FORT MACLEOD — People in a southern Alberta community say they feel betrayed that the province is continuing to renege on a long-standing promise to build a police college in their town.
Solicitor General Frank Oberle says building a $250-million police and peace officer training centre in Fort Macleod is not a priority again this year for the cash-strapped government.
The project, first announced in 2006 as a cost-effective way to train officers, is on the back burner until further notice.
“It remains a hope or a wish of our government to be able to construct this thing, but at the current time I do not have the money to do it,” Oberle said Thursday.
Emily McTighe, president of the Fort Macleod Chamber of Commerce, said people in the area feel the government has forgotten them, even though they have elected Progressive Conservatives to the legislature for 35 years.
The town says it has spent millions of dollars upgrading water, sewer and power lines in preparation for a college and developed services for a new residential subdivision to support it.
A hotel chain recently put its plan to build in the town on hold.
“We feel betrayed. And it is not just Fort Macleod. It’s southern Alberta,” McTighe said.
“They have forgotten that we are the ones who voted them in.”
That sentiment in the town of 3,000 is a far cry from 2006 when people held joyous pep rallies to support its bid for the college as it competed against other communities.
The plan was to build a school that would train provincial sheriffs and up to 400 recruits a year for police forces in Edmonton, Calgary and other communities.
More than 700 people cheered when the government promised construction would begin in early 2007.
Then the province announced there would be a delay and building would start in 2008.
But, again, no funding.
Last year, Premier Ed Stelmach said there would be another delay because of the economic downturn, but then wrote two letters to the town pledging his support. But on Tuesday there was again no money for the police college in the budget.
Deputy mayor Gord Wolstenholme said residents are very discouraged and haven’t been treated fairly, but haven’t given up yet.
Fort Macleod is continuing to lobby the government and has released a pamphlet with a picture of the empty building site with the caption “Field of Dreams.”
The pamphlet calls on residents to let the government know how important the project is to southern Alberta.
Nearby communities, including Cardston, Cardston County, Granum, Pincher Creek, Hill Spring, Stavely, Willow Creek and the municipality of Crowsnest Pass have all written letters to the premier calling for work on the college to begin.
Wolstenholme said the government won’t give Fort Macleod a straight answer about the college’s future.
There is speculation that the Tories have shelved the project for good, but are afraid to admit it.
“If they are not going to do it, they should tell us,” he said. “Don’t leave us hanging on the line. We are just hanging here.”
Fred Lindsay, who was replaced as solicitor general last month after four years on the job, said the college is badly needed and Fort Macleod is the right place to build it.
Lindsay said that before he was replaced in a cabinet shuffle last month, he recommended that the government include $100 million in the budget this year to get the first phase of the college underway.
But he was unable to persuade his cabinet colleagues.
The police school shouldn’t be cancelled and the government should reconsider funding as soon as possible, he added.
“My biggest disappointment as solicitor general was not being able to bring that college on line and get construction started.
“There is a more and more pressing need for it.”
In the meantime, people in the town where the North West Mounted Police established their first western post in 1874 continue to wonder why their cherished project remains stuck in the legislature.