Province to foot the bill for scuttled police college

A sign at the construction site of the Alberta Police and Peace Officer Training Centre remains standing despite the government's cancellation of funding for the project

The Alberta government will be paying about $10M to cover the costs already incurred by the construction of a police college in Fort Macleod.

Construction had begun on the $120M project in 2011 and the decision to cancel it came last August.

When it was canceled about $5.5M in water and sewer contract engineering and electrical work, $4.2M for a waste water treatment plant, and $500,000 in land purchase costs had already been incurred.

Those costs have all been covered by the province.

The town says it is happy with the decision because it will not be financially burdened by the work done on the college.

Fort Macleod is also happy with the new infrastructure it has in place to use for new business opportunities.

They are now in the process of finalizing all the agreements.

The college was cancelled last August after a survey revealed that 90 percent of respondents said they didn’t need a centralized police college.

With files from CTV Lethbridge