It’s been another whirlwind couple weeks managing through the covid-19 restrictions.
Last weeks
Emergency Advisory Committee: Although daily email updates continue, we have reduced our EAC virtual briefings to once/week. Most recently, we discussed new directions from the province, including a directive to cancel all events and festivals to the end of the summer.
Homeland Housing Board: Homeland held their regular board meeting, where we discussed the progress of the Morinville Affordable Housing project, our continued covid-19 response, and regular financial disclosures. Of note, we learned that the Town of Morinville has decided to name the new affordable housing project (which is being built on land donated by the town) after former-Mayor Paul Krauskopf. I also had additional meetings with Homeland to discuss our proposal for St. Albert’s next potential affordable housing project.
Skatepark concept plan presentation: I didn’t understand half the terminology used to describe features of our redesigned skatepark, but I was delighted at the engagement of members of the public (who do understand skateboard terminology!) who provided feedback on the proposed design. I look forward to seeing the final design in the near future.
Edmonton Global Virtual Briefing on COVID-19: A Global Economy Perspective: This online session was an interesting insight into predictions about economic recovery, possible scenarios that we’ll be facing over the new few months and years, and opportunities for recovery.
Community learning opportunities: On a more personal note, I’ve been pleased to see so many organizations jumping on the virtual meeting bandwagon since they are unable to organize in-person events: I attended the Alberta Mycological Society’s first virtual session, which they intend to follow-up with presentations to keep members learning. My kayak club met to discuss their response to the health orders, which will be followed up by a virtual wilderness first aid presentation by the U of A’s Chair of Family Medicine and other virtual learning opportunities while we’re stuck on dry land. Lastly, I took part in the Urban Hen 101 course that is required to keep hens in St. Albert - no one in my family has time to start keeping hens, but this course was a delightful educational break. For anyone looking for activities to stay engaged and learning, there are quite a few virtual options being offered.
Agenda highlights
2020 City of St. Albert Community Recognition Award
Congratulations to those selected for this award, Dolores Andressen for “Environmental Stewardship”, Krista Monson for “Distinguished Achievement”, and Nancy Watt in the category of “Arts, Music & Culture”. I look forward to the awards celebration at a later date.
New Poet Laureate
Our new poet laureate, appointed for a 2-year term, is Julia Sorensen. I look forward to their presentation on Monday.
Library Board and Arts & Heritage Foundation Revised Budgets (-$420,710)
A few weeks ago, Council requested that the Library and AHF submit updated budgets in response to the covid-19 pandemic response.
The original 2020 City of St. Albert allocation for AHF was $1,792,628 and they are proposing a reduction to $1,574,790 (12% reduction). AHF expects revenue losses of “$477,425 or 73% decrease in earned revenues from those originally budgeted for 2020”.
The original allocation for the library was $4,661,900 and they are proposing a reduction to $4,467,900 (4% reduction). They expect revenue losses of $60,800, which is factored into the revised budget.
“The AHF has made reductions in expenses which will result in a reduction of $217,838 to their annual operating funding from the City of St. Albert for 2020. These reductions include temporary layoffs to contract staff and not hiring seasonal staff at their facilities. Reductions have also been made to program expenses and supplies.”
“The Public Library has made reductions in expenses which will result in a reduction of $194,000 to their annual operating funding from the City. These reductions include temporary layoffs to 43 St. Albert Public Library staff and job reclassifications. Reductions have also been made to various operating expenses including conference travel.”
The revised library budget appears to assume that 43 library staff that were laid off effective April 27 will return to work June 8, so I suspect that additional budget reductions will be applied because a June reopening is unlikely. It is unclear if the library reduced the hours of core staff by 20% the way AHF did.
2020 Budget Adjustments
After proposed funding reductions of AHF and the library are taken into consideration, the 2020 final tax requirement will be $110,264,400, with a consolidated budget of $310,306,300. This would mean the tax increase will stay the same as proposed in December, at 2.5%, after the expenses/savings related to the covid-19 response are taken into account. We have discussed service level reductions to further reduce our operating expenses, so additional reductions may be discussed on Monday.
Rec, Parks and Culture Facilities, Programs and Events during the Pandemic
With Provincial Health Orders changing so frequently, Administration is recommending that we align all closures to the orders rather than to a date set by the City. “This will effectively mean the cancellation of Canada Day celebrations and all other summer events or festivals in St. Albert and elsewhere in the Province of Alberta.”
This change, however, will allow us to act quickly to open certain facilities and programs (tennis courts, pickleball courts, etc.) should the orders permit openings. This report indicates that we don’t expect to open Grosvenor Pool this summer, and other facilities (the art gallery and museum, Fountain Park and Servus, the Arden, tennis courts, etc.) will depend on provincial direction. There is still a fair amount of confusion about which amenities are included in the health orders, so I suspect there will be some discussion about the details of closures when this is discussed Monday.
Time Extension Request - Traffic Bylaw 18/2005 Amendments
This is the bylaw to reduce residential speed limits to 40km/h among other changes that was supposed to go through before the summer recess. Admin is requesting a deferral to next January to allow for in-person public consultation in the fall. I’m on the fence about this request because of the excellent response in online engagement events that we’ve already hosted. Please let me know if you have thoughts about this process or request.
Riverside Stage 27 Redistricting (1st Reading)
This is to set the public hearing date for changes to the Land Use Bylaw to June 1, 2020. (Of note: I suspect this will be held virtually.)
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.
From the City: “While we are in a state of public health emergency as declared by the Province of Alberta, the City of St. Albert Council meetings will be conducted… through the ZOOM platform which will… stream to this page from YouTube…. Members of the public who wish to address Council on a specific item must send an email to legislative@stalbert.ca indicating your desire to speak and including the title of the item on the Agenda that you wish to address. All requests to speak to an item on the Agenda must be received at that email address by 10:00 a.m. on the day of the Council Meeting”.
