Council approved spending $2.75 million from the downtown revitalization project budget to improve safety and accessibility for people in downtown.

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A report to council concludes there has been significant progress in developing downtown and the waterfront, but recommendations from the Downtown Revitalization Committee shows there is still lots of work to be done in making the area safe and accessible.

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The municipality will begin its annual anti-flood program for the river breakup season starting March 1. Measures along the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers will be ready by March 31. This year’s temporary measures will cost $7.5 million, down from last year’s $10-million.

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Business leaders in Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo hope the end of Alberta’s vaccine passport program will help economic growth in the region.

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The Fort McMurray Airport Authority is getting $5.3 million in federal funding for infrastructure upgrades and operational supports. Tourism Minister and Associate Finance Minister Randy Boissonnault, who was speaking on behalf of Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, said the funding will help the airport prepare for an expected increase in traffic when the economy recovers.

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Council continued approving grants during the second day of budget talks and added conditions to some requests that administration wanted council to reject. By the end of Wednesday, council had heard only two of 14 scheduled presentations for the proposed 2022 operating budget.

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Councillors will spend the week debating a proposed 2022 municipal operating budget of $570,325,148, or nearly $2.5 million higher than last year’s operating budget. Budgets are expected to resume shrinking in 2023 and 2024.

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The Kiyām Community Park in downtown Fort McMurray is not expected to open to the public until 2022, after a number of factors have caused a delay in the park’s construction. The municipality says the anticipated budget for the park remains unchanged at $5 million.

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The business and social profit organizations of the Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo area have high hopes for the new council as the region recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, April 2020 flood and an economic crisis from a crash in global oil prices.

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Local business owner Sandy Bowman will be the next mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

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