Mike Roma of RC Strategies+PERC presents the Battlefords Joint Parks and Recreation Master Plan at Battleford council's meeting Nov. 2. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Planning for recreation

Town council adopts joint parks and recreation master plan for Battlefords

Nov 4, 2020 | 4:16 PM

The Town of Battleford council is on board with the new Battlefords Joint Parks and Recreation Master Plan, presented at its recent council meeting.

Council agreed to adopt the proposed plan in principle.

The City of North Battleford previously agreed to accept and adopt the joint-proposal. The plan provides a guideline for potentially working together on future parks and recreation planning and development for the area.

Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie said this is the first initial stage to accept this type of road map for recreation.

“Once the new council-elect is up to date on it, we can start to make plans as to how we use it to move forward, both regionally and within the Town of Battleford,” he said.

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The plan provides direction for the next 10 years with the aim to offer more opportunities in the region for residents and visitors to lead healthier lives. It identifies current facilities and services in the city and town, and offers suggestions about how to improve them.

The plan was presented at town council’s meeting by Mike Roma of consulting company RC Strategies+PERC, the firm involved in creating the master plan.

As part of preparing its work on the project, the company gathered feedback from area residents’ responses to public surveys on parks and recreation facilities and spaces in the Battlefords, as well as from information from meetings and discussions.

Roma said the online responses to the draft plan were “very positive.”

He said even if the town and city do not decide to work together on potential projects more than they currently do, the plan’s recommendations can still be implemented by the municipalities independently.

“It’s meant to give you some [ideas] of what you should do to enhance the current state of parks and rec, regardless of partnership,” Roma said. “It’s meant to just provide a framework for how you could get together, and [offer] you some input for some of those discussions you would likely have, but really not to be conclusive about any of that. You could end up working together and not doing any kind of cost-sharing or responsibility-sharing at all and still end up in a better place than you are right now, because there is lots of value to be had by working together.”

Coun. Shelley Boutin-Gervais pointed out during council’s meeting the plan does not have any financial impact to the town as it is serves as a general guideline.

“What the recommendation is is just to agree in principle to working together,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we are going to co-fund everything that comes around. It’s still keeping it so each has their own autonomy. So that’s a good thing.”

Coun. Doug Laing mentioned the master plan “gives us a really nice starting point,” providing a document of reference for these discussions, which the town didn’t have a year ago.

“That is where it is all going to begin, with some discussions around the table,” he said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW