St. Albert Minute: Issue 134

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

📅 This Week In St. Albert: 📅

• City Council will hold a special meeting tomorrow. On the agenda is Chief Administrative Officer William Fletcher's presentation of the proposed Financial Plan and 2027 Budget, which includes a $244-million municipal operating budget, a $162.4-million tax levy, and an average municipal property tax increase of 4.5%. Administration claims the 17 new operating budget requests in the proposal have no impact on taxes because they are funded through new growth in the community. The proposed utility operating budget is $66 million, and the monthly utility bill would rise 8.8%, or $15.39 per month, compared to last year. The plan also includes a $53.1-million municipal capital budget and a $28.2-million utility capital budget. Administration recommends referring the budget to the Committee of the Whole.
  
  
• The Committee of the Whole will meet on Thursday at 9:30 am to continue Council's review of the proposed 2027 budget. The agenda opens with public input, followed by presentations from two outside agencies, the St. Albert Public Library and the Arts and Heritage Foundation. Chief Administrative Officer William Fletcher will then present the portfolio overview for Council and Executive Leadership, and Managing Director Diane McMordie will present Corporate and Emergency Services, including Emergency Services, Financial and Strategic Services, Information Technology Services, and Corporate Financing. A City report describes these sessions as a chance for members of Council to scrutinize the budget in detail through questions, formal Budget Information Requests, and postponed motions to amend the budget.
  
  
• Councillor Neil Korotash is pushing the City to act on the stalled development at 32 St. Anne Street, the former site of the Blind Pig Pub. At the October 6th Council meeting, Korotash submitted two notices of motion. The first asks Administration to take the steps needed to reopen the sidewalk and lane at the corner of St. Anne Street and St. Albert Trail, with a fence and decorative screening around the site. The second would explore a new tax subclass for derelict non-residential properties, or a higher tax rate for them, which Korotash says only Edmonton and Calgary are currently allowed to create, so the City would need to ask the Province for that power. Korotash says six years have passed since the pub was demolished, and a full construction season under the new Council has gone by with little to no visible progress on a planned eight-storey mixed-use building. The developer says the project is moving forward, with foundation walls in place and sewer and water connected, and the City confirmed the site has an active development permit.
  
  
• Mayor Scott Olivieri says an independent legal review found he had no conflict of interest in Council's vote on expanding infill development in the city's mature neighbourhoods. A statutory inquiry had pointed to his involvement in Midtown Boulevard Inc., a corporation that describes itself as focused on residential infill development. Olivieri voted with five other members of Council to defeat the proposed changes to the land use bylaw at the public hearing. Olivieri describes himself as a silent partner in the company, which he claims has only done projects in Edmonton, owns no property in St. Albert, and has no current projects or future plans. He adds that he has since contacted the person who made the inquiry and that the two are now on the same page.
  
  
• The City of St. Albert marked the 35th anniversary of the Red Willow Trail on Saturday, October 17th, with free activities at spots along the Trail within Red Willow Park. The race distances reflected the Trail's official length of 22 kilometers within Red Willow Park, or 128 kilometers including all the trails that lead into it. The system got its start in 1991 with the Red Willow Urban Park Master Plan, which followed $11 million from the Province in 1989 and envisioned a trail network within 400 meters of every home. It built on the original Red Willow Park, funded by a grant from the Devonian Foundation and completed around 1980. City Parks Planning and Stewardship Supervisor Amanda Wilde says the original network will be complete next year, once the City finishes the Oakmont Trail. The City hopes to eventually extend the Trail through the Lakeview Business District and the annexed lands to Oakmont.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Alberta’s referendum is taking place today, with voters weighing in on nine questions about immigration and the Constitution, as well as a tenth on whether the province should explore separation from Canada.

You must cast your ballot at your assigned voting place in your electoral district, so click below to find your voting location and check what identification you need to bring:

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

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