Last weeks highlights
Youth Advisory Committee: YAC was back at St. Albert Place for their first meeting of the fall. They look forward to providing advice about how to encourage volunteerism later in the fall.
2023 Community Recognition Event: Most of Council was able to attend this event to recognize individuals & businesses that have made an impact on our community.
Agenda highlights
St. Albert Downtown Business Association ($24,000)
Per provincial legislation, businesses may form a “Business Improvement Area” (BIA) that, if all the legislative requirements are met, must be supported by a municipal bylaw to allow for the BIA to have the city collect fees/taxes ($199/business in this case) from business in their set area. Downtown St. Albert businesses have formed a BIA and Council will be considering the bylaw this week.
Interestingly, even though the minimum and maximum tax/fee being proposed is $199/year for all businesses: “As BIA taxes require a method of assessment which differs from the traditional property assessment, it is expected that the City would assume the cost of this new service, which is required to satisfy the legislative requirement for BIAs. Administration expects that administering this new form of assessment, issuing tax notices, collecting the BIA tax and transferring tax funds to the BIA will come at a cost of $24,000 per year to the City.” This cost is the equivalent of 120 businesses paying the $199 fee, so I assume Admin is suggesting this support/new kind of assessment in case the BIA changes their requisition to move on a scale determined by the business value rather than a fixed rate - but I don’t know & will ask.
ST. ALBERT TRAIL PHASE 3 BORROWING BYLAW - 2nd & 3rd READInGs
The continuation of the North St. Albert Trail project was approved last year, and this bylaw allows administration to proceed with what was approved.
“The cost of the project was estimated and approved at $16,220,000 million dollars. The borrowing
bylaw is being recommended for $20,500,000 million which includes a 25% contingency.”
Election Signage Bylaws
This is a motion from an individual member of Council to have Admin research options to update our sign bylaws to “achiev[e] greater public safety and reduce… environmental impact”. I believe we could do a lot more in terms of cleaning up the city during election seasons, so I look forward to hearing what Admin comes back with.
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.