Town of Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay believes despite the challenging unknowns residents had to face this year, the community has remained strong together and look forward to many projects ahead for 2022. (Town of Innisfail)

By Alessia Proietti and Sheldon Spackman

2021 year-end review: Quiet time needed

Rest and regroup into the new year, says Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay

Dec 30, 2021 | 4:40 PM

Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay hopes this holiday season provides a period of rest for residents after a challenging year.

“It’s been a lot of pressure on a lot of people and everyone’s tired. Hopefully people can have some quiet time over Christmas and regroup,” said Mayor Barclay.

Like most of the world, the mayor says 2021 has been a difficult year because of the pandemic, with the closure of businesses, lockdowns, and uncertainties.

“Just the unknown is stressful for people. It puts a lot of strain on the municipality as well. As far as the budget goes, we were very uncertain this year how things were going to work out and how much impact there would be to things like utility revenue and tax revenue; so it was just a lot of unknowns,” she said.

Despite the obstacles, Barclay credits the community’s generosity for the town’s progress over the past 12 months.

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Apart from the increase in development with more commercial and residential building permits, the town also broke its record for most donations raised during its 25^th annual Charity Checkstop. On Dec. 11, locals donated two truckloads of toys and new clothing, 292 kilograms of food and a total of $17, 181.05 in funds.

“The community has really rallied around the challenges and it seems to be kind of a happy place, shall I say,” said Barclay.

The top priority for next year, she says, is to focus on economic development for the town.

The 2022 approved budget contained a slight tax increase of two per cent, the first increase since 2014. Included in the budget is the addition of a new outdoor skating rink, a few playgrounds with one fully accessible, and plans to move forward with designing a new multiplex/aquatic centre which began 18 months prior.

With $7 million worth of capital projects in the works, $650,000 is set to refurbish the heliport near the hospital that was taken out of operation a few years back for being non-compliant.

Hopeful for a brighter 2022, Barclay believes Innisfail will continue to make it through if the community stays true to who they are.

“A large part of the community, they really came together to help each other and I think that would be very much who Innisfail is,” she said.

“We have to make sure, as frustrating as it can be at times, that we look after each other and, as I’ve said all along, we’re much better together.”