Kneehill County Council directed administration to move towards the construction of a day-use washroom facility with a café and retail space at Horseshoe Canyon.
    Prior to construction, administration will present options and costs to council for approval. Kneehill County’s 2020 approved capital budget included $1.35 million for this project. The project is slated to be funded from reserves established for this purpose, and from provincial grants.
    Council also approved the addition of charge parking in the Horseshoe Canyon parking lot, to be implemented in 2021. This will be modeled on a similar project successfully introduced last year by the Town of Drumheller at some of the town’s tourism sites. The implementation of paid parking would seek to generate revenue from visitors of Horseshoe Canyon, which could then be used to support maintenance operations and development of additional amenities at the site.
    “Given the current economy, it’s important that we look for new ways to bring revenue into the county,” said Kneehill County Reeve, Jerry Wittstock. “When council purchased Horseshoe Canyon in 2016, they recognized the potential to develop the park as a tourist attraction. Horseshoe Canyon consistently sees hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. With the construction of this new space, we can accommodate these visitors with proper, functioning bathroom facilities and potentially provide some basic retail services as well.”
    The approved expansion was one of many options included in the Horseshoe Canyon master plan, which aligns with council’s strategic priority to improve fiscal sustainability and move Horseshoe Canyon towards revenue generation. In addition to direct revenues being developed, the county will be looking for ways to leverage the large number of annual visitors to the site so that economic spin-offs for local businesses and our community can occur.
    “We’ve heard from many ratepayers over the last few years. The county owns the land—why aren’t we doing anything with it?” said Wittstock.
    Council is aware that opinion on Horseshoe Canyon is diverse.
    “Following this expansion and before we develop the area any further, we also want to hear more from our residents. What do they think we should eventually develop at the canyon?” Wittstock continued. “We’ll be assembling a task force made up of county residents in the near future, so they can have their say, and bring recommendations to the table for council to consider.”
    “This year especially, we realize how important recreation is—how necessary it is for people to get outside and enjoy nature. Horseshoe Canyon is an asset to the area and we look forward to our guests experiencing the canyon at its full potential. It really is a sight to behold.”

Drumheller RCMP are warning local residents to be cautious of a circulating telephone scam.
During the months of June and July, Drumheller RCMP have received numerous reports from Drumheller and area residents who have received phone calls from individuals telling victims that their “social security numbers” have been compromised or there is irregular activity.
The suspects are then asking the victims to press a number to speak with an investigator.
These phone calls are high pressure in nature and the likely goal is for the suspects to obtain personal and banking information from the victims that are being targeted.

Here are a few safety tips to assist:
· If you receive a call from someone claiming your personal information has been compromised, take note of the information from THEM and disconnect from the call.
· Do not share any personal information with the caller, such as confirm name, social insurance number, address, etc…
· If you have legitimate concerns regarding your personal information being compromised, find the government agencies’ phone number through a trusted source (official website) and contact the government agency directly.
· The best protection from scammers is to learn how to resist being pushed into a decision regardless of how persuasive or aggressive the scammer may be.
Arm yourself and the vulnerable people in your life by learning how to recognize and protect yourself from fraud at Canada’s Anti-Fraud Centre. www.antifraudcentre.ca. Please report any attempts of this kind to the Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 during regular business hours.
If you have any information about these fraudulent activities, please contact Drumheller RCMP at 403-823-7590. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the "P3 Tips" app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store.