Cold Lake council weighs funding for Safe Baby Haven Box
COLD LAKE - City of Cold Lake council has agreed to provide financial support for a Safe Baby Haven Box at Covenant Health's Bonnyville Health Centre.
At the Sept. 17 Corporate Priorities Committee meeting, council discussed providing a $25,000 grant for the project, which would be held in restricted surplus until confirmation is received that the program will proceed.
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes program mission is meant to prevent illegal abandonment of newborns by raising awareness, offering a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis, and offering the Safe Haven Baby Boxes as a last resort option for women who want to maintain complete anonymity while safely handing their baby over to professionals, according to the Safe Haven Baby Box website.
"You and I [mayor and CAO] had a meeting with Covenant Health in this regard, and there's been some follow-up meetings," said CAO Kevin Nagoya. "Pretty much the project is at a kind of close-to-implementation stage . . . subject to funding in order to make the necessary improvements for launching such a program and the infrastructure."
The program, initially presented to council by Mary Sara Robichaud during a Janunary 2024 meeting, is not currently being considered by Alberta Health Services (AHS).
However, Covenant Health has shown interest, with the Bonnyville Health Centre requiring an estimated $125,000 to build the necessary infrastructure. As part of the grant application process, they are working with Gems2Gems, an organization supplying the boxes for the initiative, according to information provided by the City of Cold Lake.
"They can't launch without the dollar figures . . . They do need assistance in terms of the capital dollars," said Nagoya.
Some council members were hesitant about supporting the project with Cold Lake funds.
Coun. Chris Vining raised concerns, stating, "We're taking ratepayer money from Cold Lake and putting it over to something that's going to exist in Bonnyville . . . without the other municipalities on board, I don't know if I'm supportive of this right now."
Mayor Craig Copeland acknowledged Vining's reservations, but saw the project as being beneficial to the region.
"I think this baby box would serve the region, because the closest baby box to Cold Lake would be Edmonton."
Vining asked if either the Town or MD of Bonnyville had committed to the project, to which Nagoya responded, "The MD of Bonnyville and the Town of Bonnyville were invited. I do not know if it's on their agenda or not."
Despite Vining's hesitation, other council members, like Coun. Vicky Lefebvre, supported the initiative.
"I normally have heartburn over stuff like that, but we financed other things in Bonnyville as well, so I wouldn't let that stop me," she said.
Ultimately, council recommended providing seed funding of $25,000, contingent on participation from other municipalities and confirmation from the Bonnyville Health Centre that the program will proceed. Vining did not support the motion.
