St. Albert Minute: Issue 126

St. Albert Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of St. Albert politics

📅 This Week In St. Albert: 📅

• There are no Council or Committee meetings this week. The next meeting on the calendar is a City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 1st, at 9:30 am, with the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board and the Youth Advisory Committee both meeting the following day.
  
  
• St. Albert Transit has ordered 13 more 40-foot diesel buses from Nova Bus, a Quebec-based manufacturer owned by the Volvo Group. The company announced the order on August 13th as part of the City's fleet renewal and expansion program, which it says is designed to support growing ridership to the Edmonton metropolitan area. The new buses build on 19 vehicles already delivered, bringing the total number of Nova Bus vehicles integrated into the St. Albert Transit network since 2025 to 32. The price of the order has not been disclosed.
  
  
• In other transportation news, St. Albert Councillors say they are hearing growing resident concerns about e-scooter and e-bike safety, as Lime Micromobility takes over rental operations from Neuron Mobility and expands to nearly 100 e-scooters, with several dozen more arriving in the coming weeks. Councillor Neil Korotash said Council has asked Administration to prepare background information on the issue. Under current City rules, private e-scooters are illegal in St. Albert - only scooters from approved rental companies are allowed - and riders must be at least 16 years old, wear a helmet, and stick to sidewalks or paved trails. Korotash said Council has had informal discussions about going further, such as a bylaw setting speed limits, but cautioned that enforcing one would be a challenge. Councillor Sandy Clark argued that measures like licensing and liability insurance should be set at the provincial level, warning that different rules in every municipality could confuse riders and lower compliance. Councillor Ken MacKay says the issue will be brought back to the Policing Committee for further discussion and possible recommendations.
  
  
• The City of St. Albert is closing the Fountain Park Recreation Centre at the end of the month for the facility's regularly scheduled maintenance. The centre - the city's main aquatics facility, with three pools, a multipurpose court, and meeting rooms - will be closed from August 29th to October 12th, and is scheduled to reopen on October 13th.
  
  
• Former St. Albert Councillor Malcolm Parker has died at the age of 84. Parker died on August 9th at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and was laid to rest in Burnaby, British Columbia, on August 19th, following a funeral service in Edmonton attended by about 140 people. He won a seat on Council in 2010 after earlier runs in 2004 and 2007, and later placed third in the 2017 mayoral race. Former Mayor Nolan Crouse described Parker as a man of principle, honesty, and integrity who was instrumental in getting the Sturgeon Medical Centre built, lobbying developers and City administrators from 2010 until its groundbreaking in 2018. As a Councillor, Parker worked to reduce red tape for businesses looking to start up in St. Albert and pushed the City to pursue an 80/20 residential-to-commercial tax split. Away from City Hall, he served the St. Albert Men's Slow-Pitch Association for more than 40 years, including as its longest-serving president.

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