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Opportunity in Calling Lake

About 50 people gathered in Calling Lake Dec. 4 to discuss operations, housing, forestry and economic sustainability at a public meeting.
20181204-Calling Lake MD meeting-AB-1
(L-R) MD of Opportunity public works and transportation director Cyndi Taron, recreation and culture director Chad Tillus, Coun. Victor Gladue, chief administrative officer William Kostiw, Coun. Barry Schmidt, community co-ordinator Randy Gladue and utilities director Simon Cardinal spoke to Calling Lake residents Dec. 4 at a community meeting.

About 50 people gathered in Calling Lake Dec. 4 to discuss operations, housing, forestry and economic sustainability at a public meeting.

Held at the Calling Lake Community Complex, councillors and staff from the Municipal District of Opportunity were there along with representatives from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

MD of Opportunity Coun. Barry Schmidt said the MD held the meeting so councillors and the chief administrative officer could get community input on what they would like to see.

"The things we have to work on," he said.

Calling Lake resident Gloria Anderson said she thinks the meeting is a good start to community building, and education is the most important step.

"At the end of the day, it's always the education," she said. "Reach kids at a younger age. You need to start early with career pathing."  

Jobs

Employment, specifically for youth, was one of the topics of discussion at the meeting.

Calling Lake resident Danny Cardinal said he believes jobs tie into social justice.

“I think the only way that you can find some of the solutions to the justice is to talk to youth in the community, which means community consultation,” he said. “There’s some training ideas that people have had, that have not come forth with. There were some pretty good ideas for young people, apprenticing and stuff like that, that other people have had.”

He pointed out that if his children wanted training, even though they are Bigstone Cree Nation members, he would have to send them into the city for it.

“I do talk to people, and they do tell me some of the stuff they would like to see in this community, and some of the ideas they would have for the young people in order to get training for them,” he said.

Anderson said the community needs to get to the root of the problem and get kids educated.

“GED doesn’t cut it,” she said. “For me, as the Number 1 thing, we need to get upgrading done here, and they need to really work on their high school core courses before they can succeed at a higher level.”

MD of Opportunity chief administrative officer William Kostiw said the Registered Apprenticeship Program has been around for a long time, and they MD will be getting it starting again.

According to the minutes from the Nov. 14 MD of Opportunity council meeting, council approved a motion that “administration is authorized to continue to participate in the Registered  Apprenticeship Program for the 2019 Summer Student Internships for all communities.”

“We’re going to try and revitalize some of the other programs, that we can train people to get a meaningful job,” Kostiw said at the Calling Lake community meeting, noting a program for healthcare workers in Wabasca where they can come from anywhere in the MD.

“One challenge is to get qualified people in the community to stay here,” he said. “We don’t want to bring guys in like me anymore.

Calling Lake resident François Auger also brought up Alberta Job Corps, noting that the local office has been for years now.

“It’s a big dream, you know,” he said, that perhaps the MD could help support Job Corps and make it better. “It’s up to us families to help that and take more training … I think the community should take over.”

Seniors care

MD of Opportunity representatives and community members also spoke housing and care for seniors in Calling Lake.

One audience member noted that there had been talk about more care for seniors, like home care.

“We hear you loud and clear that there is a need in Calling Lake,” Kostiw said.

Intermunicipal collaboration

The topic of partnership and collaboration with Athabasca County and the Town of Athabasca also came up with respect to services.

During a break in the meeting, Schmidt said he would like to see more collaboration with respect to programs that could help the people in Calling Lake.

"Not just 'you can come and help us, but assistance, using their expertise," he said, noting that in years past, there used to be more collaboration.

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