Council Highlights

February 24, 2025

2024 Innovation Awards Winner Recognition — The County of Grande Prairie aims to foster a culture of innovation within its organization. A campaign between June and November 2024 encouraged staff to nominate individuals and teams who demonstrated exceptional innovation within the County. A total of 27 nominations were received for the three award categories: Best Created Solutions, Best Drivers of Change, and Best Positive Impact. 

February 10, 2025 

Veterans Memorial Garden and Interpretive Centre Funding Awarded — Council approved the $5,000 funding request from the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association (CMTA) for the Veterans Memorial Garden and Interpretive Centre. CMTA runs the Veterans Memorial Gardens & Interpretive Centre in the City of Grande Prairie. The project started in 2017, as a place to teach the community about the military history in northwest Alberta. Since 2019, the County has awarded $20,600 in grants to the initiative.

January 27, 2025

Aquatera Utility Bylaw Approved — Council gave final reading to Bylaw #3246 Aquatera Utility Bylaw as presented. The new bylaw includes a 4.5 per cent annual increase in water and wastewater utility services, effective March 1, 2025. Residential Clairmont customers are expected to see an increase of approximately $5.69/per month, while remaining County residential customers on Aquatera systems will see an increase of approximately $5.34/per month. While Aquatera continues to explore opportunities to avoid increasing costs, periodic increases are required to ensure the rate matches the cost of delivering essential services. Over the next four years, Aquatera will be undertaking a significant capital infrastructure addition and replacement cycle.

January 13, 2025

Clairmont Municipal Police Service Agreement — Council approved signing the Clairmont Municipal Police Service Agreement as received from Public Safety Canada, permitting the County of Grande Prairie to enter into the agreement establishing the municipal RCMP service contract in the Hamlet of Clairmont, effective April 1, 2025. The Alberta Police Act indicates that when a village (the Act treats hamlets as if they were villages) reaches a population greater than 5,000, the local municipality is required to provide policing services. The Act provides some options for doing so, including contracting the RCMP. In 2022, the Province of Alberta provided an estimated population for Clairmont at 5,135. In response, County administration worked alongside representatives from Public Safety Canada to formalize the new agreement.

December 16, 2024 

November 25, 2024

Action on Unsold Tax Sale Properties — Council directed Administration to bring the unsold properties from 2022, 2023 and 2024 with additional information to a future Committee of the Whole meeting for discussion. The County’s Land and Development Services department will review these parcels and provide future recommendations on how to proceed.

November 12, 2024

Municipal Census Demographic Report — Council received the 2024 Municipal Census Demographic Report as information. The report outlined results of the municipal census conducted by the County of Grande Prairie from April 3 to July 2, 2024. With a strong 95.2 per cent response rate, the census revealed that the County has a population of 26,701 residents, an increase of 5,500 residents since the 2012 census. Clairmont stands out as the largest hamlet in the County and the third largest in Alberta. Additionally, 61.9 per cent of respondents reported having a family physician in the Grande Prairie region. Read the media release for additional information.

County of Grande Prairie Releases 2024 Census Results   

October 30, 2024

Cellular Upgrades at the County Community Services Building — Council approved a five-year rental contract for a new distributed antenna system (DAS) to enhance cellular service at the County Community Services Building. Council directed Administration to proceed with the procurement process of the equipment and that the project be included in the 2025 operational budget. 

October 21, 2024

Organizational Meeting – The County held the annual organizational meeting in which Division 5 Councillor Bob Marshall was acclaimed as Reeve and Division 1 Councillor Amanda Frayn was acclaimed as Deputy Reeve. For details, see the media release.