Despite continued pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and an agricultural disaster in the summer, Kneehill County continues to press forward with new initiatives, new business opportunities, and even a new award under its belt.
Kneehill County entered into a four-year agreement with the Town of Trochu and Trochu Housing Corporation to back funding for a proposed $32 million seniors’ living facility that will provide long-term care to aging residents--from independent living to the highest Designated Supportive Living 4 and 4D designations, which includes dementia patients. The Town of Trochu was unable to secure the $20 million loan on its own due to the town’s debt limit and approached Kneehill County in February; the agreement was officially signed in October.
At the October signing, 21 of 24 life-lease units were already pre-sold.
Throughout the summer, Kneehill County focused on drawing local tourism to the region through two methods, a paid parking pilot at Horseshoe Canyon recreation site, and a social media and online campaign. Parks and recreation staff were on-site at Horseshoe Canyon to collect the $2 parking fee and provide visitors with information on other recreation and tourism locations in the region beginning in May between Thursdays and Mondays.
Staff recorded a total of 7,696 vehicles during the 76 days they were on-site, with a majority of vehicles, some 88 per cent, from Alberta and six per cent from B.C. The pilot was considered a success and council approved to include provisions to continue the program in the 2022 budget.
As part of the social media and online campaign, QR signage was installed at Horseshoe Canyon directing visitors to the Kneehill County website’s visitors’ page; between the signage and other campaign initiatives, traffic to the visitors’ page increased by some 864 per cent, from only 3,166 views in 2020 to over 30,000 in 2021. Social media followers also increased on both the county’s Facebook and Instagram pages by over 900 and 1,800 per cent respectively.
During the summer, a citizen’s satisfaction survey was also conducted; approximately 10 per cent of Kneehill County residents responded to the survey and, overall, some 80 per cent of those respondents said they have a positive quality of life in Kneehill County. There were some areas where citizens were not fully satisfied, and Kneehill County council will use the survey results to determine opportunities and areas for improvement.
One challenge the county faced was unprecedented high temperatures and minimal rainfall during the summer months. In August, Kneehill County council declared a state of agricultural disaster as crop growth was stunted and yields were lower than anticipated; they were one of 69 municipalities throughout the province to declare an agricultural disaster. Despite this, harvest progress in the Central Region, which includes Kneehill County, was about 99 per cent complete by the final Alberta Crop Report in October, and over both the five and 10-year averages.
One big achievement for Kneehill County was receiving the 2021 Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) which was presented to council in December. The 2021 Kneehill County budget was published on the county’s website and provided ratepayers with a comprehensive and easy-to-understand document that was a collaborative effort between various departments within the county. While this is the first time Kneehill County has received this award, they are hopeful to continue providing similar budget presentations to ratepayers, and the 2022 budget documents are expected to be posted to the website in early 2022 ahead of budget deliberations.

Wheatland County made some positive strides in 2021 with a new, green energy operation breaking ground, an agreement with neighbouring Town of Drumheller to replace an aging bridge, and passing a zero per cent tax increase for residents.
In March, Wheatland County council was presented with the draft regional growth plan for the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB); the county is one of 10 municipalities included in the growth plan, though only about one-eighth of its total landmass is included, a small “panhandle” connected to the Town of Strathmore. The county is mandated to be part of the board and council voiced concerns about the cost to ratepayers for a lack of projected growth for the county; Rockyview County and M.D. Foothills County also voiced similar concerns. Despite opposition from the rural regions, an amended finalized version was submitted to Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver in June.
During budget deliberations in April, Wheatland County council passed a zero per cent increase for residential and farmland taxes. They also allocated a total of $2.1 million for the construction of the new Carseland Fire Hall and another $3.9 million was allocated for wastewater upgrades and repairs, with the majority of the funding-some $2.8 million-allocated for the Rosebud lagoon. Both projects were completed in November 2021.
Following the permanent closure of the Cluny Fire Hall in June, the county reallocated three former Cluny units to the Rosebud, Standard, and Gleichen halls.
In July, the county agreed to help fund a portion of a bridge replacement project, which is being undertaken by the Town of Drumheller. The bridge allows access to rural Wheatland County via Wayne Hill and a traffic study conducted by the town found some 65 to 75 per cent of traffic across the bridge also accesses Wayne Hill. Based on this information, the Town of Drumheller approached Wheatland County to help fund a portion of the costs. Wheatland County council approved a total contribution of $120,487.50; the project is set to be tendered over the winter or early spring 2022, and the bridge is expected to be out of service throughout much of 2022.
Like numerous other municipalities across Alberta, Wheatland County declared a state of agriculture disaster in August due to high temperatures and prolonged dry conditions led to concerns for crop yield and growth. While much of the province saw soil moisture reserves in the low to moderately low levels, Wheatland County fell within a pocket which saw near-normal levels.
Wheatland County welcomed the 24 turbine Wheatland Wind project to the county during the summer; the turbines will be installed across 19 quarter sections of land, about some 471 acres, approximately 20 to 30 kilometres southeast of the Town of Drumheller. The project received approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission in September 2018, and ground broke on the project in October 2021. It is estimated the project will create some 200 jobs during the construction phase and between five and 15 permanent jobs once operational, which is anticipated by the end of 2022.
The county is also hoping to attract large investors to the area through a new tax incentive bylaw passed in September which would allow a 40 per cent exemption on municipal property tax for non-residential improvements to eligible investments over a three-year period. Through this change, the county hopes to increase its non-residential tax base and is one of the first municipalities in the province to implement a property tax incentive on municipal properties.
Following the October municipal elections, two new councillors-Shannon Laprise (Division 1), and Rick Laursen (Division 7)-joined the five returning councillors.
Amber Link (Division 2) was re-appointed the role of Reeve with Scott Klassen (Division 5) re-appointed as Deputy Reeve during the organizational meeting in November.