Last week
Chamber of Commerce - Community Leaders Roundtable: Thank you to the Chamber for hosting this event and to St. Albert MP Michael Cooper, MLA Dale Nally, and Mayor Heron for their participation. The activities of the province and federal government are of great interest as the City navigates our pandemic response.
Chamber of Commerce Emotional Intelligence in Times of Chaos webinar: Thanks to the Chamber for hosting this event.
Chamber of Commerce Town hall for Concerns regarding the impact of COVID-19 on businesses in St. Albert and surrounding community: Thanks to the Chamber for hosting this event with the Leader of the Opposition, Rachel Notley, and St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud. Concerns of business owner and operators were eye-opening - Challenges with PPE and keeping staff and patrons safe, reduced or eliminated opportunities to make a living, overhead pressures (especially rent), and confusing government decisions were a focus of many.
Public Open House - Range Road 260 ASP Amendment: I attended part of this open house, relating to the ASP for the lands to the west on which the new community amenities site will be located. The presentation along with questions from the public will be available to view on the developer’s site for the next week: http://selecteng.ca/news/2020-04-20/10/
Emergency Advisory Committee Briefing: We’ve taken gazebos, docks, and shelters off the list of closed amenities. We’ll continue to adjust based on updated in the CMOH orders and clarification from Alberta Health Services. Of note, AHS explicitly listed tennis & pickleball courts in the facilities that must be closed under one of the orders - We will continue to follow up with the province to make sure we’re staying up-to-date with closure requirements.
Homeland Housing Subcommittee meeting: I’m part of the subcommittee of HH managing the standard annual review of our executive director. We met for our inaugural planning meeting last week.
Recovery Task Force: Council met to discuss the shortlist of applicants to this new committee of Council. We will conduct interviews later in the month.
Agenda highlights
Note: This meeting starts at 9am on Monday, May 11.
2020 Budget Adjustments
The deadline for Council motions regarding changes to the budget has passed, so it is unlikely that we’ll discuss additional reductions (or increases) to service levels that would impact the overall budget. That said, in order to accommodate the costs and service level changes related to the pandemic, we have already reduced the Arts & Heritage budget by 12% and the Library by 7%. We are looking for comparable savings within City operations to manage the shortfalls we’re seeing due to closed facilities and increased costs related to our covid response. With that in mind, Administration is recommending that we approve the revised budget based on original budget discussions, with a final tax requirement of $110,264,000 resulting in a consolidated budget of $310,306,000 and an average tax increase of 2.5% (~avg. $6/month). This budget supports our long-term plan to have the means to maintain City infrastructure. An alternative motion being considered is a 1% reduction in the budget, with a final tax requirement of $109,220,000 resulting in a consolidated budget of $309,262,000 and an average tax increase of 1.5% (~avg. $3/month).
2020 Residential/Commercial Tax Ratio (Council Motion)
Councillor MacKay may propose that we freeze the residential/commercial tax split rates at 2019 levels. This tax split determines the proportion of tax paid by residential home owners and that paid by commercial property owners. Should this pass after passing the recommended budget, the residential property tax will increase from +2.5% to +2.7% and the commercial rate would decrease from +2.5% to +1.7%. Should we approve the 1% reduction in the budget, the residential property tax will increase from +1.5% to +1.7% and the commercial rate would decrease from +1.5% to +0.7%.
From our agenda package, a representation of the splits seen in Albertan municipalities.
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.”
