Lloydminster City Council has approved the signing of a Friendship Agreement with Frog Lake First Nation, formalizing a commitment to keep working together long after a joint economic development program ends.
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Council gave its approval during the Sept. 21 regular meeting. The agreement grows out of the Community Economic Development Initiative, or CEDI, a program the two communities first entered into together in March 2025.
Lloydminster and Frog Lake First Nation are one of five partnerships taking part in a Prairie-region CEDI cohort running from 2024 to 2027. The program is delivered jointly by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Building on nearly two years of work
Since announcing their participation in 2025, the two communities have held monthly working group meetings, bi-annual workshops and other relationship-building activities focused on economic development and capacity building.
The new Friendship Agreement is designed to carry that work forward once formal CEDI programming wraps up in 2027. City administration recommended council approve it, noting the agreement lines up with the municipality’s ongoing efforts to strengthen economic cooperation and regional partnerships.
The partnership also has a practical dimension. Frog Lake First Nation owns significant land holdings within Lloydminster, including a parcel that became part of the city following a 2022 annexation from the County of Vermilion River.
City officials say the CEDI framework gives both parties a structure for discussing future development opportunities, land use planning and mutual economic growth on that shared footprint. The Lloydminster-Frog Lake relationship follows a similar path taken by other regional municipalities working with First Nations neighbours, including an MOU signed with Onion Lake in late 2024.
What’s next
The growing partnership was in the spotlight the day after council’s vote, with a presentation on the agreement featured at the Economic Partnership Summit held at the Lloyd Ex on Sept. 24.
With the Friendship Agreement now approved, the two communities are expected to continue their working group meetings and workshops through the remainder of the CEDI program, with the formal agreement acting as a bridge once that program concludes in 2027.
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