When Grande Prairie city council came together to build its Strategic Plan for 2022, a focus on quality of life was included in the pillars of innovative efficiency, economic readiness, an inclusive caring community, and engaging relationships.
City of Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says that there were new amenities added in the city this year like the Activity and Reception Centre in the Smith subdivision and the North Bike Skills Park in the Crystal Lake area.
“Those were great amenities that are low cost or free in nature,” Clayton says. “They brought some activity and recreation to an area where we didn’t have anything.”
She adds several major projects were completed in 2022 including the Downtown Rehabilitation project, “which was great to see.”
The city also added several events to its calendar, kicking 2022 off with the inaugural Grande North Winter Festival which was one of the first events held coming out of pandemic restrictions. The event brought together live music, ice sculptures, and other activities embracing winter and the community spirit in Grande Prairie.
Throughout 2022 people got back to doing their routine, but Clayton says there were those who did it differently, with some being super eager and others slowly easing back into the way it was before the pandemic.
“Across the community, we saw many people attending our events. We did many events including a proper Canada Day celebration; we introduced a new event downtown called Experience Grande Prairie where we had a free music festival in the heart of our city.”
She explains the event was an opportunity to highlight the different amenities and operations in the city with activities like an art walk and a scavenger hunt.
“I think though, first and foremost, we saw industry and workplace come back to higher numbers again. We saw increases in development, we saw increases in new home starts, and we saw increases in people moving to our community.”
The mayor hopes to share with the rest of the province and beyond the opportunities and advantages that come with living in Grande Prairie and the region.