Chris Clegg
The sale of the old High Prairie Health Complex land in early 2024 for $1.75 million still leaves many questions unanswered as we approach the municipal election.
And no one is talking and taking responsibility for the decision.
Sometime in April 2023, town council decided to not purchase the land for a basement bargain price of $148,000. The land was worth far more. Jeff Burgar asked the simple question of who actually made the decision to refuse the offer at the election forum two weeks ago on Oct. 1. The five incumbents seeking re-election (Donna Deynaka, Sacha Martens, Judy Stenhouse, James Waikle, and Therese Yacyshyn) had no answer. Waikle said he “missed that meeting” but does not anyone find it extremely odd he did not care enough to ask questions later?
This is the council that claims it is transparent and open to the public to questions asked?
To remind everyone, the $148,000 offer to town council was made in April 2023. It was not until news broke Sept, 8, 2023 that South Peace News discovered the offer. In four months no one, including town council and the Government of Alberta respected any citizen in High Prairie enough to tell us what was going on. What was the reason for that decision and the secrecy?
Claims of closed session due to land negotiations? Give me a break! There were no negotiations. It was a take it or leave it offer from the Alberta government.
Besides, once the deal was refused and it was all over and the land put up for public sale in September 2023 for $500,000, town council still did not tell the public what happened. Alberta Health Services confirmed in an email the $148,000 offer was off the table Aug. 11, 2023, about four months since the April offer. The secrecy was deafening. Why?
We also know town council submitted a bid for the land at its Sept. 12, 2023 meeting. It would sure be interesting to know if the bid was above the original $148,0000 offer but land negotiations are in closed session so we will never know.
And, the potential for a $1.6 million-plus profit to buy the land and resell it was lost.
“Looking back at our concerns, they turned out to be non-issues,” wrote council in news release published in South Peace News Jan. 31, 2024. Their words. Not mine. It smacks of extremely poor research.
And, it was later reported Martens never recalled a vote taking place on the proposed purchase (Feb. 7, 2024 South Peace News). Strange!
In the March 27, 2024 South Peace News Deynaka and Waikle went on record saying they did not know about the $148,000 offer until September – not April! How is that possible? Did the rest of council (those who knew) have so little respect for Deynaka and Waikle they never bothered to tell them? How incredibly dysfunctional is that? Yet, the big happy family continued.
Stenhouse later asked for minutes regarding the decision saying she could find nothing “on the record” regarding the decision.
Really!
Later, Mayor Brian Panasiuk said discussion regarding the possible purchase of the land occurred at an April 22, 2023 meeting. South Peace News checked the Town website at that time and no agenda or minutes were posted for an April 22 meeting. Council was asked why there was no record of the agenda and meeting and received no response. Council simply ignored the request.
It is a requirement of Municipal Affairs that municipalities like the Town of High Prairie keep an accurate record of meetings and minutes. And, for a council that claims to be open and transparent, a necessary requirement. Today as of this writing, on Oct. 9, 2025, there is still no record of the April 22 meeting posted on the Town website. Why?
Today, we still ask the question. Who made the decision to not purchase the land? No one is answering.
To not answer such a simple question on such an important matter to the community is more than strange. Will we even find out who made this decision? Probably not.