COLD LAKE - Amid recent security concerns at the Cold Lake Energy Centre, the City of Cold Lake says it continues to take steps to boost safety at the recreation facility.
"No specific measures have been implemented as a direct outcome to the alleged assault that was spoken of from a delegation at council’s meeting [in June]," said CAO Kevin Nagoya, speaking with Lakeland This Week, addressing the situation. The incident in question was raised at the June 11 regular council meeting regarding an alleged assault on a minor at a teen event held at the Energy Centre.
Nagoya outlined ongoing efforts to improve the facility's security infrastructure.
"The City of Cold Lake has been reviewing various initiatives to improve layout in the Energy Centre that will promote passive surveillance,” he said.
The issue of security at the recreation complex goes back several months. During a Corporate Priorities Meeting held on Feb. 20, City council was considering plans to compartmentalize spaces at the Cold Lake Energy Centre to limit public access during weekdays and improve overall security in response to escalating concerns.
The City has implemented specific security measures for events and functions.
"It should be noted that the City of Cold Lake has 'uniformed' security at various functions hosted by the City, such as Canada Day, concerts, or festivals... many of these involve liquor sales," Nagoya said.
Collaboration with external security experts is also part of ongoing efforts.
"The City of Cold Lake is still working on this project and initiative. Parts of the project are being reviewed by security specialists that have been retained by the City."
In partnership with the Northern Lights School Division and Portage College, the City introduced outside security patrols in April 2024. Both the Cold Lake Portage College campus and Cold Lake High School are connected to the Energy Centre.
"The security includes elements such as mobile patrols, foot patrols, and facility checks. The costs of this initiative are shared by the three organizations," Nagoya noted.
While the addition of dedicated guards and security personnel for all programs is considered cost-prohibitive, Nagoya did speak about the supervision for youth programs, stating, "Youth programming hosted by the City of Cold Lake is fully supervised by staff and/or facilitators. We appreciate that supervised youth programming is not 'uniformed' guard security or Community Peace/Police Officers."
Nagoya highlighted the qualifications of those supervising youth programs, saying, "Many of the City’s facilitators that program these activities are teachers and educational assistants that work in our local schools. This includes events and programming held at the Energy Centre, FCSS, and elsewhere in the community."
Despite these efforts, Nagoya acknowledged that no security measure is foolproof.
"We are anticipating some improvements, however, CCTV is not the answer in itself, even uniform security for that matter," he said. "We would consider the City facilities very safe. There have been some incidents, however, we’re not sure whether any level of security would have stopped it [past incidents] from happening."
Nagoya pointed out that targeted and planned incidents might not be completely preventable. The City of Cold Lake staff have noted that fights at the Energy Centre often appear premeditated and more security presence might not have prevented these incidents but relocated them within or around the facility.
In some cases, law enforcement has laid charges, according to Nagoya.
