In this section

Public engagement on town projects

We are proud to launch our new engagement website: engage.sylvanlake.ca. Public engagement means you can give your input on Town projects.

Why Engage?

If you are here, we know you are trying to make Sylvan Lake better. Thank you for caring about your neighbours and your community!

Why did we create engage.sylvanlake.ca?

  • To create a safe and inclusive space for all Lakers and visitors to provide feedback
  • To open communication between the Town and residents. If we talk respectfully and transparently, we can create an amazing community together

Who can engage?

  • All are welcome to register and participate!
  • Learn about the projects we are working on, give us your feedback, ask questions, and have your say
  • Sometimes we’ll have prizes for engaging

We look forward to hearing from you!

Project schedules

Timelines aren’t perfect

Even though we work from approved project plans and designs, projects may change:

  • We do our best to keep the public informed of major changes
  • Due to the nature of the projects, changes can happen quickly
  • Pivoting helps us continue on schedule and on budget
  • Leave a question in any project for us to answer (For questions that aren’t about projects, ask here)

Why can't we do construction projects according to a set schedule?

  • Weather is the boss of construction. If we have bad weather, we have to delay projects
  • Construction supplies sometimes arrive on time, sometimes they arrive late. For example, if concrete supplies for sidewalks are delivered late, we can't start the construction
  • Sometimes we find surprises in the ground. We make every effort to survey before breaking ground, but sometimes we find underground utilities like gas lines that are in unexpected places. This forces us to create a new plan, which can cause a time delay
  • There are more surprises that can happen too! We plan things down to the last detail, but plans are never 100% perfect, 100% of the time
  • We thank you for all your patience during construction to keep our workers safe!

Project Glossary

This is a list of words we often use when talking about construction and other projects. 

The Town is working to improve accessibility. Accessible places are easy to reached or enter. Accessible information is easy to understand. For example, when we design construction projects:

  • We consider how to improve accessibility
  • We do our best to design roads, sidewalks, and building to be easier for everyone to use

Why is this important?

  • All Lakers want a community that is safe and supportive
  • Anyone with an impairment or functional limitation should be able to use Town facilities like roads, sidewalks, and buildings
  • All Lakers can become impaired by injury, illness, or age

Improving accessibility means to identifying, removing and preventing barriers to inclusion and accessibility: 

  • Barrier: anything—including anything physical, architectural, technological or attitudinal, anything that is based on information or communications or anything that is the result of a policy or a practice—that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with an impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment or a functional limitation
  • Disability: any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment—or a functional limitation—whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society.

The basic systems and services that we use to maintain a healthy community, such as:

Maintained and paid for by the Town of Sylvan Lake tax dollars:

  • Roads 
  • Sidewalks 
  • Water 
  • Sewer 
  • Storm water 

Maintained and paid for by private companies:

  • Electricity
  • Gas
  • Internet
  • Phone

Every project has partners:

  • Residents, individuals, groups, organizations, businesses, property owners, or visitors
  • Anyone who may be impacted by a project in good or bad ways
  • Every partner has a role to play, whether it is sharing accurate information, respecting construction signage, or talking to the Town about their concerns

The underground structures that make sure we stay safe and productive. The Town works closely with companies like Fortis, Atco, Telus to maintain our infrastructure. We do our best to keep costs low by doing multiple projects at once wherever possible.

Maintained and paid for by the Town of Sylvan Lake tax dollars:

  • Sewer mains
  • Drinking water mains
  • Storm water 

Maintained and paid for by utility companies like Atco or Telus:

  • Pipelines
  • Fibre optic lines
  • Telecommunication lines