Somebody is moving ahead with plans for a commercial development south of Hwy. 2 in Slave Lake. Speculation around town is that it is Wal-Mart, the U.S. based retail giant.
Such speculation might be entirely accurate, but since the principals aren’t talking, it isn’t worth much on the front page of a serious newspaper.
Here are some of the facts, according to Town of Slave Lake Planning and Development Officer Laurie Skrynyk, and from what transpired at last week’s Town council meeting:
A company called Stillwater Land Corporation has entered into a development agreement with the Town for the development of the Main St. intersection at Hwy. 2. In the agreement the Town will pay roughly 75 per cent of the cost of re-structuring the intersection to allow the extension of Main St. south of the highway. Normally, says Skrynyk, developers pay the cost of development, but in this special case council accepted some of the burden.
“Because it benefits the community as a whole,” she says.
What goes on south of the intersection the Town won’t be paying for. That’ll be up to the developer, three of whose representatives showed up in council on Sept. 21 to hear council’s decision on the cost-sharing agreement. As it turned out, council was confused by the name ‘Stillwater.’ They thought they were dealing with a company called ‘Springwood Developments.”
At that, one of the developer reps stood up and explained that council is indeed dealing with Springwood, but that “it works well for us to create a new company for each of our projects.” He went on to explain that the Slave Lake project would proceed under the name of Stillwater, whereas projects in other Alberta communities each have their own company name. But they are all Springwood projects nonetheless.
And what are Springwood projects? Two recent ones in Ft. Saskatchewan and Lloydminster are called ‘Cornerstone Power Centres’, and include Wal-Marts and other stores.
What else is known for sure is that a company called REMCO, acting for the owner of the property, has submitted a re-zoning application to the Town for a 25-acre site across the highway. Skrynyk says REMCO wants to extend Main St., “to gain access to the 25-acre site.”
The site in question is along the south side of Hwy. 2 between Main St. and Caribou Trail. The application is for the Town to change it from its Urban Expansion designation to ‘Automobile Commercial and Related’.
Council gave first reading to the application and set it over for a public hearing on Oct. 26.

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