Last week + Regular Council Meeting December 7, 2020
Last week
Emergency Management Committee
After last week’s meeting recessed, we met again to consider the impact of the continuing pandemic response and the new Orders from the province. Notably, we are pulling our staff from supervising some of the bigger outdoor skating rinks for their safety. The presentation from Admin at about the 1:37 mark is eye-opening:
Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Webinar
This was a webinar with Hon. Seamus O'Regan, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources. Although I’m typically energized by these types of webinars - I enjoy learning more about policy direction of higher levels of government - but in this case, “natural resources” were almost exclusively related to pipelines. There was some discussion around how big oil is the biggest investor in new/green energy tech, which was interesting, as was discussion about Indigenous land rights. He also mentioned that a national hydrogen strategy is coming "extremely" soon - I look forward to seeing what that looks like.
Agenda highlights
FCSS Grant Recommendations ($532,081)
Last month, the Community Living Standing Committee recommended to Council that the grant funding requests be awarded as recommended by our volunteer Community Services Advisory Committee. Right now, this is slated to be passed without discussion, but it’s possible that motions are made to adjust final grant awards.
OUTSIDE AGENCY GRANT RECOMMENDATIONS ($594,738)
Last month, the Community Living Standing Committee recommended to Council that the grant funding requests be awarded as recommended by our volunteer Community Services Advisory Committee. As with FCSS grants, this is slated to be passed without discussion, but we’re hearing from many groups that would like to see final award amounts increased. I’m particularly uneasy about the funding recommendation for Victim Services. Last month, we also increased funding for SAIF by $75,000 - Typically, that kind of funding would be awarded through this grant. Specifically, partial funding is recommended for:
St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship ($7,668 of $8,000 - note: this is the maximum eligible amount)
St. Albert Housing Society ($44,650 of $63,025)
St. Albert Seniors Association ($219,285 of $224,396)
St. Albert Victim Services ($66,402 of $91,565)
St. Albert & District Further Education ($23,474 of $50,480)
Visual Arts Studio Association (VASA - $27,685 of $30,262)
Michif ($9,615 of $10,163)
Enforcement of provincial Health Orders
This motion is to indicate Council’s support for enforcement of provincial Orders. Although this is largely symbolic - Municipal Enforcement already has the authority to enforce these laws - it does show that St. Albert is committed to keeping our community safe through all tools at our disposal.
From the administrative backgrounder: “The recent COVID-19 case numbers in St. Albert have not been very much different from the high numbers in the Edmonton region generally, so Administration believes it is incumbent on St. Albert to "pull its weight" by showing active support for the new provincial measures.”
Mail-in Ballots for the 2021 Municipal Election
Right now, mail-in ballots are not permitted for Alberta municipalities. The provincial Municipal Government Act would have to be amended to allow this type of voting. This motion is to second Okotok’s 2021 Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) resolution advocating for this change. Despite election results possibly taking longer to tabulate, I could see this option being valuable for situations like we are seeing right now.
From the Town of Okotoks: “In order to limit behaviours that spread the COVID-19 virus by compelling electors to attend voting stations in person, the option of voting by special ballots (mail-in voting) should be provided to all electors or as determined by each municipality according to needs.”
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.
