Doucette says rather than scrap the idea, they decided to offer it to the larger community.
“We realized it was actually an issue for everybody,” she says.
Originally, they had approached the Chamber of Commerce, who had already tried to make a similar platform. But as the HCC works under the Red Cross, they were told it wasn’t appropriate for them to work with an organization that only represented businesses. They continued to look and finally connected with Ryan Fynn, one of the founders of TIDV, to bring the idea to life.
The platform has been active for a couple of weeks, now, and as of November 22, there were 14 volunteers and 12 organizations on the site.
Fynn says the platform is similar to dating websites, in that the volunteers input information into a profile and then they can be matched with an organization that would best suit them. He says volunteers are encouraged to list things they are passionate about, their relevant skills, experience as a volunteer, how much time they want to commit, and which days they are open to help. Organizations can search for volunteers based on those parameters.
“For an example, River Valley Players is looking for a part-time musical director,” says Fynn. “If a volunteer says they are passionate about music, they will be connected to them.”
Doucette says the platform can also help people connect with someone with specific skills. “We just recently did a survey through the community parenting coalition, and we found that there’s a large majority of people that are willing to share their gifts with others,” says Doucette. “We just don’t ask the right questions.”
Fynn says it would also work well for finding volunteers for events. By listing their events and indicating what’s all involved in the positions, residents with profiles can find them and help out.
When the two municipalities failed to reach an agreement the process moved to the next step, which removes the need for agreement between the parties and turns to an outside body. “Arbitration is a quasi-judicial process in which a third party renders a decision after hearing evidence from all involved. The decision is binding on all parties,” according to Alberta Municipal Affairs.
The mediation sessions were held in private and minutes are not available. One major point of contention between the County and the Town has been the funding of joint recreation facilities, the majority of which are operated by the Town but funded by both municipalities. This year the County moved to cut its share of funding by more than 50 percent.
Town responds to business concerns
Drayton Valley addresses homelessness, public safety, Town services, and free enterprise issues through detailed reports, communication strategies, and community solutions.
Drayton Valley builds reserves
Drayton Valley, Alberta, is planning for sustainable utilities by building reserves for future water and sewer infrastructure.
Jordan’s Principle Grant funding delays are disrupting education in an Alberta schools
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Drayton Valley Ski Hill Closes After 60 Years | Challenges with Weather, Insurance, and Volunteers
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
So farewell, then, to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, we barely knew you.
While he remained something of an enigma, there’s no denying that Philip had a remarkable run over decade after decade. You’d have to be damned near 80 to remember a time when the Queen’s husband wasn’t in the public eye, although the impression he left wasn’t always particularly positive. This was a man who once asked a Scottish driving instructor how they kept the locals sober long enough to take the test.
Drayton Valley Insurance
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When Philip first appeared on the global stage, the population of Drayton Valley was less than 100 (I’m willing to be that even then, a fair number of them were complaining about potholes). Brazeau County wouldn’t even exist for another 40 years and the Toronto Maple Leafs (!) were Stanley Cup champions.
Now, with her husband gone, attention will inevitably turn to the Queen herself, and the thorny question of what happens to the family business when she dies.
The Queen was born the same year as my dad, and he’s been dead since 1983, so, without being morbid, it’s probably safe to say that her best days are behind her. Do we want to continue with the monarchy once she’s gone?
After concerns raised at a pair of public meetings late last year, interim CAO for Drayton Valley, Pat Vincent, demonstrated the Town’s commitment to businesses and residents by presenting council with a detailed report that spoke to a range of issues at the last Governance and Priorities meeting.
Erik Bergen, a local business owner, came forward on November 20 with a presentation he had put together after having two open meetings with businesses in the community earlier in the fall. In his presentation, Bergen highlighted three main areas of concern: the homeless population, Town services and communications, and the free enterprise market in the community.
Bergen outlined several of those concerns as well as possible solutions for council to consider.
In the report Vincent brought forward, there were five separate responses from management involved in the areas that the businesses had issue with.
Enforcement services touched on several areas brought forth by Bergen. This included listing the various bylaws and acts that already addressed many of the areas of concern with the homeless population. The Community Standards Bylaw, the Municipal Government Act, and provincial trespassing legislation combined cover sleeping in public places, public disruption, loitering, public urination and defecation, unauthorized encampments, open fire, storage of personal items, and dumpster diving.
Cody Rossing, the manager of enforcement services and emergency management, also outlined areas that the Town could consider to help bolster the current laws surrounding those issues, such as amendments to the Outdoor Restrictions Burning bylaw and some possible amendments to the Community Standards Bylaw.
Rossing also explained that Drayton Valley could not create its own lower level court system to deal with petty crimes. However, he did say the community could petition for more court dates in Drayton Valley, which would allow more time for the courts to deal with all matters.
“Currently, with the scheduling at the Drayton Valley Court of Justice, trial dates are occurring on the same days for criminal code matters, provincial matters and municipal bylaw matters,” he says in his report. “This often results in lower-level offences either being withdrawn, or deals made to have the lower-level items removed so time can be focused on criminal code matters.”
As far as public safety in regards to needles, Rossing says they received only one call in 2023 from a business owner. In the past six months the Town’s Occupational Health and Safety Department only had four reports of Town staff locating needles.
Lola Strand, the manager of community services for the Town, spoke to the number of homeless individuals in the community and the efforts made to address the issue.
She mentioned the 2023 study done by the Rural Development Network, that found there were more than 8,300 individuals in rural Alberta dealing with some sort of housing issue. In Drayton, there were 28 people without homes, 25 people accessing emergency shelters such as the shelter pods or warming hearts, 83 people who were provisionally accommodated through things like couch surfing, and 140 individuals who were at risk of homelessness due to precarious housing.
Strand spoke to the strain enforcement services were dealing with in regard to responding to complaints of unsheltered people. She says the Town received a grant to hire a Community Outreach Worker who is communicating with at-risk individuals to help connect them to resources.
She also pointed out that along with the temporary emergency shelters the Town has put into place, there are also 26 affordable housing units in the community. Humans Helping Humans, the local organization that currently runs the shelter pods, has also built nine homes with grants, donations, and volunteers that have helped 19 families move into the regular housing market.
Strand also suggested the Town could work with the province to build halfway houses, or using grant money to purchase seacans, or trailers that can provide shelters in the encampment around the landfill that many of the homeless population are currently using.
Jenn Stone with intergovernmental relations and communication for the Town, outlined the different ways that the Town communicates with its residents.
The Town has a threefold approach to communication: traditional media, social media, and direct communication.
With advertisements and news stories, the Town works with the Drayton Valley Free Press and Big West Country 92.9. They also have pages on social media, the Town’s website, and YouTube. The electronic sign located at 50 Street and 50 Avenue is also used for communications. On top of those methods, the Town has held open houses, public hearings, direct mail, and door-to-door notices.
By using these different options, the Town is providing several different methods of communication for all age demographics.
Public works also responded to the grievances in the report, specifically in regard to the insect population, weed control, and snow removal.
When it comes to pesticides and herbicides, the individual applying the substances has to be certified and trained in the use of the chemicals. If at any point the Town doesn’t have many employees that meet those criteria, it can be difficult for them to keep up with the applications.
When it comes to insects, the Town only sprays for stinging insects in public spaces. They work to stay on top of the issues and will follow up to check on activity. They also use the public portal the Town provides through their website, to learn about any issues that residents have raised a concern with.
Spraying for weeds also has its challenges. There are limited time frames in which the application will be effective, such as when the weeds are actively growing. Then they also have to work around the weather, as it won’t be as effective if it’s raining. If those two requirements are met, the Town also has to consider any events going on and provide notices to nearby businesses and residents before they begin spraying.
For snow removal on sidewalks, the Town currently clears 53.4 km of asphalt trails and sidewalks in the community. Prior to 2022, the Town was clearing sidewalks in the downtown core, however, an amendment to the snow removal policy in November 2022 removed the downtown core from areas to be cleared.
Public works says if they were to be responsible for removing snow from all sidewalks in the community, they would have to double their staff and equipment to keep up with it. They say it is a common issue with many municipalities and one that is becoming more and more challenging.
The report also addressed the business owners’ concerns surrounding a free market in the community.
Peter Vana, the interim general manager for planning and growth development in the community, says there are legal limits to what the Town can do in regards to limiting businesses.
Vana says the Municipal Government Act grants municipalities the power to regulate businesses, but not prohibit businesses. Vana provided examples of land use regulations in several communities to show the different ways that the issue can be approached.
Along with that, Vana made some suggestions that might help to alleviate the issue, such as making restaurants a discretionary use in all districts, providing varying business license fees, partnering with local businesses to help give them better strategies to succeed.
However, Vana also pointed out some issues with picking a particular sector to regulate. He says were the Town to put in regulations on franchises in the food industry, it should be applied to all industries across the board, including oil and gas, as well as retail, as companies like Walmart or Canadian Tire could be seen as a threat to local businesses.
Vana also mentions that many franchises are owned by local residents, so they are in many ways, just like other local businesses.
Other problems with restricting franchises that Vana brought forward included that the public would like to have competition as it offers options and keeps prices lower. He also pointed out, using pizza restaurants as an example, that there are eight restaurants that mainly sell pizza, nine other restaurants that sell pizza as a sideline, and two other businesses that occasionally sell pizza as well.
Vana questions whether or not the Town would have to be completely aware of the different items each restaurant sells when deciding whether a business should be allowed or not.
Council accepted the report as information after asking several questions of the departments. Vincent says he made the businesses aware the report was being discussed at the meeting, but there were no representatives for council to ask questions of.
The Town of Drayton Valley is looking to the future as the municipality works toward having the utilities in the community be self-sustaining services.
Elvera Thomson, the general manager of corporate services for the Town, says in the past, the surpluses from the Town’s utility operations could be anywhere from $2-3 million. Those surpluses didn’t necessarily go into a fund specifically for water and sewer, but there was lots of money being put into reserves in general.
However, there wasn’t a policy that dictated that a certain amount of funds from the water and sewer revenues had to be put in reserves.
“What ended up happening as the years went on and things got tough, we had a series of events that happened with Covid, cost of living, inflation, and more,” says Thomson. “To manage tax increases, we just put less and less into reserves.”
Now, with the looming bill of repairing and replacing integral infrastructure in the community, the Town is putting a policy in place that will ensure the surplus from the utility services will be put into a reserve fund specifically for infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
“We just got to a point where none [of the surpluses] was going into reserves and we need to get back putting a large portion of those going into an internally restricted reserve for water and sewer,” says Thomson.
Those funds will go toward replacing the aging systems for water and sewer in the community. That way, the Town will not have to rely so heavily on debt funding or government grants for the projects.
While the Town was advised by Matt Delormes with the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network that they need to put away as much as they can to help offset future costs. He told them that the ideal number would be $8 million, but understood that it wasn’t always possible to reach that number.
Thomson says they will not be able to put that amount of money away, but they are now taking conscious steps toward building their reserves.
She says there are many small towns across the country that are in similar situations, as aging infrastructure hasn’t been at the forefront of anyone’s minds until problems are starting to occur.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” says Thomson. “It’s a provincial and federal problem as well.”
Thomson says that after World War II, there was an infrastructure boom across Canada, and many smaller communities were able to expand. This means that most of that infrastructure is coming due around the same time, and the municipalities are going to be looking toward the provincial and federal government to help with the costs of replacement.
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Grant delay impact education assistant funding
Brad Volkman, the superintendent for WRSD, says in the past the funding has come through quickly and without any issues. The grant money is to be used to provide support and services to indigenous youth in the school division.
“Historically, these grants have been approved at the regional level, enabling us to offer critical services without interruption. Based on this expectation, we hired several additional Educational Assistants for the start of the 2024–2025 school year for the purpose of providing support to eligible First Nations students,” says a press release from WRSD.
Human rights tribunal couldn’t meet time demands
However, the Federal Government is currently backlogged when it comes to the grant. A Human Rights Tribunal was held to look into the funding, as it is supposed to be issued quickly as some requests for funds are urgent. They have since ordered the government to take action.
On December 10, 2024, Indigenous Services Canada responded in a report that it was not possible for them to meet the demands of the Tribunal.
Because there is no answer as to when the funding might come through, WRSD had to make the decision for layoffs as they had not budgeted for the positions outside of the grant.
The policy within WRSD is that when layoffs occur, those who are on probationary status, which is 120 days, are the first to be let go. There were 35 part-time and full-time EAs let go because of this policy. However, not all of them worked with Jordan’s Principle students.
One non-probationary EA was laid off, and the remaining ten were voluntary lay-offs, says Volkman.
“What happens is the probationary ones, due to collective agreement requirements, are laid off first, but then we can offer more tenured EAs those positions,” says Volkman.
He says the voluntary lay-offs were EAs working with Jordan’s Principle students who were offered positions with students who have more complex needs. Volkman says they declined the positions and had to be laid off.
“It’s not easy for them because in some cases the job they were offered would have been less hours or [perhaps] they would have been in a location that required them to drive a further distance,” says Volkman.
There are still 95 full-time EAs in the inclusive education department.
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Weather, Insurance and Volunteers an issue
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
The ski hill was built by volunteers and has been running with volunteers since then. Funding was partially provided by grants, fundraising, and rental and usage fees for the hill. These funds went toward bills like insurance and electricity. They were also used for the maintenance of the ski hill and the equipment. None of the volunteers were paid for their time.
When Beckett stepped into the role of president about eight years ago, the club was in debt and the equipment was in need of repair. A government grant of $17,000 and a massive fundraiser in the community gave them enough money to fix things up.
To round out their services, Beckett says they began to offer tubing. The club recognized that not everyone wanted to ski or were able to ski. Tubing was available to everyone and was less hard on the body. Each of the tubes was sponsored by a company, with the funds going toward the maintenance of the hill.
However, the lack of snow over the past few seasons has meant less use of the ski hill, and therefore less funds coming in.
“Unfortunately, Mother Nature has not been kind to us,” says Beckett.
In 2023, much of the local area didn’t have snow for Christmas. Beckett says the ski hill didn’t even open in the 2023/24 season.
“In my seven or eight years, we only opened three years because of snow,” says Beckett.
Insurance companies stepping away from offering coverage to ski hills
Then there was the issue with insurance. After a court case in B.C. where a customer sued a ski resort, many insurance companies stepped away from offering insurance to ski hills. Beckett says there are now only three underwriters in the world who will consider insuring a ski hill.
“Eleven of us little hills got our insurance canceled [a couple of] years ago,” says Beckett.
Previously, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta covered the insurance of the ski hill. When the insurance was cancelled through RMA, they had to find a new underwriter. The bill for the season was $24,000.
“Our insurance was $24,000 last year and we didn’t open,” says Beckett.
Finding volunteers to work the ski hill has also been a challenge.
“Everybody has so many different directions to go now in their lives,” he says. “They have just about everything except for time.”
On average, it took ten volunteers to run the ski hill each day. Beckett and his wife had a list of about 80 volunteers they could call on. However, there were times when they called all of those people and none of them were available to fill a shift for someone who had to cancel.
All three of those factors were at play when Beckett received a call from the insurance company in preparation for this season. They needed Beckett to go through everything on the property again, as they felt much of the equipment and the chalet were undervalued.
Beckett explained to them that it didn’t matter what the replacement value was for the chalet or the lift. If they failed or burned down, Beckett says the club would have to close.
With that in mind, he had put in a lower value for the chalet and other items as they would never be using the insurance to replace them. That was the only way they would be able to afford to run the ski hill. The insurance company explained that if he didn’t cover it for at least 90 percent of the replacement value they would get nothing.
“I said take the insurance off of it, I’ll take the risk,” he says.
Then the insurance company started going into details about the rental equipment, and how all of the people renting the bindings and skis had to be trained by the manufacturers in how to use them.
“What the real issue is, when it comes to insurance companies, is they do not like volunteer organizations in any way,” says Beckett. “Every one of these 11 hills that got their insurance cancelled, I believe, were volunteer organizations.”
Beckett says they feel that the volunteer organizations are unstable, as the volunteers can change regularly and with little notice.
The rental items for the ski hill will be auctioned off by Team Auctions on their December 7 sale. The property will be sold in the new year.
The Free Press asks – “What are your fondest memories of the Drayton Valley Ski Hill?”
“This fills me with nostalgia and gratitude! I started skiing at this hill at just two years old, and it ignited my love for skiing. My parents nurtured my passion by enrolling me in a ski program, and I spent countless weekends racing and growing. Our hill may not have been the biggest, but it was a place we were able to be kids at while not playing hockey or ringette. My dad and papa selflessly served as ski patrols for years, and we reveled in every moment we spent there. My papa’s dedication to the hill was remarkable as he had welded so many pieces there making it the hill it was today, and I’m deeply thankful for the volunteers who helped shape it into the haven it became. All three of my boys learned to ski on this hill, and I’m forever grateful for the escape and liberation it brought us.” – Leslie Anne Fraizer
“I learned to ski on the hill, my kids learned to ski on the hill. We’ve had many get-togethers on the hill with family and friends. As a volunteer I got to see so many littles learn to ski/snowboard and then advance to be on their own then onto the T-bar. They all get excited when they get to go on the big hill. I’ve spent many hours volunteering there as I was on the board for 20+ years and even when my kids weren’t skiing I was there.It was a great hill for many to learn on, it was in our backyard. When we decided to make the tube part it brought more families out which was great to see. It truly will be missed as I wanted my grandkids to learn how to ski/board this year on it.” – Georgia Frost
“Ooh, so many memories of the ski hill. But I would say the best was learning to snowboard there and getting courage to do the jumps off the hills … It was always fun since it was me and my sister. We had a blast, racing down getting to the bottom and the wind burnt faces ‘cause of it.” – Tricia Cottreau
“I was on the tow rope when a porcupine decided to cross… apparently the rope had enough give to allow the people to push a big loop in it. We were able to continue up the hill and the porcupine was able to continue on its walk about” – Helen Maine
“I have so many memories there as a teen in the mid 1980s… from trying to perfect the “daffy”, “backscratchers” and the “kusak” amongst learning how to telemark. This little hill with amazing volunteers taught a ton of youth some amazing skills while maintaining a very safe and supportive environment. I am a ski patrol today because of this little hill and the “gnarly” atmosphere back in the 80s that let youth hone their skills for the mountains.” – Jon Setterlund
“Watching my son Max snowboard for the first time! And he struggled with the T-bar but never gave up!” – Kathy Schwengler
“The time I knocked myself out cold. Couldn’t stop and hit a pole. That was my last time on skis. I now snowboard. I don’t think there’s any photos of that adventure…got a free sled ride behind the skidoo!!” – Jane Marie Ellis
“When Devon broke his arm, all the other kids that broke something and the fact that we all thought we had fresh pow days” – Gord Graham
“Donna and Val Palmer encouraged me to get my Level 1 ski instructor certification and teach ski lessons at the hill. I have so many memories of teaching kids and adults basic skills for skiing. My favourite memories include the Grade 5 visits and instructing a whole class on the tow rope hill. What a great introduction for those kids- who may have never been exposed to skiing.” – Astrid Mitchell
With an increase in demand for the Drayton Valley Food Bank, volunteers are concerned the facility may not keep up for much longer.
Heather and Phil Bell, the vice president and treasurer respectively, have been with the Food Bank for several years. During that time they’ve noticed a concerning trend in the uptick of users.
So far this year, they have given out hampers to 2,275 people, a stark contrast to the 2023 number of 1,653. Last year was a record year for hampers and this year has blown it out of the water.
Alberta food bank sees increased demand
The Bells says a lot of the hampers are going to families who have parents that work.
“The Food Bank, I feel, is an essential service right now, considering the need,” says Phil. “It’s something that’s heavily relied on.”
If things continue the way they have been, they’re expecting to hand out 2,556 hampers by the end of the year.
“It’s not just a blip, either,” says Phil. “This is going to continue on.”
Phil says that though they’ve seen increased usage, the generosity of the community has continued to keep up with the demand. Between food donations from local stores and food drives, the food bank has already received around $270,000 of in-kind donations.
“We have such a generous community,” says Heather. “It’s amazing.”
Heather says they are grateful for the building they’re in and the Town’s generosity in letting them use it for free. She says the location is perfect because it allows people more privacy than a location in a busier part of the community.
“But we’re outgrowing the building,” says Heather. “We’re at the point with our freezer and fridge capacity that the building can’t take anymore fridges and freezers without upgrading the electrical system.”
Space is a challenge for Drayton Valley food bank
Fridge and freezer space are vital in the Christmas season. Heather says in the past, they’ve had to turn away donations of a side of beef because they don’t have the space. Some companies have set up freezers in their buildings and offered the extra storage. Some volunteers also store some items as well.
The Bells say a sea can or some other place where they could store dried goods would be extremely helpful, as well. As it is, they have to store enough food in their building for roughly 30 hampers each pick up day.
At the beginning of November, the volunteers changed their system, and now only offer hampers on Thursdays. Phil says one recent hamper day saw volunteers hand out 86 hampers in three hours.
Creating that many food hampers also has its challenges. There isn’t a lot of room to put the hampers together and organize them, though Heather says they’ve developed a good system. Volunteers are now prebuilding hampers with dried goods for different sizes of families. On pick up days, all they have to do is go to the fridge and freezer to top the hamper off, and it can go out the door.
Thanks to a grant from the Family and Community Support Services, the Food Bank now has a part-time employee that can help with a lot of the administrative tasks. However, some recent Standards of Excellence put forth by the Federal Government is putting pressure on them as well.
The Standards of Excellence requires all Food Banks to have certain policies and procedures in place if they want to continue to be registered with Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks Canada.
Heather says it’s a great idea in theory, but the 78 page document is a massive undertaking for a busy food bank run by volunteers. Their employee is working on some of the documents, but it’s still a challenge.
“A lot of them are great ideas, but for small food banks, it’s quite overwhelming to comply with that,” says Heather.
Originally, the food banks had until March 2025 to have everything in place, but after feedback, they’ve given the smaller food banks more time to work on it.
The Bells say there are many ways for the community to help out the food bank and they won’t turn down donations if they can help it. They have more volunteers who are going through the orientation and are grateful for the continuing generosity of the community.
Community members often perform their civic duties in a variety of ways; some vote, most pay their taxes, and some volunteer their time.
The initiative, This Is Drayton Valley (TIDV), is hoping to make it easier for residents to find ways they can volunteer in their community. They’ve launched an online platform, www.lets-volunteer.com, that helps connect organizations to residents who are looking for a place to volunteer their time.
Jessica Doucette, the chair of the Healthy Community Coalition, says the idea for the platform first began when the HCC were brainstorming ways to offer programs for the clients in the Youth Hub. The biggest obstacle was finding volunteers to help out with the programs.
“We came up with this idea about creating an online platform that would make it easier for people to access volunteer opportunities,” says Doucette.
She says at that time, they were mostly considering the Youth Hub and looking for younger volunteers. They felt that an online platform would be the best way to reach out to that demographic.
When Kickstand Alberta became the parent organization of the Youth Hub, they found more challenges. As they were a newer provincial body, they weren’t ready to take on the project for all of their Youth Hubs. Doucette says rather than scrap the idea, they decided to offer it to the larger community.
“We realized it was actually an issue for everybody,” she says.
Originally, they had approached the Chamber of Commerce, who had already tried to make a similar platform. But as the HCC works under the Red Cross, they were told it wasn’t appropriate for them to work with an organization that only represented businesses. They continued to look and finally connected with Ryan Fynn, one of the founders of TIDV, to bring the idea to life.
The platform has been active for a couple of weeks, now, and as of November 22, there were 14 volunteers and 12 organizations on the site.
Fynn says the platform is similar to dating websites, in that the volunteers input information into a profile and then they can be matched with an organization that would best suit them. He says volunteers are encouraged to list things they are passionate about, their relevant skills, experience as a volunteer, how much time they want to commit, and which days they are open to help. Organizations can search for volunteers based on those parameters.
“For an example, River Valley Players is looking for a part-time musical director,” says Fynn. “If a volunteer says they are passionate about music, they will be connected to them.”
Doucette says the platform can also help people connect with someone with specific skills. “We just recently did a survey through the community parenting coalition, and we found that there’s a large majority of people that are willing to share their gifts with others,” says Doucette. “We just don’t ask the right questions.”
Fynn says it would also work well for finding volunteers for events. By listing their events and indicating what’s all involved in the positions, residents with profiles can find them and help out.
I’m always a little queasy about people who are anti-monarchy, because it sometimes feels like shorthand for being anti English, which is no more acceptable than any other kind of bigotry. But still, for a country that considers itself one of the world’s leading democracies, it does seem damned odd that Canada’s head of state is a hereditary ruler who doesn’t actually live here.
But don’t put away your Union Jack underwear and novelty false teeth just yet, because like it or not, Canada needs the Royal Family. As head of state the Queen and her successors are the glue that holds the Canadian parliamentary system together. If we want to get rid of them, we’d have to reopen the Constitution. Anyone old enough to remember the last time we tried to do that will tell you it was a very bad idea indeed. The 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord (kids, ask your grandparents) was the only time in my life I’ve genuinely struggled over which way to cast my vote. There were people on both sides of the debate who just seemed so horrible I didn’t want to be associated with them. It was like trying to choose between a poke in the eye and a kick in the swingers.
And Charlottetown was just a little constitutional tinkering compared to what we’d have to do to replace the monarchy. If you think the Royal Family is expensive and outdated you are correct. But consider this: by their very existence the Queen and her family prevent Canadians from spending several years engaged in never ending public debate between the provinces and the federal government and anybody else who feels like throwing their two cents in, with the occasional inconclusive referendum just to spice things up a bit. Some things (bees, scorpions, the feminne hygiene aisle in your local pharmacy) are best left alone. The Canadian Constitution is one of those things. We’d be wise to stick with the monarchy for as long as they’ll have us.
Town responds to business concerns
Drayton Valley addresses homelessness, public safety, Town services, and free enterprise issues through detailed reports, communication strategies, and community solutions.
Drayton Valley builds reserves
Drayton Valley, Alberta, is planning for sustainable utilities by building reserves for future water and sewer infrastructure.
Jordan’s Principle Grant funding delays are disrupting education in an Alberta schools
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Drayton Valley Ski Hill Closes After 60 Years | Challenges with Weather, Insurance, and Volunteers
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
Just beyond the western borders of Drayton Valley is a series of township roads and secondary highways that creates an amazing training ground for anyone looking to tackle the DV100, DV60 or the DV40, this September.
The best part about these routes is that in all cases two thirds of the route are on quiet highways and secondary roads, they are all paved and you can choose the level of difficulty and distance you want to tackle that will best suit your training needs. They also all circle back to Drayton Valley, and/or you can combine several circles to increase ride distance without having to navigate exceptionally far from home.
Assuming you already know the basics of training for a cycling event, that your equipment is in working order, and that you have some knowledge on how to ride and share the road with vehicles, we are going to dive right into the routes.
Heading west out of town on 50th Ave, you will find yourself on Twp 492. This road forms what I would call the trunk from which all other routes take off from.
Training route 1: Twp 492 – RR80 – Lodgepole highway
Approximate distance: 20-25 km
After you crest the hill at Poplar Ridge on Twp 492 you will pick up speed heading downhill out of town, mid-way down the descent you will come across RR80 heading south.
This route begins with a descent, then follows a steady climb to the community of Violet Grove. Looking east you will see a beautiful view of Drayton Valley on the hill in the distance. To the west you will bike past some quiet farmlands, and acreages. The ascent to Violet Grove is gradual and is a great place to start if you are progressing from a hobbyist road cyclist to a weekend warrior.
Past Violet Grove you descend to the junction of AB-620 (Lodgepole Highway). Turning east back to Drayton Valley you will have another gradual climb. This highway does have industrial traffic but there are very wide shoulders, so do not be intimidated, just make sure you are visible and stay on the shoulder. After you crest the hill on the bend of the AB-620 you will have a speed descent nearly all the way back to Drayton Valley, with a ride out of a coulee just before the junction of AB-620 and Hwy 22.
If you continue east and enter Drayton Valley on the south entrance, the shoulder does get really narrow here. However, traffic is slower. Keep calm and stay in your lane.
My buddy and I did this ride this weekend and biking at a very relaxed pace it took about an 1 hr and 34 minutes to complete the 24km route.
Training route 2: TWP 492 – RR81 – Cynthia highway
Approximate distance: 25 km
If you take the downhill from Poplar Ridge all the way to the base then you will find yourself near RR81.
RR81 heading north is a very relaxed segment of this ride. With an exceptionally long and gradual uphill and long and gradual downhill there is minimum elevation gain so it is a great place to practice some tempo training. Heading east on the Cynthia highway, the shoulders are a nice width, and I have found the traffic is very good at giving cyclists space if possible.
You will find the downhill on RR81 is followed by more downhill on the Cynthia highway, that is until you come to a rather short but steep hill that will give you some great strength building riding resistance. Trudge through this and it is downhill all the way to Rocky Rapids.
Riding through Rocky Rapids, turn south on RR 73 to make your way back to town. This part of the ride is mostly uphill with a bit of reprieve from the airport road (Twp 494) to the bottom of the coulee.
This is a great ride to build strength and work on cadence, as long as you don’t catch industrial rush hour in the morning or around that 5 pm time frame the roads are pretty quiet.
Last year I took part in this ride with my kids on my way to my aunt’s house on RR84. They were in the bike carrier, we were loaded down with our camping gear, and clothes and with my weight and their weight we were hitting the max weight capacity of 200 lbs. It was slow going but doable and much more enjoyable than the ride back via RR85.
Training route 3: TWP 492 – RR 82 – Lodgepole highway
Approximate distance: 30.2 km
The newly paved RR82 has now opened up another training route that you can choose. At 30.2 km it is only 5 km to 10 km longer than our other routes and so a great stepping stone to longer distances.
Accessing RR82 is a steady climb, that will get your quads burning and your lungs huffing, but on the bright side you won’t have to do the complete hill climb you will be checking out just before the first false crest.
Once on RR82 there is a very gradual climb to Cottonwood Acres then it’s downhill to the Lodgepole highway. This is one ride where you can choose to combine with RR80 to limit your time on a busier highway, this change does not make your route any longer but it does add some variety to your training.
Once on the Lodgepole highway you head back to Drayton Valley the same way noted in the RR80 route. The ride between RR82 and RR80 on the Lodgepole highway is a pretty steady downhill, with decent shoulders.
Head into town on the southside entrance.
Training route 4 and 5: TWP 492 – RR 85 north or south
Approximate distance: 38 km – 40 km
Congratulations! You have crested the big long hill on Twp 492 and on a clear day you will see the awe inspiring Rocky Mountains to the southwest. I have driven, biked and walked this route and it never ceases to take my breath away. You will also find that you are now surrounded by thick forest and farmland.
If you want to catch your breath you can take a high speed coast to the RR85 junction then what do you do? Do you go north or south? Well, you can do either.
If you head north towards the Cynthia highway then you will be completing the actual DV40 route. There are definitely more hills heading this way. This is a good thing if you are looking to get some strength training in preparation for the big day but if you are looking for more
tempo work with fewer hills then I would head south at the junction and head to the Lodgepole highway.
On RR85 north there is a steady incline followed by downhill and a flat ride to the Cynthia highway. The ride on the Cynthia is a series of ups and downs, shoulders are average, and the industrial traffic is good about giving a wide berth. Follow the highway to Rocky rapids and then follow the same return route as noted in route #2.
My friend and I just completed the reverse RR85/Cynthia highway route. Going relatively easy, 70 perent heart rate, it took us about two hours to complete. We chose the reverse so that we finished in Drayton Valley’s fast food district where we treated ourselves to mushroom burgers and milkshakes. Oh yeah, that is what I call a fab finish.
If you head south then use RR85 for more tempo work as there are minimal hills to the Lodgepole highway. Heading home this route is great for tempo work, as you are on a general downhill slope until RR80 where you will do your first gradual ascent.
Both of these routes open up options to create a serpentine path back to town, to lengthen your ride and create some variety in both distance and terrain.
These five routes are a great starting place to get some serious saddle time close to home. They offer some beautiful views, a variety of terrain and can be tackled by all skill levels.
Winter time at Buck Lake
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Try these DV100 training routes
Just beyond the western borders of Drayton Valley is a series of township roads and secondary highways that creates an amazing training ground for anyone looking to tackle the DV100, DV60 or the DV40, this September.
To market, to market: Shopping downtown Drayton Valley
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Tips for beginner mountain bikers
Rocks, berms, extreme pitches, however you slice it, mountain biking is not for the faint of heart. But with a little can-do attitude and grit it can become a fun pastime during any age or stage of life. This summer Rae and Bell decided that they wanted to try something new. Although they were no strangers to road cycling, the purchase of a e-mountain bike got them off the asphalt onto the trail.
Three trips for your winter wonder list
Snowshoeing is a fun way to get outside, stretch your legs and add a little interest to your snowy winter walks. With the Eagle Point Provincial Park and Provincial Recreation area right on our doorstep there are endless places to explore by snowshoe. But for those of you who are just getting started here are three of my favourite places to get you going.
The rugged and refined in Alder Flats
So I have been telling you to explore your backyard and check out places like Evansburg, Breton and Eagle Point Provincial Park. But what about Alder Flats? What the heck is there to do in Alder Flats? To answer this question I have visited Alder Flats five times since July to have a new experience, discover a new place and give you guys some actionable ideas.
Drayton Valley now has additional continuing care beds, offering Alberta Health Services’ highest level of supportive living.
The 12 new Supportive Living Level 4 (SL4) beds are located in the Seasons Retirement Community on 47 Street. They are designed for people with more complex medical needs that are predictable and can be safely managed. That includes instances where an individual may require chronic disease management and assistance with some daily activities.
Breton Dental Clinic
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St. Anthony Catholic Church
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Dr. Chris Birchall Dentistry
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Seasons expects to open 12 more SL4 beds in Drayton Valley over the next several months.
“This is a great benefit for Drayton Valley,” said MLA Mark Smith in a media release. “Residents can be confident that they, or their loved ones, will be provided a high level of supportive living care right here in the community.”
SL4 beds were first introduced to the community last summer, when Seasons transitioned 16 beds in Drayton Valley. The decision to offer this higher level of care was made following a thorough review, and consideration of current and future needs of the community.
“I’m proud of the work we’re doing to increase choices and options for seniors,” said Lori Sparrow, AHS Senior Operating Officer, Seniors Health, Central Zone. “Providing more Albertans the opportunity to age in place, in familiar surroundings near family and loved ones, is an important cornerstone of enhancing care in the community.”
Once all new beds are added, Drayton Valley will have 40 SL4 beds. The aim is to ensure residents continue to receive the appropriate level of care while staying in the community as their needs change.
After concerns raised at a pair of public meetings late last year, interim CAO for Drayton Valley, Pat Vincent, demonstrated the Town’s commitment to businesses and residents by presenting council with a detailed report that spoke to a range of issues at the last Governance and Priorities meeting.
Erik Bergen, a local business owner, came forward on November 20 with a presentation he had put together after having two open meetings with businesses in the community earlier in the fall. In his presentation, Bergen highlighted three main areas of concern: the homeless population, Town services and communications, and the free enterprise market in the community.
Bergen outlined several of those concerns as well as possible solutions for council to consider.
In the report Vincent brought forward, there were five separate responses from management involved in the areas that the businesses had issue with.
Enforcement services touched on several areas brought forth by Bergen. This included listing the various bylaws and acts that already addressed many of the areas of concern with the homeless population. The Community Standards Bylaw, the Municipal Government Act, and provincial trespassing legislation combined cover sleeping in public places, public disruption, loitering, public urination and defecation, unauthorized encampments, open fire, storage of personal items, and dumpster diving.
Cody Rossing, the manager of enforcement services and emergency management, also outlined areas that the Town could consider to help bolster the current laws surrounding those issues, such as amendments to the Outdoor Restrictions Burning bylaw and some possible amendments to the Community Standards Bylaw.
Rossing also explained that Drayton Valley could not create its own lower level court system to deal with petty crimes. However, he did say the community could petition for more court dates in Drayton Valley, which would allow more time for the courts to deal with all matters.
“Currently, with the scheduling at the Drayton Valley Court of Justice, trial dates are occurring on the same days for criminal code matters, provincial matters and municipal bylaw matters,” he says in his report. “This often results in lower-level offences either being withdrawn, or deals made to have the lower-level items removed so time can be focused on criminal code matters.”
As far as public safety in regards to needles, Rossing says they received only one call in 2023 from a business owner. In the past six months the Town’s Occupational Health and Safety Department only had four reports of Town staff locating needles.
Lola Strand, the manager of community services for the Town, spoke to the number of homeless individuals in the community and the efforts made to address the issue.
She mentioned the 2023 study done by the Rural Development Network, that found there were more than 8,300 individuals in rural Alberta dealing with some sort of housing issue. In Drayton, there were 28 people without homes, 25 people accessing emergency shelters such as the shelter pods or warming hearts, 83 people who were provisionally accommodated through things like couch surfing, and 140 individuals who were at risk of homelessness due to precarious housing.
Strand spoke to the strain enforcement services were dealing with in regard to responding to complaints of unsheltered people. She says the Town received a grant to hire a Community Outreach Worker who is communicating with at-risk individuals to help connect them to resources.
She also pointed out that along with the temporary emergency shelters the Town has put into place, there are also 26 affordable housing units in the community. Humans Helping Humans, the local organization that currently runs the shelter pods, has also built nine homes with grants, donations, and volunteers that have helped 19 families move into the regular housing market.
Strand also suggested the Town could work with the province to build halfway houses, or using grant money to purchase seacans, or trailers that can provide shelters in the encampment around the landfill that many of the homeless population are currently using.
Jenn Stone with intergovernmental relations and communication for the Town, outlined the different ways that the Town communicates with its residents.
The Town has a threefold approach to communication: traditional media, social media, and direct communication.
With advertisements and news stories, the Town works with the Drayton Valley Free Press and Big West Country 92.9. They also have pages on social media, the Town’s website, and YouTube. The electronic sign located at 50 Street and 50 Avenue is also used for communications. On top of those methods, the Town has held open houses, public hearings, direct mail, and door-to-door notices.
By using these different options, the Town is providing several different methods of communication for all age demographics.
Public works also responded to the grievances in the report, specifically in regard to the insect population, weed control, and snow removal.
When it comes to pesticides and herbicides, the individual applying the substances has to be certified and trained in the use of the chemicals. If at any point the Town doesn’t have many employees that meet those criteria, it can be difficult for them to keep up with the applications.
When it comes to insects, the Town only sprays for stinging insects in public spaces. They work to stay on top of the issues and will follow up to check on activity. They also use the public portal the Town provides through their website, to learn about any issues that residents have raised a concern with.
Spraying for weeds also has its challenges. There are limited time frames in which the application will be effective, such as when the weeds are actively growing. Then they also have to work around the weather, as it won’t be as effective if it’s raining. If those two requirements are met, the Town also has to consider any events going on and provide notices to nearby businesses and residents before they begin spraying.
For snow removal on sidewalks, the Town currently clears 53.4 km of asphalt trails and sidewalks in the community. Prior to 2022, the Town was clearing sidewalks in the downtown core, however, an amendment to the snow removal policy in November 2022 removed the downtown core from areas to be cleared.
Public works says if they were to be responsible for removing snow from all sidewalks in the community, they would have to double their staff and equipment to keep up with it. They say it is a common issue with many municipalities and one that is becoming more and more challenging.
The report also addressed the business owners’ concerns surrounding a free market in the community.
Peter Vana, the interim general manager for planning and growth development in the community, says there are legal limits to what the Town can do in regards to limiting businesses.
Vana says the Municipal Government Act grants municipalities the power to regulate businesses, but not prohibit businesses. Vana provided examples of land use regulations in several communities to show the different ways that the issue can be approached.
Along with that, Vana made some suggestions that might help to alleviate the issue, such as making restaurants a discretionary use in all districts, providing varying business license fees, partnering with local businesses to help give them better strategies to succeed.
However, Vana also pointed out some issues with picking a particular sector to regulate. He says were the Town to put in regulations on franchises in the food industry, it should be applied to all industries across the board, including oil and gas, as well as retail, as companies like Walmart or Canadian Tire could be seen as a threat to local businesses.
Vana also mentions that many franchises are owned by local residents, so they are in many ways, just like other local businesses.
Other problems with restricting franchises that Vana brought forward included that the public would like to have competition as it offers options and keeps prices lower. He also pointed out, using pizza restaurants as an example, that there are eight restaurants that mainly sell pizza, nine other restaurants that sell pizza as a sideline, and two other businesses that occasionally sell pizza as well.
Vana questions whether or not the Town would have to be completely aware of the different items each restaurant sells when deciding whether a business should be allowed or not.
Council accepted the report as information after asking several questions of the departments. Vincent says he made the businesses aware the report was being discussed at the meeting, but there were no representatives for council to ask questions of.
The Town of Drayton Valley is looking to the future as the municipality works toward having the utilities in the community be self-sustaining services.
Elvera Thomson, the general manager of corporate services for the Town, says in the past, the surpluses from the Town’s utility operations could be anywhere from $2-3 million. Those surpluses didn’t necessarily go into a fund specifically for water and sewer, but there was lots of money being put into reserves in general.
However, there wasn’t a policy that dictated that a certain amount of funds from the water and sewer revenues had to be put in reserves.
“What ended up happening as the years went on and things got tough, we had a series of events that happened with Covid, cost of living, inflation, and more,” says Thomson. “To manage tax increases, we just put less and less into reserves.”
Now, with the looming bill of repairing and replacing integral infrastructure in the community, the Town is putting a policy in place that will ensure the surplus from the utility services will be put into a reserve fund specifically for infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
“We just got to a point where none [of the surpluses] was going into reserves and we need to get back putting a large portion of those going into an internally restricted reserve for water and sewer,” says Thomson.
Those funds will go toward replacing the aging systems for water and sewer in the community. That way, the Town will not have to rely so heavily on debt funding or government grants for the projects.
While the Town was advised by Matt Delormes with the Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network that they need to put away as much as they can to help offset future costs. He told them that the ideal number would be $8 million, but understood that it wasn’t always possible to reach that number.
Thomson says they will not be able to put that amount of money away, but they are now taking conscious steps toward building their reserves.
She says there are many small towns across the country that are in similar situations, as aging infrastructure hasn’t been at the forefront of anyone’s minds until problems are starting to occur.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” says Thomson. “It’s a provincial and federal problem as well.”
Thomson says that after World War II, there was an infrastructure boom across Canada, and many smaller communities were able to expand. This means that most of that infrastructure is coming due around the same time, and the municipalities are going to be looking toward the provincial and federal government to help with the costs of replacement.
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Grant delay impact education assistant funding
Brad Volkman, the superintendent for WRSD, says in the past the funding has come through quickly and without any issues. The grant money is to be used to provide support and services to indigenous youth in the school division.
“Historically, these grants have been approved at the regional level, enabling us to offer critical services without interruption. Based on this expectation, we hired several additional Educational Assistants for the start of the 2024–2025 school year for the purpose of providing support to eligible First Nations students,” says a press release from WRSD.
Human rights tribunal couldn’t meet time demands
However, the Federal Government is currently backlogged when it comes to the grant. A Human Rights Tribunal was held to look into the funding, as it is supposed to be issued quickly as some requests for funds are urgent. They have since ordered the government to take action.
On December 10, 2024, Indigenous Services Canada responded in a report that it was not possible for them to meet the demands of the Tribunal.
Because there is no answer as to when the funding might come through, WRSD had to make the decision for layoffs as they had not budgeted for the positions outside of the grant.
The policy within WRSD is that when layoffs occur, those who are on probationary status, which is 120 days, are the first to be let go. There were 35 part-time and full-time EAs let go because of this policy. However, not all of them worked with Jordan’s Principle students.
One non-probationary EA was laid off, and the remaining ten were voluntary lay-offs, says Volkman.
“What happens is the probationary ones, due to collective agreement requirements, are laid off first, but then we can offer more tenured EAs those positions,” says Volkman.
He says the voluntary lay-offs were EAs working with Jordan’s Principle students who were offered positions with students who have more complex needs. Volkman says they declined the positions and had to be laid off.
“It’s not easy for them because in some cases the job they were offered would have been less hours or [perhaps] they would have been in a location that required them to drive a further distance,” says Volkman.
There are still 95 full-time EAs in the inclusive education department.
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Weather, Insurance and Volunteers an issue
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
The ski hill was built by volunteers and has been running with volunteers since then. Funding was partially provided by grants, fundraising, and rental and usage fees for the hill. These funds went toward bills like insurance and electricity. They were also used for the maintenance of the ski hill and the equipment. None of the volunteers were paid for their time.
When Beckett stepped into the role of president about eight years ago, the club was in debt and the equipment was in need of repair. A government grant of $17,000 and a massive fundraiser in the community gave them enough money to fix things up.
To round out their services, Beckett says they began to offer tubing. The club recognized that not everyone wanted to ski or were able to ski. Tubing was available to everyone and was less hard on the body. Each of the tubes was sponsored by a company, with the funds going toward the maintenance of the hill.
However, the lack of snow over the past few seasons has meant less use of the ski hill, and therefore less funds coming in.
“Unfortunately, Mother Nature has not been kind to us,” says Beckett.
In 2023, much of the local area didn’t have snow for Christmas. Beckett says the ski hill didn’t even open in the 2023/24 season.
“In my seven or eight years, we only opened three years because of snow,” says Beckett.
Insurance companies stepping away from offering coverage to ski hills
Then there was the issue with insurance. After a court case in B.C. where a customer sued a ski resort, many insurance companies stepped away from offering insurance to ski hills. Beckett says there are now only three underwriters in the world who will consider insuring a ski hill.
“Eleven of us little hills got our insurance canceled [a couple of] years ago,” says Beckett.
Previously, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta covered the insurance of the ski hill. When the insurance was cancelled through RMA, they had to find a new underwriter. The bill for the season was $24,000.
“Our insurance was $24,000 last year and we didn’t open,” says Beckett.
Finding volunteers to work the ski hill has also been a challenge.
“Everybody has so many different directions to go now in their lives,” he says. “They have just about everything except for time.”
On average, it took ten volunteers to run the ski hill each day. Beckett and his wife had a list of about 80 volunteers they could call on. However, there were times when they called all of those people and none of them were available to fill a shift for someone who had to cancel.
All three of those factors were at play when Beckett received a call from the insurance company in preparation for this season. They needed Beckett to go through everything on the property again, as they felt much of the equipment and the chalet were undervalued.
Beckett explained to them that it didn’t matter what the replacement value was for the chalet or the lift. If they failed or burned down, Beckett says the club would have to close.
With that in mind, he had put in a lower value for the chalet and other items as they would never be using the insurance to replace them. That was the only way they would be able to afford to run the ski hill. The insurance company explained that if he didn’t cover it for at least 90 percent of the replacement value they would get nothing.
“I said take the insurance off of it, I’ll take the risk,” he says.
Then the insurance company started going into details about the rental equipment, and how all of the people renting the bindings and skis had to be trained by the manufacturers in how to use them.
“What the real issue is, when it comes to insurance companies, is they do not like volunteer organizations in any way,” says Beckett. “Every one of these 11 hills that got their insurance cancelled, I believe, were volunteer organizations.”
Beckett says they feel that the volunteer organizations are unstable, as the volunteers can change regularly and with little notice.
The rental items for the ski hill will be auctioned off by Team Auctions on their December 7 sale. The property will be sold in the new year.
The Free Press asks – “What are your fondest memories of the Drayton Valley Ski Hill?”
“This fills me with nostalgia and gratitude! I started skiing at this hill at just two years old, and it ignited my love for skiing. My parents nurtured my passion by enrolling me in a ski program, and I spent countless weekends racing and growing. Our hill may not have been the biggest, but it was a place we were able to be kids at while not playing hockey or ringette. My dad and papa selflessly served as ski patrols for years, and we reveled in every moment we spent there. My papa’s dedication to the hill was remarkable as he had welded so many pieces there making it the hill it was today, and I’m deeply thankful for the volunteers who helped shape it into the haven it became. All three of my boys learned to ski on this hill, and I’m forever grateful for the escape and liberation it brought us.” – Leslie Anne Fraizer
“I learned to ski on the hill, my kids learned to ski on the hill. We’ve had many get-togethers on the hill with family and friends. As a volunteer I got to see so many littles learn to ski/snowboard and then advance to be on their own then onto the T-bar. They all get excited when they get to go on the big hill. I’ve spent many hours volunteering there as I was on the board for 20+ years and even when my kids weren’t skiing I was there.It was a great hill for many to learn on, it was in our backyard. When we decided to make the tube part it brought more families out which was great to see. It truly will be missed as I wanted my grandkids to learn how to ski/board this year on it.” – Georgia Frost
“Ooh, so many memories of the ski hill. But I would say the best was learning to snowboard there and getting courage to do the jumps off the hills … It was always fun since it was me and my sister. We had a blast, racing down getting to the bottom and the wind burnt faces ‘cause of it.” – Tricia Cottreau
“I was on the tow rope when a porcupine decided to cross… apparently the rope had enough give to allow the people to push a big loop in it. We were able to continue up the hill and the porcupine was able to continue on its walk about” – Helen Maine
“I have so many memories there as a teen in the mid 1980s… from trying to perfect the “daffy”, “backscratchers” and the “kusak” amongst learning how to telemark. This little hill with amazing volunteers taught a ton of youth some amazing skills while maintaining a very safe and supportive environment. I am a ski patrol today because of this little hill and the “gnarly” atmosphere back in the 80s that let youth hone their skills for the mountains.” – Jon Setterlund
“Watching my son Max snowboard for the first time! And he struggled with the T-bar but never gave up!” – Kathy Schwengler
“The time I knocked myself out cold. Couldn’t stop and hit a pole. That was my last time on skis. I now snowboard. I don’t think there’s any photos of that adventure…got a free sled ride behind the skidoo!!” – Jane Marie Ellis
“When Devon broke his arm, all the other kids that broke something and the fact that we all thought we had fresh pow days” – Gord Graham
“Donna and Val Palmer encouraged me to get my Level 1 ski instructor certification and teach ski lessons at the hill. I have so many memories of teaching kids and adults basic skills for skiing. My favourite memories include the Grade 5 visits and instructing a whole class on the tow rope hill. What a great introduction for those kids- who may have never been exposed to skiing.” – Astrid Mitchell
With an increase in demand for the Drayton Valley Food Bank, volunteers are concerned the facility may not keep up for much longer.
Heather and Phil Bell, the vice president and treasurer respectively, have been with the Food Bank for several years. During that time they’ve noticed a concerning trend in the uptick of users.
So far this year, they have given out hampers to 2,275 people, a stark contrast to the 2023 number of 1,653. Last year was a record year for hampers and this year has blown it out of the water.
Alberta food bank sees increased demand
The Bells says a lot of the hampers are going to families who have parents that work.
“The Food Bank, I feel, is an essential service right now, considering the need,” says Phil. “It’s something that’s heavily relied on.”
If things continue the way they have been, they’re expecting to hand out 2,556 hampers by the end of the year.
“It’s not just a blip, either,” says Phil. “This is going to continue on.”
Phil says that though they’ve seen increased usage, the generosity of the community has continued to keep up with the demand. Between food donations from local stores and food drives, the food bank has already received around $270,000 of in-kind donations.
“We have such a generous community,” says Heather. “It’s amazing.”
Heather says they are grateful for the building they’re in and the Town’s generosity in letting them use it for free. She says the location is perfect because it allows people more privacy than a location in a busier part of the community.
“But we’re outgrowing the building,” says Heather. “We’re at the point with our freezer and fridge capacity that the building can’t take anymore fridges and freezers without upgrading the electrical system.”
Space is a challenge for Drayton Valley food bank
Fridge and freezer space are vital in the Christmas season. Heather says in the past, they’ve had to turn away donations of a side of beef because they don’t have the space. Some companies have set up freezers in their buildings and offered the extra storage. Some volunteers also store some items as well.
The Bells say a sea can or some other place where they could store dried goods would be extremely helpful, as well. As it is, they have to store enough food in their building for roughly 30 hampers each pick up day.
At the beginning of November, the volunteers changed their system, and now only offer hampers on Thursdays. Phil says one recent hamper day saw volunteers hand out 86 hampers in three hours.
Creating that many food hampers also has its challenges. There isn’t a lot of room to put the hampers together and organize them, though Heather says they’ve developed a good system. Volunteers are now prebuilding hampers with dried goods for different sizes of families. On pick up days, all they have to do is go to the fridge and freezer to top the hamper off, and it can go out the door.
Thanks to a grant from the Family and Community Support Services, the Food Bank now has a part-time employee that can help with a lot of the administrative tasks. However, some recent Standards of Excellence put forth by the Federal Government is putting pressure on them as well.
The Standards of Excellence requires all Food Banks to have certain policies and procedures in place if they want to continue to be registered with Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks Canada.
Heather says it’s a great idea in theory, but the 78 page document is a massive undertaking for a busy food bank run by volunteers. Their employee is working on some of the documents, but it’s still a challenge.
“A lot of them are great ideas, but for small food banks, it’s quite overwhelming to comply with that,” says Heather.
Originally, the food banks had until March 2025 to have everything in place, but after feedback, they’ve given the smaller food banks more time to work on it.
The Bells say there are many ways for the community to help out the food bank and they won’t turn down donations if they can help it. They have more volunteers who are going through the orientation and are grateful for the continuing generosity of the community.
Community members often perform their civic duties in a variety of ways; some vote, most pay their taxes, and some volunteer their time.
The initiative, This Is Drayton Valley (TIDV), is hoping to make it easier for residents to find ways they can volunteer in their community. They’ve launched an online platform, www.lets-volunteer.com, that helps connect organizations to residents who are looking for a place to volunteer their time.
Jessica Doucette, the chair of the Healthy Community Coalition, says the idea for the platform first began when the HCC were brainstorming ways to offer programs for the clients in the Youth Hub. The biggest obstacle was finding volunteers to help out with the programs.
“We came up with this idea about creating an online platform that would make it easier for people to access volunteer opportunities,” says Doucette.
She says at that time, they were mostly considering the Youth Hub and looking for younger volunteers. They felt that an online platform would be the best way to reach out to that demographic.
When Kickstand Alberta became the parent organization of the Youth Hub, they found more challenges. As they were a newer provincial body, they weren’t ready to take on the project for all of their Youth Hubs. Doucette says rather than scrap the idea, they decided to offer it to the larger community.
“We realized it was actually an issue for everybody,” she says.
Originally, they had approached the Chamber of Commerce, who had already tried to make a similar platform. But as the HCC works under the Red Cross, they were told it wasn’t appropriate for them to work with an organization that only represented businesses. They continued to look and finally connected with Ryan Fynn, one of the founders of TIDV, to bring the idea to life.
The platform has been active for a couple of weeks, now, and as of November 22, there were 14 volunteers and 12 organizations on the site.
Fynn says the platform is similar to dating websites, in that the volunteers input information into a profile and then they can be matched with an organization that would best suit them. He says volunteers are encouraged to list things they are passionate about, their relevant skills, experience as a volunteer, how much time they want to commit, and which days they are open to help. Organizations can search for volunteers based on those parameters.
“For an example, River Valley Players is looking for a part-time musical director,” says Fynn. “If a volunteer says they are passionate about music, they will be connected to them.”
Doucette says the platform can also help people connect with someone with specific skills. “We just recently did a survey through the community parenting coalition, and we found that there’s a large majority of people that are willing to share their gifts with others,” says Doucette. “We just don’t ask the right questions.”
Fynn says it would also work well for finding volunteers for events. By listing their events and indicating what’s all involved in the positions, residents with profiles can find them and help out.
“We are excited to increase our capacity for care,” said Nicole Almost, Senior Regional Director, Resident and Guest Services, Seasons Retirement Communities. “We have continued to see the demand for this level of care rise, and this allows us to support even more residents and help keep more people in their local community.”
Town responds to business concerns
Drayton Valley addresses homelessness, public safety, Town services, and free enterprise issues through detailed reports, communication strategies, and community solutions.
Drayton Valley builds reserves
Drayton Valley, Alberta, is planning for sustainable utilities by building reserves for future water and sewer infrastructure.
Jordan’s Principle Grant funding delays are disrupting education in an Alberta schools
As of December 20, Wild Rose School Division will be laying off 46 Educational Assistants due to the division not receiving the Jordan’s Principle grant from the Federal Government.
Drayton Valley Ski Hill Closes After 60 Years | Challenges with Weather, Insurance, and Volunteers
After 60 years of operation in the community, the Drayton Valley ski hill has closed its doors.
Randy Beckett, the president of the Drayton Valley Brazeau Snow Club, says there were three main factors that went into the decision to shut down: weather, insurance, and lack of volunteers.
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She also feels strongly about the seniors in the community, who have contributed so much of their efforts to make Drayton Valley the town that it currently is.
“I felt that it was past due for our town to give back to our seniors and help them out as much as possible. Without them we wouldn’t have had a town to call home.”
Driessen says the project has taken a while to put together. “It’s been in the works for quite a few years and we have to thank [many] for their contributions. It’s been a community collaboration without a doubt.”
Newberry says she is also grateful for the generosity and hard work of community members, including one local hockey team, that were able to ensure the project was a success.
Driessen says this service isn’t just for medical appointments. She says in some cases that means getting groceries, going to the pharmacy, or sometimes, the polls for an election.
“We will be providing a special in town service every Wednesday, so that our seniors can go shopping and get their groceries or medications along with their senior discounts,” says Newberry.
There will be a fee for the service, says Driessen. The Town researched and found a reasonable cost comparison with cab services in the community. Driessen says it will be comparable to cab services. “It does, of course, give a bit of a break,” she says.
In the future, Driessen says they would like to see some public funding allotted to the service to help lower the cost for those who need it.
Newberry says that paying for the service is set up with a digital payment service, allowing family members to easily help out their loved ones.
“It will work on digital payment service program where a family member or the person (senior or disabled) can purchase a prepaid visa gift card. Every time a person needs a ride the card will be debited the amount of the ride. Until the card is used up. Then it’s a matter of reloading it with money at that time. Could be a great Christmas gift from family to a loved one,” she says.
Those who are interested in registering their family for the service can contact Drake’s Handi Bus at 780-542-8706.
