(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

A "ROBUST" YEAR FOR THE TOWN

Growing and grieving: 2024 in Innisfail

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Mayor Jean Barclay says 2024 was a “robust” year for the Town of Innisfail, despite the unfortunate challenge of losing councillor, colleague and friend, Don Harrison.

Harrison previously served as Innisfail’s mayor and took on two terms as a councillor. He passed on Nov. 1, after a battle with cancer, which Barclay says was the Town’s largest and most upsetting challenge for the year.

“That’s been difficult for all of us and especially his family, of course. He wasn’t just a council colleague; he was a dear friend of all of ours,” she comments. “We miss his input and his experience and just his overall kindness to all of us.”

Read more: Town of Innisfail issues statement on passing of Councillor Don Harrison

Despite the loss, Barclay says 2024 was a strong year for the town, with development permits doubled from last year’s numbers and at a level she hasn’t seen in a decade.

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Some of these permits included housing starts and multi-unit builds, as well as commercial developments. Barclay was happy to see this change but acknowledged that housing is still an issue to be addressed moving forward.

Most notably, Innisfail has been chosen as the location for Deep Sky Labs, a carbon removal innovation and commercialization centre. The facility will utilize different emerging technologies to essentially vacuum carbon from the air and is the first of its kind in the world.

Read more: Innisfail welcoming world’s first carbon removal innovation and commercialization centre

“Economic development has been top of mind since we started this term and we’re certainly seeing the fruits of that vision and that the hard work that administration puts into that,” Barclay reflects.

Innisfail was also busy with community activities throughout the year, including farmers’ markets, a Harvest Festival, Festival of Trees, hosting the 2024 Canadian Junior Boys Golf Championship and more.

“It seemed like there were not a lot of weekends where something wasn’t happening,” the Mayor says.

Read more: Canadian Junior Boys Golf Championship teeing off in central Alberta

Looking forward to 2025, Barclay hopes to see progress made in addressing the Town’s Aquatic Centre conundrum. The current facility is about 40-years-old and aging out and initially, the Town was hoping to construct a new facility attached to its arenas to upgrade the service.

The mayor said that plan has unfortunately been put on hold due to inflated costs and challenges in securing provincial funding. Instead, there is a plan to upgrade the existing facility, pending a federal grant the town applied for in October. Barclay said the projected cost of the upgrades is not set in stone but could be around $10-12 million. The Town is expecting to hear back on their grant application in early spring.

Whether that project will move forward under Barclay is yet to be determined, as October 2025 marks the next round of municipal elections in Alberta.

Barclay has not yet announced if she will be running as a mayoral candidate in the next election but reiterates that she loves her job, and says she will decide in the new year.

Regardless, there’s still much to look forward to before the end of her current term.

“I feel that there’s a lot of momentum that is built for the community over the last two or three years and we’re starting to see the fruits of that labour. We put an awful lot of work into telling our story outside of our boundaries and engaging with stakeholders across the province, and I feel that’s paying off for us,” she says. “

Through 2025, she intends to continue telling the story of Innisfail’s investment and community potential.