Last few weeks + Regular Council Meeting January 6, 2020
Happy New Year!
Last few weeks highlights
Homeland Housing Board Meeting
I was in Westlock just before Christmas for our regular board meeting. The affordable housing building in Morinville is already receiving considerable interest, and plans to fill the new supportive housing units in Redwater are progressing as expected with strong demand.
Boudreau Developments ASP amendment application
A lot of my time over the last couple of weeks has been spent responding to resident concerns about a significant ASP amendment for the area just downriver of Shops on Boudreau. It’s been awkward responding to these concerns because Council will not see the final proposal until at least April, after Administration has completed a review of the application and provided a recommendation. My responses have included a mix of the following information, depending on individual concerns:
Council has not seen the application or any associated impact assessment reports, which we are obligated to consider before making any decision about approvals or rejections of amendments. I have concerns about traffic congestion and long-term planning for areas around the river, which will be addressed before any decision.
Administration has advised that the application (with personal information redacted) will be available on StAlbert.ca starting mid-January. Our Planning department will accept feedback about the proposal until the January 29 open house that is being organized/hosted by the developer. I attended the first open house last fall, and plan on attending the January 29 one as well to listen to resident questions and concerns. I don’t know details about the time/place of the next open house, but I will share them on my social media when the information is available.
At this point, Council has no involvement in this private application process. Should the application reach Council, I expect that first reading will take place no sooner than April 20, with a public hearing to follow in May. For anyone who would like to register support or opposition for the final proposal, they can either write to have comments included in the public hearing after a hearing date has been set and the final proposal is available to view, or attend the public hearing.
Agenda highlights
Affordable Housing
In December, the Community Living Standing Committee recommended to Council that Administration come back to Committee by June 15, 2020 with proposals to encourage the development of affordable housing units, ensuring that:
a. The City’s involvement in promoting affordable and accessible housing will not duplicate areas of responsibility of the senior levels of government…
b. Municipal resources and investments in affordable and accessible housing will be utilized to expand the non-market housing supply and to leverage operational funding from, and partnerships with, non-municipal sources.
c. the City’s Affordable Housing strategy will clearly emphasize the City’s role in: being open to proposals from a wide range of community partners in increasing affordable housing opportunities in St. Albert; and being open to providing one-time capital grants or land donations or long-term land lease options without providing ongoing operational funding
There are currently 10 organizations that have developed a total of 415 “affordable housing” units using approximately $2.4M of municipal funding and $27.9M from higher levels of government (based on an IR from 2018 and the report in our agenda package).
Procurement Audit Report
MNP, our internal auditors, have provided their final report on the Procurement portion of their audit. As expected, there are many recommendations to improve our processes and create efficiency. Interestingly, we are the only municipality within Albertan comparables (Airdrie, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray) that uses a decentralized procurement model. Apart from Fort Mac with 12 staff compared to our 3 and 9X St. Albert’s procurement spend, we also have the fewest procurement staff by spend among comparables: Airdrie 1/$6.5M, Grande Prairie 1/$11.3M, Lethbridge 1/$15.1M, Fort McMurray 1/$63.7M, St. Albert 1/$28M.
There is no action item associated with this agenda item, but Council may discuss making a response to recommendations a priority.
Council Member Per Diems
This motion is to consider whether to allow Council members to accept per diems from external boards. These boards are currently the Edmonton Metro Region Board, Alberta Capital Region Waste Water Commission and Homeland Housing. Right now, EMRB and Homeland per diems are paid directly to the City and the one from the Wastewater Commission is forfeited. I’m not aware of any other municipality in Alberta that doesn’t permit its members to accept external per diems.
Per diems were discontinued in 2017, both for internal committees and external boards, on the recommendation of the Remuneration Committee; At that time, “Council <also> decided to approve salary increases of $5000/year less for Councillors and $15,000/year less for the Mayor than the Committee had recommended”.
This is a brief and incomplete 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. I encourage everyone who is able to tune in the the live-stream of the meeting (2pm 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.
