BARRHEAD – Thanks, but no thanks.
That is the County of Barrhead's response to Alberta Minister of Culture Ron Orr's invitation to the municipality to host the province's 2024 Winter or Summer Games.
Orr made the invitation through a form letter to all municipalities.
Councillors were about to dismiss the invitation out of hand during their March 1 meeting, passing it for information (which they eventually did) when Coun. Walter Preugschas suggested that they seriously consider it.
Orr encouraged communities to consider hosting the games, stating there would be several economic benefits for the community that wins the bid.
"The Alberta Games are key in Alberta's Recovery Plan and provide an economic impact of approximately $3 million to a host community," he said. "A successful host community is offered the opportunity to showcase its community and talents to approximately 3,000 participants from all regions of the province, along with numerous spectators and special guests."
Orr also encouraged communities of less than 10,000 to collaborate with their neighbours to submit a joint bid or to consider modifying the format of the games.
The successful bidder will receive a $420,000 operating grant.
"I think it is something we should support," Preugschas said. "Is there some way we could work with the town and perhaps Westlock to host it? It has a lot of economic development potential."
Coun. Bill Lane and Preugschas both noted it is something the communities have done in the past.
In 2013, the Barrhead and Westlock communities, both towns and counties, successfully hosted the Alberta 55+ Games.
"It was a big job, and we had a lot of committed volunteers from all our communities," Lane said.
Reeve Doug Drozd suggested that even if they wanted to, they would not have enough time to learn whether or not all the communities were interested in the project, let alone putting together a successful bid package.
"Look at the timelines," he said.
The province's deadline to receive a letter of interest to host either of the games, along with a letter of support for a municipal or Indigenous band council is March 25. Completed bids must be submitted no later than April 29.
"I'm not saying that we do this alone, it would be a partnership," Preugschas said. "It is just another opportunity to elevate Barrhead."
County manager Debbie Oyarzun said the fact a partnership is needed just adds to the amount of work and time required.
"To me, this is something that would trigger an (Intermunicipal Collaborative Framework or ICF) discussion between the municipalities and that moves painfully slow."
ICF agreements are established between neighbouring municipalities on various issues that impact both communities, such as recreation, shared water and sewer to joint land planning.
Oyarzun added that she was surprised that the province did not give municipalities more time, saying the letter was dated Feb. 1. The county received the letter a week later.
"Just to understand what we would be doing and then costing it and then having to work with partners, it is a tight turnaround," she said.
Preugschas said he still thought it was worth the effort.
"If you don't try, you have no chance of being successful," he said.
Oyarazun said she hated to say no but to have any chance of creating a bid that had any chance of success to meet the province's deadline, the county's administration team would have to put everything else aside.
Preugschas then suggested it still might be possible, if one of the potential partners, such as the town, had started work on the bid.
At their Feb. 22 meeting, Town of Barrhead councillors quickly dismissed the possibility, passing the letter as information.
Coun. Ron Kleinfeldt interjected that even if the town was working on it, they would need additional partners, noting when the municipalities submitted their bid for the 55+ games, they had more time and they still needed "all hands on deck for an event that was smaller in scale.
