With a 5.5% tax increase and over 7% increase in utilities costs being proposed for 2024, it’s a tough budget year. In preparation for the budget decisions, we heard presentations regarding different departments starting October 30 and through this process, members of Council also asked questions of Administration through “Budget Information Requests” and proposing changes to the budget through budget motions. We also received comments and recommendation from members of the public. On November 27, we’ll debate as many as 29 proposed changes to the budget.
As I consider all these proposals, I’m focusing on how which decisions will best support a sustainable, thriving community. I’m also reflecting on the experiences of other municipalities, like the City of Kamloops where water rates alone are expected to increase by 63% between 2024 and 2028. Taxes in that community are expected to rise by almost 11% in 2024, too. On Kamloops, one person commented that…
Then the city would have a nest egg set aside to handle the unexpected… or the strategic…
-James Peters, CFJC Today
Motion highlights
Waste Drop-off User Cards (-$15,000)
This is a motion I brought forward to wait on a plan to ensure users of the compost depot are rate payers until administration knows more details about implementation.
Council Bench Renovations (+$192,000 0r +$65,000)
Councillor Brodhead is proposing that go ahead with a long-unfunded project to improve accessibility and functionality of the Council seating area in Council Chambers ($192,000). Councillor Killick is proposing instead to improve only functionality of the area ($65,000).
LED Lights on St. Albert Place (+$125,000)
Councillor Killick is proposing that we approve a project to put LED lights on St. Albert Place, so that we can light them different colours for events, etc. Admin has advised that the $125,000 is a rough estimate and doesn’t include detailed designs, administrative costs (~$1,000/y) , etc. As someone who follows architect Douglas Cardinal’s work and was privileged to hear him speak at the Art Gallery of Alberta a couple years ago, I’m more than a little bit horrified at the thought of having these lights affixed to his work. If this goes ahead, I would also be concerned about putting the city at risk of legal action, like when a group sued the City of Edmonton over it’s refusal to light their bridge in honour of an event, or just administrative energy for dealing with the types of requests that we could not/should not fulfill.
Lacombe Lake Parking Lot Paving (+$150,000 & maybe $1.3M)
Councillor Killick is proposing that we prepare the Lacombe Park Lake parking lot for paving in 2024. If we went ahead with paving in 2026, the cost is estimated at $1,345,000 plus maintenance costs of about ~$5,000/year plus a re-paving expense in about 20 years of $250,000. We removed this from our capital plan earlier in this term because the capital expense just isn’t going to hit the capital priority list, so I’m surprised to see this proposal now.
Meeting Broadcasting Technology (+$293,800)
Councillor Hughes is proposing that we improve the technology (AV) for hybrid meetings in Council Chambers and our committee boardrooms. If this passes, ongoing operational costs will be about $44,000/year.
Housing Society Capital Reserve (+$25,000)
This is a motion from Councillor Hughes, I think to create a new reserve for helping to purchase housing units to be directed to one of the non-profit housing bodies that operates in St. Albert (there are several, with Homeland Housing being the provincially-mandated one). It’s unclear if the intention is to have $25,000 going into this reserve every year. I’m opposed to this for a few reasons, one of which is that this won’t assist with creating more housing units, which we desperately need, but rather will just help with the transfer of ownership. This organization could also be funded through our other plan to support housing groups - Homeland, Habitat for Humanity, etc. - that need municipal support to get federal/provincial grants to build more units in St. Albert.
Affordable Housing Fund (-$112,500)
This is Councillor Hughes’ proposal to scrap the plan to create a fund “to leverage the development of affordable housing units with not-for-profit housing providers or to access Provincial and Federal grant funding”.
Servus Place Business Process Consultant (+$175,000)
This is Councillor Hughes’ proposal to hire a business process consultant to look at operations at Servus Place. It’s unclear what the desired outcomes are for this proposal, and if passed, would require a reevaluation of strategic priorities to ensure adequate resources are available for the project. Our Audit Committee also hasn’t identified this as a priority, and external reviews have already be completed - in 2008 and 2020/21. There is also another internal project underway that is looking at the midrange strategic plan for this facility. The proposed funding source (the capital reserve) isn’t intended for non-capital projects, so we’d be going against policy to fund it this way.
White Spruce Forest - Anti-slip Safety Strips and Temporry Directional Signs ($7,300)
This is a motion to put anti-slip strips and temporary directional signs up in the newly opened White Spruce Forest. The motion only indicates $3,300, but Admin has advised that the cost would be higher, and we’d have to plan for ongoing maintenance. Of note is that we do not have these strip on other wood decks yet, like those in Braeside, Oakmont, etc. I’m firmly opposed to this - we can’t/shouldn’t bubble-wrap the whole city. The temporary signs are only $1000, though, and can be accommodated in the existing project budget.
BIA Funding (+$50,000)
Mayor Heron is proposing “that the city matches the downtown Business Improvement Area operating budget up to $50,000 at 100% for 2024, 75% in 2025, and 50% in 2026. Plus an additional $10,000 for the same three years to support the Snowflake Festival…”
Municipal Enforcement (+$338,750)
Councillor McKay is proposing that we add two “Municipal Enforcement Officers (including all associated costs)” to our Municipal Enforcement team. This is an interesting motion because when asked about the costs of doing this, Admin advised that they would prefer an additional “Senior Municipal Enforcement Officer” as they’re stretched as it is for this resource.
Diversity & Inclusion Advisor Business Case (+$94,633)
This is Mayor Heron’s motion to fund a plan that would have us permanently invest in a program to support hiring of persons with diverse abilities. The ongoing cost of ~$135,000/year would be for an Inclusive Hiring Program (hiring persons with disabilities).
Cemetery Sales (-$30,000)
This motion from Councillor Hughes is to remove the part-time position managing cemetery sales and redistribute the role. Administration has advised that “cemetery interments and contract sales have doubled since 2018, and staff resources can no longer meet demand. Additional resources are required to meet service levels regardless of where the service resides within the organization”.
Servus Place Deficit (-$180,000)
This proposal from Councillor Hughes is to reduce the Servus Place deficit by $180,000. Administration’s interpretation of this motion is that we increase revenues through membership & rental revenue; They warn, however, that this could be risky as “s consumer spending remains unpredictable, and the facility would be vulnerable to respond if changes do occur”.
Investment Attraction & Mktg Lakeview Business District (-$451,800 or -$226,000)
Councillor Hughes has a few motions related to the plan to market St. Albetr’s newest commercial area. The first is to cancel the investment attraction/marketting plan, the second is to delay it until 2025, and the third is to cut funding for it in half. If the first passes, we’ll skip the rest, if it fails, we move onto to the next one, etc.
“Supporting Council's strategic priority of Economic Prosperity… Lakeview Business District will play a valuable role in accelerating the pace of development and investment in Lakeview through helping advance shovel-readiness, implementing tactics within the City’s Investment Attraction Strategy, and supporting work related to the potential divestment and development of City-owned lands. In the last 3 years, staff within the Investment Attraction & Growth branch have conservatively directly attracted and facilitated investment that has resulted in approximately $93 million in new assessment. They also led and managed the divestment of City-owned industrial parcels, which resulted in $2.9 million in revenue. Investments in Economic Development’s core investment attraction function have a solid track record of providing a strong return on investment.”
Building Codes Officer Position
This is to make a new permanent building codes officer position a temporary position and only be considered for permanent status in 2025,, proposed by Councillor Hughes. It also proposes to use our capital reserve, which is in contrevention of our reserve policy because it is an operational expense. This would mean that higher-paid Safety Codes officers would continue doing work that could be transferred to a lower-paid administrative role unless we can consistently employ a temporary person for the next year. Administration also advises that “The major impact [if this passes] will be maintaining our customer service delivery standard. As a comparison to most similarly sized municipalities we have about 60% of the Safety Codes Officers that our neighbours do. The Compliance Monitoring must be completed, time spent by SCO’s making phone calls, sending letters or hanging a door tag is not a valuable use of their time of the training they have. The effect is that each hour spent by an SCO on administration is an hour they cannot spend on plan review or site inspection”.
Library Grant (-$144,100)
A reduction in library funding is being proposed by Councillor Biermanski, to 2023 levels. This would result in job losses and reduced service levels.
Violence Prevention Coordinator(-$25,100)
Councillor Hughes is proposing that this position remains temporary rather than becoming a permanent full-time position, up from the 30-hr temporary position currently in place. Not reflected in this cost reduction are the costs of high turnover, including HR costs and service level reductions, while we recruit, train, etc. new people.
Municipal Land Specialist Position(-46,250)
Councillor Hughes is proposing that this position is reduced from a full-time to part-time (0.5FTE) position. Administration has also advised that “based on recent experience in the hiring process, it is probable that the City will not be able to find a suitable candidate to fill this role on a part-time basis. This position requires strong negotiation, organizational, problem-solving, and land-related project management skills. Finding a candidate with solid knowledge of relevant government statutes, land management experience, and a municipal background will be challenging in today’s market, even as an FTE. Additionally, as effective management of the City’s land requires frequent inter-departmental coordination, a part-time position is likely to constrain the organization's ability to effectively coordinate and plan municipal land-related projects.
Legal, Legislative & Records Services Position
Councillor Biermanski is proposing that this position is funded from our capital reserve rather than being considered an operating expense. Administration has advised that “as this business case is an operating expense, this motion is not in line with policy” because the intent of the capital reserve is “to provide funds for capital requirements relating to… rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure, purchase of new capital assets, etc.”
IT Investment Fund
Councillor Biermanski is proposing that this program, which keeps all our IT products up-to-date and working well, is funded from our capital reserve rather than being considered an operating expense. Administration has advised that “as this business case is an operating expense, this motion is not in line with policy” because the intent of the capital reserve is “to provide funds for capital requirements relating to… rehabilitation and maintenance of existing infrastructure, purchase of new capital assets, etc.”
HRIS Integration Analyst (-$61,000)
Councillor Hughes is proposing that this position is reduced to a 0.5 FTE. Administration advises that, should this motion pass, it’s unlikely that we could fill the role which would result in increased costs to hire a contractor and that “without this resource, there are risks of errors to pay, delayed pay, delays in processing new hires and terminations, and incorrect documentation (e.g., T4’s)”.
IT Application Analyst
Councillor Hughes is proposing to make this position a term position that is funded from our capital reserve rather than being considered an operating expense. Admin has advises that as “is an operating expense, this motion is not in line with policy”. They also advise that because this is an ongoing operational requirement, another business case for 2025 would have to be prepared - and it would “jeopardize the quality of recruitment” because it’s harder to recruit & retain for temporary positions.
Emergency Vehicle Maintenance Position
This motion from Councillor Hughes is “that an Emergency Vehicle Maintenance Position at 1.0 FTE is approved for up to $85,000, to be funded by offsetting the current costs for 3rd party contracting the service and the difference, if any, through the growth budget”. Because this motion was submitted after the motion deadline, Administration hasn’t provided a response, but will do so verbally during out meeting. I don’t know what the purpose or intent of this is, of whether it’s operationally possible.
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.