Last week + Regular Council Meeting August 26, 2019
Last week
Canada Cultural Spaces Fund Announcement: Thank you to the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund for awarding St. Albert $465,615 for our performing arts space - It was wonderful hearing this announcement from MP Randy Boissonnault! Special thanks to our staff for their work on this grant application, the generous contribution of the Friends of the St. Albert Children's Theatre, the Government of Alberta through a Community Facilities Improvement Program Grant, and other private donors who helped make this possible!
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2019/08/the-government-of-canada-invests-more-than-4-million-in-arts-and-culture-in-alberta.html
Agenda highlights
Most of this meeting is in-camera (MDP update, provincial engagement strategy, expropriation update, and a social program review workshop), so the public portion isn’t extensive:
Community Recognition Program
As discussed in Committee, this is to update our recognition policy - Most changes are housekeeping items, but our Community Services Advisory Committee has also recommended that we “add the category “Distinguished Achievement”… amend the category “Arts & Culture” to read “Arts, Music, and Culture”… and delete the award category “Past Era Business of Distinction”.
2019 Budget for Canadian Urban Transit Association Board Chair ($10,000)
This motion is to allocate “$10,000 from the Council Contingency Fund… to support Councillor Brodhead in 2019 as Chair of the Transit Board Members Committee”.
Environmental Sustainability Policy
As discussed in Committee, this is the regular update to this policy. Substantive updates include “the addition of definitions for climate mitigation, climate resiliency and performance measures related to the City’s environmental management system… <and> acknowledging requirements for regional collaboration related to maintain habitat and wildlife corridors”.
This is a brief high-level overview of our meetings, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. As always, I also encourage everyone who is able to tune in the the live-stream of the meeting (3pm here) or attend in-person (3rd floor of St. Albert Place, hang a right getting out of the elevator). You can also register to speak if you have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.
