By Greg Higgins

City and town must come together to keep river valley strong: Mayor

Dec 1, 2016 | 2:05 PM

The Battlefords River Valley isn’t in jeopardy, but tough decisions have to be made about its future moving forward.

The river valley between North Battleford and the town of Battleford is a destination hot spot for both communities. It provides trails along the North Saskatchewan River which separates town and city.

Half of the funding for its upkeep and growth has come from the province and then matched by both the town and city. Over the past summer however, the province decided to cut $86,000 worth of funding due the billion dollar deficit it faces.

North Battleford Mayor, Ryan Bater, said though the cutting of funding is a big blow, the river valley is not in peril.

“It’s too important of a resource,” Bater said. “It’s not just the emotional connection that the people of the Battlefords have to the river valley; it’s the economics of it. It is a real destination area. A lot of people travel from far away to come and enjoy what we have here.”

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Bater said there are now two obstacles since the province has pulled funding. First is to develop a new governance structure for the River Valley Board and second is to develop a capital budget in order to address not only maintenance, but any future projects.

According to Bater the maintenance shouldn’t be a problem. Future projects however, could be tricky.

“It would require a lot of planning and that’s where a good governance structure comes into play,” Bater said. “This is where the relationship between city and town comes into play.”

Bater added both communities will include the river valley in their budget deliberations.

Bater also said projects were being conducted over the summer assuming provincial funding was available. Luckily the board saved enough to finish them.

“We have no half-finished holes in the ground or foundation set with nothing on it,” Bater said. “There was no disruption but there was a fear of it. We had enough money in reserves to complete them but the future is the question mark.”

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.