Prince Albert City Hall. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community projects

‘If you cannot trust your partners, you can’t work with them’: RM of Buckland cuts ties with Prince Albert REDA

Dec 16, 2021 | 5:00 PM

The Prince Albert Regional Economic Development Alliance (PAREDA) has been reduced to five members following a vote this week during the Rural Municipality (RM) of Buckland’s council meeting.

Council voted unanimously in favor of cutting ties. Reeve Don Fyrk told paNOW his issues are with Prince Albert’s Mayor, claiming Greg Dionne lied to the RMs and nearby First Nations. One example Fyrk provided of a broken promise was when the RM spent money in 2014 digging a ditch to help address flooding concerns at Little Red River Park.

“Greg promised us half of the $60,000 cost, but they never did. It wasnt approved by city council so they wouldnt pay for half so that cost the RM $60,000,” he said.

Another issue of contention for Fyrk was the feeling the local RM’s and First Nations were cut off during the 2016 Husky Oil Spill, and left to fend for themselves. More recently Fyrk said Dionne threatened to cancel their rural water contract with the city if the RM changed its name to anything but rural.

This speaks to recent work being done towards a new water treatment plant west of Prince Albert.

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The Prince Albert Rural Water Utility (PARWU) currently purchases water from the City of Prince Albert that serves a network of customers in the RM of Buckland, the RM of Prince Albert, Muskoday First Nation, and the RM of Duck Lake.

With plans to include the RM of Shellbrook and the Town of Shellbrook in the $52 million venture, a decision was made to change the name to Prince Albert Regional Water Utility to better reflect the expansion plans.

“When you are partners in a REDA board, you should be bending over backwards to help each other.”

Finally Fyrk said he was frustrated over the fact the RM of Buckland is never involved in meetings with the Oriented Strand Board plant owners.

“That was all Greg. He kept all that to himself and now I find out they are going go to the pulp mill site,” he said. “If you cannot trust your partners, you can’t work with them”

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in March 2019, with most of the work done in the past couple of years focusing on setting up the PAREDA.

With the departure of Buckland, the remaining communities involved in PAREDA are the City of Prince Albert, RM of Prince Albert, RM of Shellbrook, Town of Shellbrook, and the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Development Corp.

RM of Prince Albert Reeve Eric Schmalz said they plan to renew their agreement. Ava Bear, the Chief of Muskoday First Nation, also expressed her community’s willingness to work with the group. Ashley Charles, CEO of PAREDA provided a statement to paNOW:

“Although we would have certainly liked for the RM of Buckland to stay, we wish them all the best in their economic development endeavours. PAREDA will be looking at potentially inviting new partners to the table,” she said.

Dionne was unaware of the RM’s decision until contacted by paNOW, and said he disagrees with the claims made by Fyrk.

“I want to wish them the best but as a city we are going to continue to work with our partners that operate in the RM of Buckland, and we are going to advocate with them and help expand employment,” Dionne said.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell