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By Ian Gustafson

Looking back

Year-in-Review: Red Deer County mayor Brent Ramsay reflects on exciting year

Dec 25, 2025 | 8:00 AM

Red Deer Mayor Brent Ramsay says he’s proud of what Red Deer County was able to accomplish in 2025.

Ramsay was elected mayor in October, taking over for former mayor Jim Wood, after serving as a councillor for a number of years.

He said he’s most proud of getting the council up to speed and off to a great start following the election.

“So far, things have been working really well, you know, we got through budget, our strategic plan, and a few other things. It’s looking really good,” he said.

Some of his highlights from the past year include P&H Milling Group constructing a new state-of-the-art flour mill that’s on track to open in the third quarter of 2026. The project was announced in 2024 with ongoing construction underway.

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Ramsay said the mill will be a huge asset to the area.

“That in itself will be a huge win for our agriculture producers in the area and will attract other businesses to our region as well,” he said.

This year, the county and the City of Red Deer adopted a new Intermunicipal Development Plan.

The two municipalities had previously been operating with an IDP that was set in 2007. The new updated plan set a renewed vision for collaboration between the city and county.

Ramsay said those discussions to update the plan had been ongoing for quite some time and added it was overdue.

“I think we strengthened our relationship with them, and I’m looking forward to continuing that with their new mayor as well,” he said.

In November, the county announced that construction for a new roundabout and parking lot expansion for the 290-acre Junction 42 business park had been completed.

The project was a long time coming in a successful partnership between Red Deer County and the Government of Alberta.

Ramsay said the new road, “Airport Way,” which is an extension of Airport Drive at the Red Deer Regional Airport in Springbrook, is another huge win for the community.

“Opening up that road and opening up 200 acres of airside development, I think, is another thing for our region that’s going to really start to attract some significant development in the near future,” Ramsay added.

This year has also had its fair share of challenges for Ramsay and the county council, including the election. Following the 2025 municipal election, five of the six councillor positions are held by newly elected councillors.

“You lose a really good chunk of the year focused on the election, so I think any time you slow government down even slower than it usually is, certainly is a challenge,” he said.

Meantime, Red Deer County council approved the 2026-2028 operating budget and the 2026-2030 capital budget earlier this month.

The operating budget for 2026 was approved for $64 million, and the capital budget at $36.4 million for a total budget of $100.4 million.

Ramsay said there was concern during the campaign about where the county was financially, but said they outlined a path to more sustainability.

“I was really proud of the way they hit the budget hard right at the beginning and made some significant cuts to our capital plan,” he said. “Doing that alone has sped up our path to sustainability by one full year. Now, we’re looking at 2028, starting to contribute to reserves and no new debt.”

He added that council is committed to looking at the county’s service levels in the strategic plan. This means exploring more of the operational side to see if they can find reductions to make sure the services they’re providing are being done most efficiently and affordably. He said that it will be an ongoing task in the new year.

“Hopefully, we’ll have some of that work completed before we set mill rates in the springtime and further increase our fiscal responsibility.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Ramsay said the biggest challenge will be how much information they can get to the new council and how quickly. And making sure the information that’s coming is the right stuff to keep moving forward on.

He added that there’s a lot of optimism heading into 2026 in the work they’re doing and the key things set in the strategic plan.

“The challenge is some of those are tied to previous decisions or information they might need to make a decision to move forward on an item,” he said.

One of the biggest items council hopes to accomplish in 2026 includes engaging municipal partners in the region and looking at how the county can start implementing regional collaboration into action.

They also plan on reducing red tape, which was identified as a top priority for council.

“Talking to some residents during the campaign, it became very clear that there are still some areas where we can be more efficient,” he said. “We’ve done a really good job at being business-friendly and attracting business, but I think we can do some more work on the permitting side and speeding up some of our approvals.”

In closing, Ramsay said he believes the environment around council has been much more positive and optimistic.

This is due to some of the newest additions who’ve brought new points of view.

“When you get that much turnover on a council, it really freshens the perspective and changes a lot of things… I’m just excited to keep that momentum going, and as I said, council is just getting started, and it’s going to be exciting to see what we can accomplish.”