Year-in-Review: Olds Mayor Dan Daley reflects on busy 2025

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“That’s really helped the town position itself for the future,” he said.

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Furthermore, Daley said they’ve prioritized infrastructure for the town, including maintaining what they already have. He said they’ve focused on infrastructure that was in need of maintenance to help build a strong foundation for Olds into the future.

The 2025 municipal election was also held last October, where Daley, who served just one term as a councillor beforehand, was elected mayor.

He said it was a self-humbling process to go through, but added that the process was great for gathering information from constituents on their needs.

“I’m very happy with the council we have, and I’m looking forward to some great things we’re going to do in the next four years,” he added.

Daley said one of the biggest challenges this past year was the sale of O-Net, a community-owned organization that provided high-speed internet and phone services.

He explained it was a difficult process for council to go through and that they are still just finishing up the final remnants of that, but within 2026, he said, the process should be completed.

In addition, he said the town council worked hard on creating more housing in the community. When they first started, Olds completed a housing needs report for the first time, which he said revealed a 0.65 per cent vacancy rate. Also within that report were suggestions and findings that were needed in town in terms of accessible and affordable housing.

He explained they are now starting to see some results following the information received from the report. He added that investors and developers have come to town and are building apartment buildings, condos, duplexes, and more.

“We’ve made some great strides, and some of those things are dire needs for our community. They were things that were outside our control, but we were able to influence them by doing the study and by having our administration talk to those developers to come to Olds,” Daley said.

Looking ahead to 2026, he said town council hopes to continue to maintain and repair key infrastructure.

The mayor said Olds is home to some great facilities, such as the Olds Sportsplex, that require repair. The town is starting to look at investing some money into those facilities so they can continue to be useful for citizens for years to come.

Daley added that economic development is going to be a strong driver headed into the new year.

“We’ve got to keep our eyes open there… That’s also a big part of the foundation going forward is that we attract industry and commercial businesses to Olds to operate and help us with our tax base.”