Stretching across approximately seventeen townships in northern Alberta, Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement sits along the Mackenzie Highway (Highway 35), roughly 72 kilometres south of the Town of High Level. Its eastern border follows the Peace River, where the historic La Crete ferry continues to operate. The settlement falls along the northern boundary of the County of Northern Lights, making it the most northerly of Alberta’s eight Metis settlements — and also the largest. The surrounding land is rich in timber, natural resources, and agricultural potential, and the community has taken steps toward renewable energy by constructing solar power generating units for several of its local buildings.
The origins of Paddle Prairie trace back to the hardships of the 1930s, when widespread poverty among Alberta’s Metis population prompted the formation of a royal commission to examine living conditions. Known as the Ewing Commission, this inquiry led to the 1938 Metis Population Betterment Act, which allowed unoccupied Crown land to be set aside for Metis communities. Paddle Prairie — originally established as the Keg River settlement — was among the eleven communities created by Order-in-Council between 1938 and 1939. By 1941, nineteen family heads were recorded as residents, with a total population of 72. A central village was established at the settlement’s geographic heart on a stretch of open, productive land, where a lumbering operation yielded over 91,000 board feet of rough sawn lumber, and approximately 23 kilometres of road was cleared through to a Peace River landing for supply transport. According to the 2021 Census, Paddle Prairie had a population of 551 residents living across 212 of its 256 private dwellings, a modest increase from 544 recorded in 2016. The settlement covers a land area of 1,726.45 square kilometres.