Last week + Regular Council Meeting May 27, 2019
Last week highlights
Board Governance Workshop: Most of Council attended a session about responsibilities/obligations on boards compared with our responsibilities/obligation on Council.
Women in Politics Breakfast: St. Albert hosted this breakfast series this week, which included breakfast with colleagues from Edmonton, Leduc, Beaumont, Bruderheim, and other communities, and a presentation from a guest speaker on barriers to women in politics.
Homeland Housing: I attended this regular board meeting in Westlock.
Environmental Advisory Committee: I attended this regular committee of Council where we discussed some of the upcoming environmental projects and targets of the city.
Rainmaker Rodeo Parade: Most of Council along with our families had a blast handing out candy at the parade!
Agenda highlights
Single Use Items Workplan ($96,000)
Admin is proposing a comprehensive project to consider single-use waste (plastic bags, straws, coffee cups, Styrofoam, utensils, etc.) produced in the city, and ways in which we can influence waste reduction. Most of the workplace looks great - we’re following similar programs being implemented in Calgary and Vancouver - but I have questions about a few of the planned activities, like:
$15,000 for a professional survey like the one we had for cannabis, in addition to $10,000 for a World Cafe to engage residents in-person like we do during the annual budget.
$15,000 to produce short videos to show how we can reduce our use of single-use items, I assume like this:
Recycling Depot Service Levels ($110,000)
Council will debate whether to extend the hours of the Mike Mitchell Recycling Depot to 7 days/week, excluding stat holidays, from the current 5 days. This cost includes a $10,000 cost to start tracking usage because we’ve never tracked daily usage before. I have a few questions about the $10,000 - I’ve seen very simple systems used to track data, like the clicker at Costco (we also used this at North Edmonton Seniors Association events when I worked there), so I’m not sure what’s being proposed.
Admin has also provided a few other options, one of which I found interesting: “Pilot to expanded hours of operation for the summer months and implement a data collection process (would require additional funding support, $35,000).”
This is a brief high-level 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. 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.
