Last weeks + Regular Council Meeting February 3, 2020
Last couple weeks
Environmental Advisory Committee: The first meeting of the year is always an interesting one, with new members joining and the election of a new chair. This meeting included a presentation about the Sturgeon Watershed plan and the opportunities available to St. Albert for protecting the watershed.
Priority-Based Budgeting Workshop: Council attended a workshop in preparation for using the new budget tool that the city will be using this year.
Homeland Housing Board Meeting: The town of Legal hosted out first meeting of 2020, where I accepted the position of vice-chair. Progress is being made on the affordable housing project in Morinville and we look forward to submitting a proposal for the St. Albert affordable housing call for expressions of interest.
Inter-municipal Affairs Committee Meeting: St. Albert hosted this meeting with the Council from Sturgeon County. It was an opportunity to discuss progress on annexation negotiations and the potential for agreements about development on shared borders.
St. Albert Public Schools Stakeholder Workshop: Although I attended this workshop as a parent rather than as a member of Council, it was still interesting from the perspective of the relationship between the city and school boards. With record-setting enrolment and expected continued growth, schools will be considering many innovative options as they deal with space and budget pressures.
Agenda highlights
Kingswood Land Acquisition
This is to allow the CAO to proceed with acquiring “pre-dedicated” land in Kingswood, prior to the developer/land-owner applying to subdivide the land. This will allow us to secure land needed for park space in Kingswood without going through expropriation.
We are also considering a motion to authorize $3.94M for development of the park. This seems like a lot, and there are no details in our backgrounder about what would be designed/built for this cost, so I expect Council will have a robust discussion around this topic.
Regional Transit Services Commission
If passed, this is the next step in creating a Regional Transit Services Commission for the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which would include St. Albert as a Commission member. “Establishment of the Commission will have no immediate impact on existing Transit Programs or Services at the City of St. Albert. However, as services are transferred to the Commission over time, service-levels are expected to stay the same and/or improve”. In the longer-term, this would provide savings to the city.
Riverside ASP Amendment + Land Use Bylaw Amendment
This if for first-reading of these amendments, and to set the public hearing date (March 2, 2020 at 5pm). For those unable to attend the public hearing in person, comments can be sent to hearings@stalbert.ca after the hearing date is formally approved.
If third reading passes in March, this would see a second school site created in Riverside using smaller parcels than the original site, which would reduce the space available for parks. Other changes will be summarized in the March 2 presentation.
Opt-in Flyers
Consumer waste is a significant issue everywhere, including St. Albert. In an effort to reduce some consumer waste, I was hoping to explore the option of requiring an opt-in requirement for unsolicited mail (predominantly flyers) that are delivered to residences, similar to federal anti-spam legislation.
Admin has advised that an opt-in requirement would be legally off-base, but that we could enact regulations similar to Halifax and Calgary that require businesses to respect requests to opt-out through “no junk mail” type signage. If I go ahead with a motion, it will be along the lines of what Calgary/Halifax have already done.
(If you don’t want to receive flyers, Flyer Force will respect requests to opt out of delivery. Requests can be submitted here: http://edmonton.flyerforce.ca/resident_edm. The Gazette is equally respectful and accepts requests to stop delivery here: https://www.stalberttoday.ca/submissions/delivery.)
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.
