Last weeks + Committee of the Whole November 15, 2022
One of my commitments since being elected has been transparency and accountability in terms of my communications with residents, which I’ve supported with these blog posts and communication through many social media channels. I’ve made a few changes to my communication channels this year, though - I added an Instagram account and I stopped my Facebook account - and I’ll also no longer be using Twitter. For anyone who wants to follow my activities on social media, I’ve linked my Instagram below and my LinkedIn profile can also be followed, although I also post non-Council thoughts on that site. Either way, please stay in touch!
Last weeks highlights
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Some of my activities included:
Chamber of Commerce Luncheon & “13 Ways to Kill Your Business” presentation: This was a fantastic event, featuring keynote speaker Heather Thomson. Her presentation was an excellent reminder of the importance of digital presence, physical space, identifying & responding to change, collaboration, and employee engagement.
Premier's Address Luncheon: Only days after the UCP leader’s election, I attended the Edmonton Chamber event featuring Premier Danielle Smith. It was interesting to hear her thoughts on the strained municipal-provincial relationship, healthcare, vaccines, business tax, and the proposed “Sovereignty Act”.
SAIF’s Paint the Town Purple Kick-Off Breakfast: As always, this fundraiser was an important reminder of the impacts of family violence and the critical importances of supports for people experiencing violence.
St. Albert-Sturgeon County Intermunicipal Collaboration meeting: This was the first time that Council has met with the Sturgeon County Council is a while - it provided a foundation for future discussions regarding shared opportunities.
Municipal Naming with Mayor Lisa Helps from Victoria, BC: This was a valuable learning session regarding naming and renaming, where we learned from Victoria’s experience naming/renaming their assets in the context of Reconciliation.
Homeland Housing: October’s meeting marked my last meeting as Board Chair, with a new Chair being elected later this month. It was a straight-forward discussion, with the only deviation from standard updates relating to carbon tax rebates that we are ineligible for and an approval of the next steps with City of St. Albert relating to the affordable housing project.
Youth Workshops on Municipal Naming: One of the stakeholders that we’re learning from in the process of creating a new naming policy is our youth - thank you to all school boards for hosting us to discuss municipal values & their thoughts on municipal naming. I was pleased to attend one of these sessions with a group of enthusiastic grade-7’s!
Youth Advisory Committee: This committee continues to be one of the highlights of my month. At November’s meeting, we heard from the Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the Community Village and Food Bank. The group was incredibly engaged throughout this presentation - it was a sobering reminder of the importance in investing in supports for the health of our youth.
Committee highlights
Council Code of Conduct Refresh
I always find reviews of the Code of Conduct bylaw challenging because provincial legislation is limiting in terms of actions that can be taken if there is a breech. For straight-forward breeches like stealing, improper voting due to pecuniary interest, etc., the process is meaningful, but for others, it’s less clear.
Since I’ve been elected, we’ve dealt with a handful of complaints - one due to language used in a Council meeting and a few related to travel during the height of pandemic restrictions - but all were dismissed after a costly investigation that was very stressful for everyone involved.
The only material change being proposed to this bylaw is that complaints will be considered internally, and in confidence with Council with external support only being requested if there is a dispute, rather than through an external Integrity Commissioner (IC) - this is what we’ve been doing for the last couple years after suspending our relationship with an IC.
Procedure Bylaw
Our procedure bylaw outlines how we conduct meetings. Some of the changes proposed include:
Permitting three readings of a bylaw on a consent agenda (unanimous approval, typically without discussion or debate) if there is no public hearing. This is a fantastic time-saver when we pass straight-forward/non-controversial bylaws.
Limiting members of Council to 5 minutes in debate. This is FANTASTIC and is very common in municipalities throughout Canada, with many municipalities also extending this limit to non-debate/question periods. One of the challenges that we’ve had is extremely long Council meetings, which could be alleviated through more concise expression of comments. If I can’t express my thoughts in 5 minutes, it means that I need to do a better job of organizing my thoughts through preparedness or training.
Permitting the City Manager to require a motion of Council to direct an information request response if they determine that it would require significant time/resources or if they believe that the request “does not directly pertain to City operations or administration”. This is important to protect our capacity - If staff are working on reports that are unnecessary, it takes time/resources away from other projects/services.
Clarifying that all members of Council may participate in agenda planning, which is the responsibility of the Mayor in consultation with the CAO. We’ve been doing this for a while now, so this would just codify the current process in bylaw.
Servus Place Financial Report
This is an update on the recovery we’re seeing at Servus:
“In 2021, the Servus Credit Union Place operation was impacted in by Alberta Health Services restrictions... Additionally, a change in the operating model for the Starbucks operation also resulted in significant contributors to the financial variances to budget.
The first nine months of 2022 resulted in $4.3 million in revenue. Servus Place is forecasting $6.1 million in revenue against a budget of $6.7 million. Advertising, sponsorship and rental revenue have returned to pre-Covid-19 levels; however, memberships and program revenue has been slower to recover. This trend is consistent in the region.
The first nine months of 2022 resulted in $5.8 million in expenses. Servus Place is forecasting $8.2 million in expenses against a budget of $9.3 million. The variance is primarily in personnel costs; a combination of staff vacancies and reduced casual wages offset by reduced revenues are the main contributors.
The year end forecasted net expense is $2.1 million, against a budgeted net expense of $2.6 million, resulting in $500 thousand favourable variance from budget.”
Firehall 4 Update
The much-needed firehall in the North section of the city was approved to go ahead, so this is an update based on changing project scope. There is no expected change to the construction budget (~$16.3M), but there is a requirement to fund ~$4.7M for servicing/levies from another source.
Originally, we assumed that the land used would already be serviced (water, wastewater, etc.), but because it is not, servicing costs have increased from the $250,000 budgeted to ~$2M + ~$2.5M for offsite levy fees.
Reduced building scale that takes into consideration increased capacity at the new Firehall 1. Because of the smaller site, we can take advantage of modular building opportunities that mean the building could be set up in as little as two weeks - The Calgary Fire Department & Alberta Health have used this technology successfully for firehall & ambulance stations.
Reduced staffing required through the cross-staffing model that is already being used at the new Fire Station 1.
This is a brief and incomplete overview of my activities as a councillor and Council 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. Residents can register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.
