Richard Froese
South Peace News
Big Lakes County will soon launch a study to assess housing needs for lower-income people and smaller family units in the municipality.
At its regular meeting Feb. 12, council agreed to proceed in partnership with the Enabling Housing Choice North (EHC North) project in partnership with the national Rural Development Network (RDN).
As part of the RDN’s sustainable housing network, RDN is working with rural communities in northern Alberta to better understand the housing situation in the region, said Pat Olansky, director of community services and planning.
“Big Lakes has been selected to partner with the Enabling Housing Choice North program for a one-year project at no cost to the County,” Olansky added.
RDN is a non-profit organization that collaborates with rural, remote and Indigenous communities and organizations in Canada to identify and bring focus to local issues, and develop innovative solutions to social and economic challenges, the RDN website states.
The RDN has received funding from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation to provide consulting services at no cost to the County.
“The EHC North project is a continuation of the original project that was launched in November 2021 and finalized in October 2024,” Olansky told council.
“The objectives of the program are to gather data to understand barriers in Big Lakes County and develop diverse housing strategies.”
The EHCN team will research and analyze current bylaws and policies to assess support for housing diversity and promote community engagement.
“Through surveys, interviews with developers and local businesses and focus group discussions with employers and residents, the program will collect valuable feedback,” Olansky said.
“Data collected will be shared with council and partner municipalities to create community- centric housing solutions.”
Big Lakes County Family and Community Support Services manager Nicole Hanna will co-ordinate the local project, attend bi-weekly meetings with the project directors and facilitate access to needed data.
The RDN will conduct the community engagement, develop a “What We Heard” report or a “Summary of Findings” report and provide recommendations.
The recommendations report will provide insight into best practices and policy updates for the County to potentially enable increased housing options to adequately serve the needs of the skilled labour market and denser development to support housing for lower-income people and smaller family units, Olansky said.