New industrial development can finally proceed on a 60-acre brownfield site in southwest Innisfail now that the provincial authorities have lifted a restriction that prevented redevelopment of the site.
Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay broke the news near the end of town council’s Agenda & Priorities Meeting on April 4.
“We’ve got the green light to go ahead on the industrial land development that we’ve been waiting on,” said Barclay. “That was really good news we’ve heard. It has been a long time.”
The town has longed tagged the 60-acre property for industrial expansion. It is the cornerstone for the long-term vision outlined in the recently released Innisfail Economic Development Strategy & Tactical Plan, also known as Power of Place.
“It’s an important step for our economic development strategy when you see the focus is on manufacturing, energy and agri-business. This type of land in this zoning fits that perfectly. It’s a big step for us,” said Barclay.
“There has been a lot of work that has taken place on that land and not being able to move forward has been a huge barrier for us because we do have interested parties.
“Over the next while administration and council will be developing a vision for the industrial park. We’re just in the very early stages. It’s very exciting news for Innisfail.”
When the town connected into the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater System in 2015, the site underwent $9 million worth of remediation backed by the federal and provincial governments.
But the joint funding contract the town signed with the federal and provincial governments prevented the town from proceeding with redevelopment of the site immediately.
Innisfail chief administrative officer Todd Becker said there were “limitations” on the contract in receiving federal and provincial dollars to remediate the lagoon lands that prevented the town from moving forward with redevelopment of the property for a period of five years following sign-off.
He said the town had to meet certain environmental conditions to get formal sign-off. Yet there were delays getting approvals with the federal and former NDP provincial government, and in the early years of the UCP regime.
But in November, shortly after last October’s general municipal election, Barclay met with Ric McIvor, the provincial minister of municipal affairs, at an Alberta Municipalities conference to discuss the problem.
“It was very positive,” said Barclay of the meeting.
Just over three months later in Innisfail, Barclay then had the chance, with support from Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Devin Dreeshen, to meet with Premier Jason Kenney who was in town on March 2 to announce a four-year, $390-million broadband strategy.
“He was very interested. After that brief meeting we sent a letter to Premier Kenney and we got a response from him that he was reaching out to minister McIvor’s office and wanted to see this fixed,” said Barclay.
The all-important call from the province’s municipal affairs ministry arrived March 30, giving Innisfail the green light to proceed with industrial development immediately without having to wait five years before sign-off.
“This is good news for the town of Innisfail and (we) definitely appreciate the work of the provincial government in their own areas of responsibility and their communications with the federal government to move forward with advancing this development,” said Becker.
While several issues still need to be sorted out between the provincial and federal governments, Meghan Jenkins, the town’s director of community services, said the town has prepared preliminary infrastructure concept plans for the site in anticipation of redevelopment.
