'A step up': Lac Ste. Anne businesses and officials ready for Papal visit and crowds

Many Lac Ste. Anne residents and businesses are used to having a summer rush of tourists, but the Papal visit next week will likely surpass the scale of any event hosted in the community.

Northwest of Edmonton, the community hosts a pilgrimage for Catholics known as one of the largest annual Catholic gatherings in Western Canada.

Kim Zackodnik, Mamas in the Kitchen owner, says the restaurant is preparing for record crowds.

"(For) summer pilgrimage, we're packed," Zackodnik told CTV News Edmonton. "We probably triple, quadruple our population.

"We are a summer community," she added. "We are a summer village. We have so many people come through here.

"With him being here, it's just going to be a step up."

Zackodnik says the restaurant is preparing new menu specials, like Pope pancakes and Pope poutine.

"We're going to pull all our resources and try our best," she added. "Right now, we're in the mindset of how are we going to do this… But we'll get through it."

Complicating matters is that local officials are unsure how many people to expect.

"We don't know if it's going to be 100,000 or if it's going to be 300,000," said Joe Blakeman, Lac Ste. Anne County reeve.

"One of the county's biggest concerns is the safety of our residents and the visitors," Blakeman said. "You gotta make sure nobody gets run over, and if it gets hot, if somebody passes out on the side of the road, they're going to be looked after."

The county is working with Alberta Health Services and emergency crews from neighbouring areas to be ready for whatever the day or weather brings.

On the grounds near the pilgrimage site, crews were installing hundreds of porta-potties and several tents. In an average year, there are around 100 porta-potties. This year there are 550.

"We have gone overboard this year, but the last thing we want to make a mistake is on porta-potties," said John Harvard, site coordinator.

Before the pandemic, the site would welcome 40,000 to 50,000 pilgrims. Harvard expects that to be doubled, or tripled.

In the years of being involved with pilgrimage planning, Harvard said he's never seen such an involved and coordinated site setup.

"People that are feeling a little stressed or need some help, there's help for them immediately," Harvard said. "We've got cooling tents. We got rest areas.

"We'll have areas where people can go through the misting so they can get cooled down because I am expecting we are going to have some pretty warm days here."

Harvard encouraged people travelling to the site to leave early, watch for road closures, and arrive at the site two hours before the Pope arrives.

"It's going to be a long day," he said.

The Archdiocese of Edmonton has rented 200 school buses to use as shuttles to the site, Harvard said. He expects hundreds more from other cities and provinces to also make the trip to the site.

"The planning process was very quick," he said. "It has been, I can honestly say, a whirlwind for the past three weeks, but it is all coming together. My heart is awfully glad to see what has happened."