This looks to be another quick Council meeting.
Agenda highlights
FCM Committee Members
This is a last-minute motion to allow Mayor Heron to sit on committees for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities that she was assigned to due to her role as president of Abmunis. To continue on these committees past September 29th when she will no longer be the president, a council motion is required along with a commitment for St. Albert to cover the cost of attending meetings. The agenda report doesn’t mention what the cost will be or which fund would cover the cost, so I’ll ask for clarification.
Master Rates Bylaw (1st Reading)
Every year, Council approves all the fees that are charged for various municipal services. We’ll have an opportunity to ask questions & hear feedback from the public at a future meeting. Most fee changes are small and show an incremental increase, but a few stand out as having bigger differences, which I may ask about when this comes back to Council:
Development permits going from $1,004 to $2,500 for a couple of different types of new construction. (Development fees 2a)
Urban Design Review Fee going from $3,200 to $5,000 and the addition of an “hourly fee equivalent to consultant changes, up to $5,000”. (Development fees 8 & Planning fees 2)
MDP Amendment from $2,247 to $6,000 (Planning Fees 1)
All Facility Summer City Pass for Servus, Fountain, Grosvenor decreasing by about 40%.
It looks like the rain barrel program has been discontinued?
(Of note: To bury someone in the municipal graveyard is expensive and resource-intensive when you add up the plot, internment, cement thing so embalming chemicals don’t leach into the environment, etc. And St. Albert still doesn’t have an option to have natural burial, where the concrete, etc. is not required. Sigh.)
Fountain Park - holiday hours($5,300)
A couple of years ago, in the middle of responding to covid pressures, we changed the days that Fountain operates to eliminate operating hours on Good Friday, Easter Monday, Heritage Day, Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. On Heritage Day this year, I was a bit twitchy when we closed only days after a lengthy closure. This motion is intended to restore those operating days so the community can take advantage of our newly-renovated facility instead of having it sit closed on days when many people who don’t typically use the facility are able to make it out. This is my motion, but Admin has proposed alternative wording that is much clearer than my proposal!
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.