Last week:
St. Albert hosted the Red Willow Park Master Plan Open House, including information about the BLESS platform. Thank you to everyone who was able to come out to the presentation, and for your feedback - I was impressed at the turnout (and my daughters were pleased at all the kind residents encouraging them to eat treats!). If you missed it, we're still accepting feedback online - please check out the Master Plan Update website.
The City of St. Albert released its recreational cannabis information page; For anyone interested in the city's role in legalization, the page gives an overview of the work we will undertake over the next couple of months.
Council met with members of Sturgeon County Council as part of the St. Albert / Sturgeon County Intermunicipal Affairs Committee (IAC). We discussed the Sturgeon Valley Special Study Area, and decided to move forward with a "Project Charter for a potential Recreation Inter-municipal Collaboration Framework for the June 27, 2018 IAC Meeting, subject to regional discussions and legislative requirements." We also saw a presentation about potential servicing north of St. Albert from 4SG, "the St. Albert-Sturgeon Service Solutions Group – a partnership between Four Corners Projects, Landrex, Triple 5, and Melcor that aims to co-operatively plan and pay for water and sewer service on their lands in the annexed area."
Council met with the Economic Development Advisory Board. This team of highly-qualified residents and professionals is fantastic, and they'll help support a thriving St. Albert.
Agenda overview:
Cannabis Engagement & Education Funding
Administration is requesting $50,000 from the stabilization reserve to conduct public/business engagement, including a Wold Café, resident survey, and information sessions & advertising.
BLESS platform options
As shown in the open house last week, Administration is proposing four options for handling the currently-out-of-service BLESS platform; I know everyone is anxious to get moving on this, so we'll be discussing both cost and timelines for the different proposals. (I'll post a link to the options here & on my Facebook page as soon as I have one.)
City of St. Albert Strategic Plan Amendment
Council has worked hard to put a plan together that helps us stay on course with a vision for success, and we will release this governance plan on Monday. I suspect we will each speak to our experience putting it together, what we aim to accomplish in the next four years, and about our vision for the St. Albert of the future.
Corporate Business Plan
Council worked hard on our plan, and I suspect Administration worked harder on their plan to implement our vision. We'll be given an overview of their strategy to bring Council's goals to fruition.
Motion - Student Day Pass Rate
We will debate whether to institute a Student day-pass rate at Servus Place, in addition to the monthly/annual Student passes that are currently offered. I don't know how this is going to go since no one in the region offers this, possibly because students typically have passes to their post-secondary institution facilities, and the proposed discount would still see them paying $9/day. I'm looking forward to asking Admin a few questions, and hearing comments from fellow councillors in debate. Any thoughts from residents would also be very much appreciated.
This is a brief high-level overview of highlights from our meeting agenda, 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. As always, I also encourage everyone who is able to tune in the the live-stream of the meeting (3pm here) or attend in-person (3rd floor of St. Albert Place, hang a right getting out of the elevator). You can also register to speak if you have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.