The town's chief administrative officer has been asked by council to research a request from Red Deer's mayor to support additional court facilities in Red Deer.
In a letter to Mayor Judy Dahl, Red Deer Mayor Morris Flewelling asked that Olds council consider supporting an expanded courthouse in Red Deer to better serve the needs of Central Alberta residents.
While there is land available in Red Deer to build a new and expanded courthouse, Flewelling was asking for council's support to go forward with the proposal to Alberta Justice, which, Flewelling said, has identified Red Deer as second in priority for expanded facilities, slightly behind Sherwood Park.
“This will not happen without a strong regional lobby where those of us served by Central Alberta court facilities come together to support the push for additional facilities. We are near the top of the list and we have, I believe, an ideal opportunity to put a very attractive case forward to Alberta Justice and the Premier,” Flewelling wrote.
Dahl said more information was needed about the nature of the request before council could act on it. She also wondered how an expanded Red Deer facility might impact the courthouse in Didsbury.
“Number 1, we wanted to have an idea … where Didsbury court was going and if they were going to be looking for future support and we've tasked the CAO to find out what Olds' position in this whole request is,” she said.
Norm McInnis, the town's CAO, said he wants to find out where the Didsbury courthouse fits on the priority list for renovation and whether or not the town supporting Red Deer would have an impact on possible future renovations of the Didsbury courthouse.
“The other suggestion is the province is broken up into different zones for court activity and the suggestion is that Olds is right on the boundary between the Calgary and Red Deer zone … so (I) just want to have a better idea of where the stuff from Olds actually goes to if it's not dealt with at the Didsbury courthouse,” he said.
“I want to make sure that we actually have a stake in (the Red Deer courthouse) if we actually do (end up supporting) it,” McInnis added.
