Address by Mayor Dwight Logan.
Good afternoon everyone!
A special welcome to MP Chris Warkentin, MLA Wayne Drysdale, County Reeve Everett McDonald, representatives of the Rotary Clubs, and our partners with the Wapiti Community Dorm Society.
What an exciting day for our community – a great highlight to begin the young year.
For those of us who have worked hard toward a solution to replacing the Wapiti Dorm, this day could not have come soon enough.
This complex allows us to transition from a facility that is sadly lacking to a modern temporary housing complex that is larger than the current dorm and allows the Wapiti Community Dorm Society to expand programming to help more people and address additional needs.
When City Council saw the opportunity to redirect approved affordable housing funds in this project, we jumped at the chance.
And now we can be most proud of the results! What a fabulous building.
Affordable housing is a top priority of the City of Grande Prairie and this initiative is just one of many steps we have taken to address the issue. Further steps are underway.
Recent projects include the opening of Hearthstone Manor, our 40-unit affordable housing complex and the development of the off-reserve Aboriginal Home Ownership Assistance Program, which has assisted over 20 households in securing affordable housing in the city.
This initiative has proven to be extremely popular.
We have forwarded to the Province our Multi-Year plan to end homelessness and have issued an RFP for an Affordable Housing Master Plan.
Through our block funding, we have invested in the Grande Prairie Women’s Residential Association for the development of the Second Stage Housing; and in the Wild Rose Manor for enhanced seniors units.
We are working towards the development of another Home Ownership Assistance Program in the amount of $1.5 million dollars that will assist 78 low-income city households into home ownership.
I extend our thanks again to the Province of Alberta, through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, for its investment in this project and other affordable housing programs.
Profound thanks, also, to the Rotary Clubs of GP for their leadership and financial contributions to this initiative. It was their efforts that kick-started this initiative in the first place.
Best wishes to the Wapiti Community Dorm Society for success in its transition to Rotary House.
Shown in picture from left: Travis Mathias, Mayor Dwight Logan, Brian Hillaby from the Grande Spirit Foundation, Wapiti Dorm Society Board Member Ted Vanderveen, MLA Wayne Drysdale, MP Chris Warkentin and Reeve Everett McDonald.
