The RM of Garden River wants land owned by the city of Prince Albert to build a road to a planned riverside park. (Google Maps)

By Alison Sandstrom

La Colle Falls

Prince Albert denies Garden River’s request; holds on to riverside land

Apr 21, 2020 | 3:05 PM

The RM of Garden River says it will now look into acquiring a piece of riverside land some other way after Prince Albert city council denied their request for it.

“I think at this point our next step will be to appropriate the land,” Garden River Reeve Ryan Scragg told paNOW.

Over the summer, the RM asked the city for the land, which sits near La Colle Falls, so they could build a road to a planned riverside park.

“We’re not wanting this land so we can develop and sell lots… it’s low-lying, it’s in our flood plain and very low-value, we would never allow any construction on it,” said Scragg. “The idea that we’re using this land for a public access park, I think should be in the public good.”

In the early 1900s the parcel was earmarked for the La Colle Falls Hydroelectric Dam. The ambitious project was never completed, and its construction nearly bankrupt the city. Today the graffitied skeleton of the dam still stretches a third of the way across the North Saskatchewan from the opposite bank of the land in question.

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At Monday’s city council executive committee meeting councillors voted unanimously not to gift the land to Garden River based on its historical significance to the city and the absence of a detailed plan for the park submitted by the RM.

“They’re planning a park there, maybe this is going to be a big tax revenue for them, we don’t know,” Mayor Greg Dionne told the meeting. “It’d be interesting to see a plan, but at this point, I don’t support giving or selling the land to them strictly because that’s part of our history.”

Meanwhile Scragg said he’s glad councillors recognize the historical significance of the area, and that’s one more reason to build a park there.

“Us providing an area for people to have public access to and maybe providing some education around the history of that area would be better than just leaving the land as essentially a vacant scrub brush,” he said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom