Chris Vining Cold Lake City Council

10/13/2026

Community update: Cold Lake recognized for emergency support services

Cold Lake, AB – The City of Cold Lake is known for lending other communities a helping hand in times of crisis or emergency and was recently acknowledged by the Province of Alberta for its commitment to compassionate support during emergencies.

On October 2, City of Cold Lake Emergency Management and Emergency Social Services received the Community Justice Award in the Supporting Disaster Readiness and Community Resilience category. This award recognizes the people, teams, and organizations who make extraordinary contributions toward community justice, public safety, and emergency management.

“We are very proud of our staff,” said Mayor Bob Mattice. “Whenever our community is called upon for assistance, our emergency management and emergency social services teams step up without hesitation. Although this work is incredibly rewarding, it does require a tremendous amount of personal sacrifice, and we applaud our staff’s commitment to assisting others when they need it the most.”

The award highlighted the collaborative and people-centred approach taken by Cold Lake to ensure its emergency management plans are in place, and residents and evacuees receive effective and compassionate support when called upon. Cold Lake has made a commitment to have as many staff members as possible trained to minimum Incident Command System standards, with many staff taking more advanced training and courses that cover specialized roles required for handling emergency situation. Incident Command System is a standardized framework used to coordinate emergency responses and is used extensively throughout most North American jurisdictions by civilian agencies called upon to respond to emergency situations.

“Many of our staff are trained to various levels of emergency management,” said Mattice. “Not just for that could arise here at home, but also to assist with other municipalities or groups that might need our aid. Together, we can remain strong in the face of adversity.”

The City of Cold Lake has been called upon to send staff to other communities experiencing emergencies and has also been called to stand up reception centres as well as host emergency shelters.

Cold Lake and District FCSS Manager Kim Schmidtz accepted the award on behalf of herself and Manger of Protective Services, Jeff Fallow, during the 2026 Alberta Community Justice Awards in Lethbridge.

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10/12/2026

I was honored to be asked to come up to Peace River and be a panelist for the 2026 RHPAP Conference. It was great connecting and learning from our other rural communities but also speak about all our efforts to improve primary care here in Cold Lake.

10/09/2026

10/06/2026

A step forward for our clinic patients! Really hoping this works out and we can continue to offer more services as our expansion is completed!

Community update: CL Medical to run Saturday clinic pilot project

Cold Lake, AB – CL Medical Clinic will begin to open its doors on Saturdays to test the demand and capacity for additional clinic hours in the community.

“We will be staffing the clinic for certain hours on Saturdays to allow our doctors to begin to schedule appointments with their patients,” Chair of the CL Medical Clinic Board and City Councillor Chris Vining said. “This will give doctors a chance to strengthen their practice through additional billable hours while also measuring the demand for clinic hours outside of the regular work week.”

At the outset, there will be no set time for the Saturday clinic hours. Rather, certain Saturday times will be made available to the clinic’s patients depending on their doctors’ availability. The clinic will ultimately set its Saturday hours pending the demand it sees. Once the demand is known, regular hours for Saturday could be scheduled and advertised, and could reach the point where full days are scheduled.

The intention would be to keep the Saturday bookings for simple, straight forward appointments, such as prescription refills. It is hoped that this pilot project also opens up the potential opportunity for CL Medical Clinic and its physicians to explore weekend walk-in clinics.

“At this point we do not know if the doctors will have the availability to hold enough Saturday hours to warrant us staying open, or how patients will respond to the increase in availability,” Vining said. “There are a lot of variables at play, and so a pilot project is the best means of testing the waters and seeing what the public wants, and how we can best respond with the staff and doctors we currently have.”

CL Medical Clinic is a municipally controlled corporation that owns and operates a medical clinic located at 2504 Glacier Gate in Cold Lake North. The corporation is run by a board consisting of City Councillors and members at large appointed by Cold Lake City Council.

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10/06/2026

10/05/2026

PART 4 on waste management is my last one on this topic! We are talking about our organics recycling program! Questions or concerns [email protected]!

10/04/2026

PART 3!!! I promise there is only one more part coming!!

10/04/2026

PART 3 on waste management is about our landfill operations and where all that garbage goes! Questions or concerns [email protected]!

10/03/2026

PART 2 on waste management and recycling! Let's talk about the new recycling program! Questions or concerns to [email protected]!

10/03/2026

Part 1 of 4 on waste management and recycling in the City of Cold Lake !