Last weeks + Regular Council Meeting January 10, 2022
Last weeks
The 2021 Christmas break was the quietest I’ve experienced on Council. The deep freeze, along with the rampant spread of Omicron seems to have slowed down everyone. I’m incredibly thankful for all the municipal staff who kept the city running during the challenging conditions - Our trails and roads were cleared, our ice rinks were maintained, our water kept running, and our first responders continued to be our lifeline.
Homeland Housing
I continue to meet regularly with the Homeland CEO & vice-chair, with covid being the most pressing issue of the last few weeks. Mandated by the province, we are responding to the specific challenges related to Omicron transmissibility. Like all organizations, we are also preparing for high absences due to the rapid spread of this dominant variant. Thankfully, the vaccination rate for our largest client demographic is excellent (75+ residents are 99.5% vaccinated in St. Albert, 94.9% in Sturgeon County West, and 92.7% in Westlock County).
Regional Board Workshop
St. Albert Council heard presentations from the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board, Regional Transit Services Commission, and Edmonton Global to learn more about the impact or and our relationship with these organizations.
Youth Advisory Committee Meeting
It was great meeting with the new youth committee. They elected their new Chair and Vice-Chair, and we discussed options for priorities for the next year.
Agenda Committee
Although we have fairly light Council agendas for the next few weeks, it was identified that an Emergency Advisory Committee meeting would be valuable. This has been scheduled for Tuesday morning and agenda topics include an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) update, HR impacts and business continuity, and an update from AHS. Our EOC staff are exceptional and I have every confidence that their planning and response to the current situation meets the highest standards. I’m also thankful that AHS has again made Dr. Sikora available to answer questions - Please let me know if there are specific questions that would be valuable to cover.
Agenda highlights
School board joint use & development agreement MOU
Admin & the school boards have settle on a Memorandum of Understanding to guide the development of an agreement regarding school site selection and joint use, whereby community groups have access to school facilities and schools have access to City facilities. Mandated by the province, we must come to agreement regarding the following by December 4, 2022:
“Discussing matters relating to the planning, development and use of school sites…
Transfers of municipal, school, and municipal and school reserves in the City;
Disposal of school sites;
Servicing of school sites…
The use of school facilities, municipal facilities, and playing fields…”
Active Communities Alberta Funding Request - Outdoor ice rinks ($30-$50,000)
This motion by a member of Council would direct Administration and Community Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) to provide feedback and municipal funding support recommendations on a “Outdoor Recreation Facility proposal” received from Active Communities (AC). Administration is recommending that we wait on any specific funding/facility decisions until “a recreation needs assessment and a prioritization for future development of recreation amenity infrastructure” is presented to Council in Q2 2022. Admin also commented that “it is not typical to have CSAC review business cases as the committee members typically do not have the subject matter expertise to provide feedback on this type of document”. If passed, a review of this type is estimated to cost $30-$50,000, in line with similar reviews completed in the past. One alternative proposed by Admin is to have AC apply for our existing Community Capital Program Grant, which is how community groups typically access municipal support for capital projects.
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. Members of the public can register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.
