Last week + Regular Council Meeting April 6, 2020
These past weeks have been surreal. I have been incredibly impressed with the residents and businesses for stepping up to support each other. Staff have also been wonderful, from stepping into new roles, to taking on strange schedules, and finding new routines while working remotely. We are lucky in St. Albert in so many ways.
Up-to-date information about St. Albert’s response is available on our website. There is also a list compiled by public volunteers of local restaurants offering take-out and delivery for anyone able to support our businesses in this way. Many non-food local businesses are also offering similar services - please consider local options for all needs if you’re able.
With the Gazette only printing the Wednesday edition, residents can also access local news stories online. One story published online last week included interviews with most of Council about what we’ve been doing since covid-19 has changed daily life.
Last couple weeks
Emergency Advisory Committee: Along with Mayor Heron and Councillor McKay, I have been virtually attending briefings of our EAC committee to stay up to date on our response, impacts to our residents, and impacts across the province and country.
Homeland Housing Special Meeting: The HH board met on the 23rd to discuss our response and preparedness for the covid-19 pandemic. We are receiving new directives from the province about restrictions and requirements for our facilities regularly, so our staff have had to respond quickly to new demands. This time is especially challenging for seniors living in some of our facilities because visitors are no longer allowed and many of our residents don’t use technologies that are keeping many of us connected. Special thanks to our staff who have stepped up to continue providing exceptional service to our residents despite the challenges and new restrictions we’re facing.
Homeland Housing Board Meeting: As part of a new normal, I attended the regular HH meeting virtually. Along with discussions about our covid-19 response, we also heard from our auditor about the findings of our regular audit of our financials.
Agenda highlights
Our regular Council meeting will be held virtually; Residents are encouraged to watch the live feed on YouTube. “Members of the public who wish to address Council on a specific item on the April 6, 2020 Agenda 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 April 6, 2020 Council Agenda must be received at that email address by 10:00 a.m. on April 6, 2020”.
Increase in Outside Agency Grant Funding ($79,298)
This motion is to consider whether we should increase the amount of funding available for this particular grant program, from $9 per capita to $10.20 per capita, which would increase the funding available from $594,738 to $674,036. If this passes, it will mean the funding will have increased almost 75% from 2014. By comparison, most Albertan municipalities don’t offer this type of funding, with exceptions including Edmonton (max grant of $20,000), Leduc (avg. grant of $15,000), Parkland County (max $10,000), Red Deer (max $30,000), and Sturgeon County (max $4,000).
COVID-19 Administrative Update
Admin will present our high-level situation report, as well as a financial report. The financial report will be available prior to our meeting on Monday. Of note: Admin and the Mayor will also be hosting a virtual town hall for residents next week. Please watch the City’s site and my social media about details on how to join.
Strategic Plan Approval & Corporate Business Plan Information
Council updated our Strategic Plan earlier this year and Admin has responded with their Business Plan. Both these documents are available in our agenda package. Our short-term priorities have changed somewhat due to the current situation, so I suspect there will be some discussion about changes to our activities over the next year.
Removal/storage/assessment of the Stephen Barr Memorial Sculpture ($10,000)
In 2009, this sculpture was donated to the city and installed outdoors near the entrance to Servus Place. Unfortunately, the structure is failing and there is a risk of it falling. Admin is recommending that we spend $10,000 to remove, store, and assess the piece to remove the safety risk and determine next steps.
Handibus Extended Hours
Admin is recommending that we delay extending hours of handibus service because demand has dropped off so significantly with residents staying close to home in response to the pandemic. We’ll look at this again in July.
RR 260 Lands/Community Amenities Site
This a report on the ASP and development progress related to the lands that we have selected for a community amenities site. Administration is recommending that we “continue discussions…, including off- site servicing solutions with Rohit and provide recommendations based on outcomes for Council’s consideration on May 25, 2020”.
“On March 30, 2020, Administration met via videoconference with representatives from Rohit to discuss the potential for acceleration of servicing for the RR260 project. Rohit indicated that preliminary design was nearly complete and was supportive of accelerating timelines to complete detailed design of both on-site and off-site servicing. While Administration is supportive of on-site servicing for development of this site, and will work with the developer to enable this, the City’s strategic focus is on off-site servicing to enable development of the broader servicing area, providing economic growth and taxation revenue for the City”.
COVID-19 Recovery
Mayor Heron provided notice of motion of the following. I suspect this will pass unanimously, as we are all committed to developing a robust recovery plan in collaboration with Admin and our residents.
That Administration provide a concept plan for St. Albert COVID-19 Recovery, for Council’s consideration on April 20, 2020;
That Administration develop proposed governance principles and procedures including a statement of purpose, selection criteria for external stakeholders and terms of reference, for a Recovery Task Force to be appointed by Council to support and oversee implementation of the plan for St. Albert COVID-19 Recovery, for Council’s consideration on April 20, 2020;
That any funding required for the St. Albert COVID-19 Recovery Concept Plan and Recovery Task Force be part of the $1.4M allocated by Council on March 13 ($1 million) and March 23 ($400 thousand) for costs associated with the City of St. Albert’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
