GRANDE PRAIRIE NEWS - 2023
January 2023: A number of Grande Prairie residents decided to have their own neighborhood Fireworks to bring in the year. This one in occured over the Whispering Ridge Pond in the northern part of Grande Prairie. The Fireworks lasted over 15 minutes and started at 7pm, so the younger children to enjoy the occcasion.
January 2023: After what seemed like decades located downtown Grande Prairie along 101st Avenue, Riichmond Dry Cleaners has made the move to an area where there is more parking, 10814-100 Street, just west of Home Hardware.
January 2023: The 2023 Grande Prairie Dream was open for viewing and DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com was there capturing the many features on camera. View Dream Home feature page:
View photos
January 2023: Frontier Eatery and Seafood has opened a second location at the old “Seasons on 40” location. It is located at the Holiday Inn and Suites, 9816-107 Street, near the Staples corner, Grande Prairie. It will now be able to handle banquets of up to 600 people, offer room service to the hotel, plus they will be looking after the Spa in the hotel.
February 2023: Bed Bath & Beyond Canadian operations are going out of business. In Canada there are 54 stores that employed about 387 full time employees and 1,038 part-time workers. A number of people have noticed for some time that the shelves at the Grande Prairie store were not being restocked and now know the reason why. Staff in Grande Prairie won’t say when the store will close and only advised to call head office for that information.
March 2023: Grande Prairie’s Tenille Townes won Country Album of the year at the 2023 JUNO Awards with the Album Masquerades.
March 2023: Travis Toews, MLA and finance minister announces he is not seeking re-election in May 2023. Toews won the 2019 election as the UCP Peace-Wapiti candidate in Grande Prairie. Earlier another Grande Prairie UCP MLA Tracy Allard announced she was not running in the next election because of health reasons.
March 2023: The City of Grande Prairie Council has voted in favour of establishing a municipal police service and phase out the RCMP. The service is to be established over the next five years. RCMP have policed Grande Prairie since 1937.The Peace Country Progressive Alliance (PCPA) a local group is petitioning the City of Grande Prairie’s decision to move forward on a municipal police force. They are hoping for for 6700 signatures to put the decision to a public vote.
April 2023:
Workers on strike in Grande Prairie on the corner of 108 Street and 100 Avenue (near Staples). The Public Service Alliance of Canada were on the picket lines with more than 155,000 federal workers all across Canada off the job. A tentative agreement was finally reached on May 1st putting an end to the strick after nearly 2 weeks.
April 2023:
Willie de Wit has been appointed Justice of Appeal in Alberta. Many remember Willie representing Grande Prairie at the Commonwealth Games getting a gold medal in 1982 in boxing and in the Olympics in 1984 getting the silver. He also won the World Amateur Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1983-1984.
May 2023: The Winner of the Grande Prairie Dream Home was Shaleena Higgins and the winner of the 50/50 cash prize was tinity Schmidt of Manning, Alberta. She took home $325,775. More Dream Home info
CLICK HERE
May 2023: The 2023 Alberta General Election was held on May 29, 2023 and the United Conservative Party under Danielle Smiith was re-elected as Premier of Alberta. A total of 1,777,321 ballots were cast in the provincial election in May, with the voter turnout at 59.5 per cent.
Here are the local results:
More info.
June 2023: National Indigenous Peoples Day was Wednesday (June 21st, 2023) and it was highlighted with a parade down 102 Avenue in Grande Prairie. DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com captured the entire parade. Play VIDEO
June 2023: Grande Prairie had the lowest rental rates for May 2023 out of 35 different Cities across Canada. A one bedroom apartment cost at an average of $1,023, while an average two bedroom apartment was $1,226. Across Alberta rent was up 13 per cent over last year at this time. Vancouver and Toronto were at the top of the list more the highest rental rates.
June 2023: GP Honda moved into its new building just south of the previous building and GP Motorsports. The new Bannister GP Honda is located at 12916-100 Street, Grande Prairie.
July 2023: The Grande Prairie Canada Day Parade took place July 1st right downtown with thousands of people of all ages lining the streets. DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com captured the entire parade on video and edited down to 25 minutes.
Play VIDEO.
August 2023: Former Grande Prairie Mayor and City Councillor Dwight Logan has passed away at the age of 75 on July 29th, 2023. He and his family were a big part of the operation of the York Hotel in Grande Prairie. Dwight was first elected to Grande Prairie City Council as an alderman in 1983. More on Dwight Logan including
VIDEO From 2010 Election.
August 2023: The former Norlan Used Car building along 100 Street Grande Prairie, has been renovated and is the new home for Impact Print and Promo along with Suzie Q’s Auto Detailing.
August 2023: The Source closed its doors that was located for many years in the south wing of the Prairie Mall. Many still remember this store as Radio Shack featuring all kinds of electronics. The Source still has over 300 locations with Dawson Creek now the closest Source store to Grande Prairie.
August 2023: This year will go down as the worste Wildfire Season in Alberta and across Canada. With a very dry and hot spring, there were hundreds of out of contril fires in Alberta and BC causing very many days of high levels of smoke through-out the Peace Country that prevented many outdoor activities. The fires continued for the entire summer and late August, thousands of evacues from the North West Territories arrived in Grande Prairie and other communities. And in September there were still over 400 wildfires currently active in BC and over 100 in Alberta.
more info
September 2023: A new restaurant Cozy Pierogi, has opened on the west end of Grande Prairie. You can dine-in or takeout, 11520-Westgate Drive. (east of 116 street and north of 100 street.)
September 2023:TENILLE TOWNES has won again at the 2023 Canadian Country Music Awards. She is the Female Artist of the Year beating Shania Twain, MacKenzie Porter, Lindsay Ell and Tennille Arts. She also won the Country Music Program or Special of Year for “Christmas Time with Tenille Townes 2022”. Songwriters of the Year was presented to Bryan Adams, Tenille Townes, Daniel Tashian and Kate York.
September 2023: The old Composite High School and Leisure Centre has been scheduled for demolition. The walls started tumbling down near the end of September. MORE PHOTOS:
VIEW photo 2,
VIEW photo 3