City Manager Jim Toye. (submitted photo/City of P.A.)

By Alison Sandstrom

Building momentum

Hope and the Future: Toye says new projects will ‘take Prince Albert to another level’

Dec 29, 2020 | 12:02 PM

Millions of dollars worth of new projects are on the horizon for Prince Albert in 2021, and City Manager Jim Toye says that growth is going to attract new employers and professionals to the city.

While acknowledging COVID-19 is still heavy on everyone’s mind as we enter the new year, Toye told paNOW 2021 will be “a very exciting time” for Prince Albert.

The City is set to break ground on a $60 million recreation complex in the fall. Construction on a $18 million upgrade to the water treatment plant is underway, and new recreation facilities at the Alfred Jenkins Field House and Little Red River Park are in the proposed 2021 budget.

“It’s really going to take Prince Albert to another level,” Toye said, detailing the city’s plans for the coming year.

The new facilities will not only make Prince Albert more attractive to professionals – for example medical specialists who Prince Albert had a hard time recruiting in the past – but also large companies, Toye said. The city is currently talking to multiple corporations interested in opening operations in Prince Albert, Toye continued.

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“For every brick we can put down or every piece of wood we can put into the ground to build these facilities, people are going to see that and think ‘I want to be part of that, I want to live in that city, it’s really happening right now,'” Toye said.

As for the most ambitious project Prince Albert has planned for 2021, Toye said the public could get its first look at the designs for the new recreation complex early in the new year.

Toye himself has reviewed preliminary drawings and said they “look unbelievable.” With eight lanes and features including a lazy river and wave pool, the aquatic centre and attached arenas will be unprecedented for the city.

“It’s something we haven’t had here in Prince Albert before,” Toye said. “And it’s something that’s going to be just another element that we have, not just for people from Prince Albert but for the whole area.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom