English Bay recreation plans unveiled at annual treaty days

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The Cold Lake First Nations (CLFN) has announced plans to develop a recreation area in English Bay. The plans include a water slide, driving range and tennis courts plus concession stands selling local arts and crafts.

CLFN Recreation director and planner, Ernie Houle, says a child care program is also in the works that would "give parents a chance to enjoy their holidays without having to babysit through it all."

Houle unveiled the project while overseeing the annual CLFN Treaty Days held July 9-12. He said the project will go ahead in three phases.

Funding will come from various sources. Recently the band received a $17,000 provincial grant from Community Recreation & Culture. That money paid five reserve residents who were contracted to build picnic tables and fire pits, wall up the dance floor area and clean up the main beach and camping sites. Funding yet to come, Houle said, will pay for phases two and three. Those phases will include landscaping for the water slide, tennis courts and driving range and construction of washrooms and showers, a cystern water supply and a manager's cabin at the campground.

Houle's announcement follows on the heels of an announcement made in June by the Grand Centre Native Economic Development Society. They announced plans to build a lodge and guest cabins at Sandy Beach, a piece of Crown land next to English Bay and is approximately 2 km down the beach from where the CLFN facilities will be.

Houle says he sees no conflict in the developments but can see where tourists and locals could use both facilities. "Free enterprise is encouraged here," he explained, "we want the local people to be able to benefit directly from this development." Anyone wishing to set up a booth to sell art or handicrafts would be able to apply for a license or permit to sell. Food concessions would also be operated on the same basis.

The band will soon hire about fifteen people to work for 20 weeks on the next phase of the development. When all facilities are in place, hopefully by August 1988, there will be twelve seasonal staff, plus those who will run their own booths.

Houle says an important part of the plan is the advertising and promotion campaign. "The '88 Olympics will be held in Calgary and we plan to have an information package of some sort to take down there and have them distributed that way. People from across Canada and the world will be there and our brochure will be available to them. We could reach a lot of people."