Duane Braaten and Jack Rennie had a special announcement for the R.M. of Prince Albert council on Thursday. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Tourist destinations

Proposed ‘tourist camp’ introduced to R.M. council

Aug 15, 2019 | 5:30 PM

An initial plan for a special retreat south of Prince Albert for first responders suffering from operational stress injuries (OSI) has been scrapped, and in its place is a plan for something much different.

Property owner Duane Braaten and Jack Rennie were at the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Prince Albert’s council meeting Thursday to discuss their plan for a tourist camp. Braaten, who had originally been approached in the past to be a part of the River Valley Resiliency Retreat, but later removed himself from the project to pursue this new venture, said the idea was way more structured and complicated than he had perceived it would be. He explained the idea behind the tourist camp is much simpler.

“It’s just a place where you can roll up your sleeves and have some room and not have a whole bunch of commercial enterprises in your face,” he said.

The proposed camp would be located about five minutes south of Prince Albert and would include cabins, horses for riding and even a man cave. Braaten told council the camp would be open to families and groups needing a place to decompress, and could provide an alternative to a weekend at the lake.

“We are not aligning with mental health or anything like that; that’s just way too complicated,” he said.

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Director Jack Rennie, who has experience as an advanced care paramedic, explained to council how they were simply not equipped to handle extreme cases of OSI.

“Yeah we can provide a little bit of relaxation but we can’t give people the idea that we can treat and necessarily make them 100 per cent functioning from a weekend or a 10-day thing,” he said.

Since moving into a cabin at Christopher Lake, Rennie said he had not suffered any symptoms from his own operational stress injuries and now wanted to help others find peace, regardless of where their emotional stress came from. Rennie also informed council their camp would be entirely non-profit.

“If we were to host other groups, there would be a strategic partnership with them, work with them to meet their needs,” he said.

At this stage. the proposed camp still requires a vote by council which is expected to happen at their next meeting in September. Planning Manager Jason Kaptein said a mail out would soon be sent to residents, informing them of the project.

It should be noted the proposed tourist camp is separate from the proposed River Valley Resiliency Retreat in the R.M of Duck Lake. Those plans also continue to move along according to Michelle McKeaveney, one of the people behind that project. Reeve Remi Martin told paNOW on Friday they had not received any site plans at this stage.

Editor’s note: this story was amended to reflect the Reeve’s position that he had not yet received site plans for the proposed Resiliency Retreat.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell