After years of waiting, the tiny southern Alberta community of Fort Macleod will finally see provincial investment in a police training centre.
Cash for the centre was confirmed in late February with the unveiling of the provincial budget for 2011-12.
The facility was announced for Fort Macleod several years ago, and construction was supposed to start back in 2007, but budget constraints had kept the police training centre out of a string of provincial budgets.
Now the Stelmach government has a budget document that allocates $20 million to the project, followed by $50 million and $47 million in the next two years.
The centre is expected to be used by a variety of police services, including those in Edmonton and Calgary, and also as a supplementary training centre for the RCMP.
Projections are for about 1,400 peace officers to receive at least some training in Fort Macleod each year.
The town of 3,100, situated at the junctions of Highways 2 and 3, has already upgraded its water-treatment plant to add capacity while it has waited for the province to find money for the centre.
Fort Macleod boasts a good supply of industrial and highway commercial land, which are selling in the range of $35,000 an acre for industrial and $62,000 per half-acre for commercial.
– Compiled by Dave Husdal
from Western Investor, April 2011
