Skip to content

Plenty of positives in 2024 for Innisfail, says mayor

Residential development permits doubled from year prior
deep-sky-labs-3
Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay says one of the biggest moments for the town in 2024 was being named the site for a test bed of the latest carbon removal technologies. (Contributed graphic)

Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay says 2024 was "an excellent year" for the town.

"Our residential development permits were double what they were in 2023. They were the best numbers we had seen in over a decade, so that's very promising," Barclay said.

One of the biggest moments in 2024 for the town was being named the site for a test bed of the latest carbon removal technologies. In August, Deep Sky Labs, which is billed as the world's first carbon removal innovation and commercialization centre, announced a $50-million facility will be built on a five-acre industrial park site near proposed solar energy and waste-to-energy projects.

"That was very good news and is bringing a lot of attention to Innisfail," said Barclay.

The town has also seen the completion of new commercial builds over the past year, she added.

"Some of those sites have opened and others are about to open. That's great news as well. Our council's strategic priorities really focused on housing, economic development, and a safe and healthy community," said Barclay.

"Along with Bassa Social Innovations, we completed a Community and Safety Well-Being Strategy. There was a lot of community engagement throughout that work that Bassa did for us. It was a lot of good news for us — people feel relatively safe in Innisfail. ... That was a great project to complete."

Innisfail residents showed tremendous community spirit to close out 2024, Barclay added.

"There was overwhelming generosity in the last few weeks for the food bank and Christmas Bureau. It's been absolutely amazing. The need for those two organizations are greater than they were a year ago. Innisfail has once against stepped up and made sure people have received assistance when it was needed."

Barclay said the biggest project council is facing in 2025 is upgrading the community's aquatic centre, which is 40 years old.

"Since about 2018, we've been mulling over whether we should build a new centre, renovate or expand the existing footprint," said Barclay.

"Now we're definitely looking at renovating the existing aquatic centre. Even that project has come in with a budget of just over $12 million. ... That focuses on bringing the building up to code, as well as bringing a new sauna and new hot tub. It's quite eye-opening when you see some of these numbers coming in on infrastructure projects."



Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
Read more