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Town of Eckville 2024 highlights

2024 saw some interesting changes for Eckville including a clinic opening
eckville-town-office
Town of Eckville.

The year 2024 was an exciting one for the Town of Eckville.

We saw the opening of the Akamihk Health Care Services Clinic at the Eckville Community Health Centre on Nov. 1, 2024.

We had been looking at options to reopen a medical clinic since the Eckville Medical Clinic closed its doors in September of 2012 forcing residents to travel to other communities like Rimbey, Sylvan Lake, and Rocky Mountain House to see a doctor.

The Town of Eckville had leased space in the Eckville Community Health Centre in 2013, but finding a physician proved to be a daunting task.

Former Mayor Helen Posti, along with current and prior Town Councils, Forhan Pharmacy, the Wellness Coalition, and other individuals and groups too numerous to mention worked to find a doctor for years but to no avail. Given the shortage of doctors in Alberta, attracting a doctor or nurse practitioner to a rural community like Eckville was difficult.

In early 2023, the Town received a message from Cenovus Energy suggesting that the Town should contact the Montana First Nation as their Council had recently opened a medical clinic on their First Nation and they were looking to establish other medical clinics.

Representatives of The Montana First Nation and the Town of Eckville met at the Montana First Nation to discuss the possibility of working together. On Sept. 22, 2023, both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Eckville Medical Clinic Services and after several meetings, numerous phone calls, and emails, the Akamihk Health Care Services Clinic became a reality.

Dr. Tersia Lichtenstein, is currently seeing patients in Eckville on Fridays with the expectation of expanding the number of days in the future.

We are extremely excited and proud of this collaboration between Indigenous and Non-indigenous communities to provide health care in Alberta. 

I'm pleased to see the economic growth occurring in Eckville. Over the last year and a half, we have seen the opening of many businesses such as Block Creek Mercantile, Katie Westin Hair, Legacy Prosthetics and Orthotics, Raven's Trove, ABC Daycare, Eckville Message, Rose Beauty Company, and Backcountry Chiropractic. 

The year 2024 also saw the passing of a bylaw to amend the number of councillors from seven to five. Our municipal election in the fall of 2025 will now see Eckville residents elect a Mayor and four Councillors. The Town is faced with ever-difficult budget years. We have been dealing with the effects of inflation along with decreased grant revenues. Decreasing the number of elected officials was a cost-cutting initiative but we were careful not to make the change without believing that representation would not suffer. We are a Town of 1,100 residents so going from seven to five will not significantly impact the ability of council to govern.