The City of St. Albert could soon have its own “climate adaptation specialist.”
The draft 2025 budget now before city council features business cases for 18 such additions to the municipal ranks, including 14 new full-time equivalent (FTE) positions worth a total of $1.9 million, but funded almost entirely by assessment growth and reserves.
They include a 1.0 FTE climate adaptation specialist valued at $81,800 in 2025, $102,500 in 2026 and $105,600 in 2027. The hire would update and implement St. Albert’s climate adaptation plan and ensure it jives with that of the Edmonton Regional Metropolitan Board (EMRB) and help develop the city’s Resilient Infrastructure Long Range Strategy."
The EMRB estimates losses to the region related to climate could increase from $4 billion to $10.1 billion per year by 2080
Planning for climate change will make St. Albert a more resilient community - reducing economic, social and environmental impacts, and saving money," the budget reads. "A $3.2 billion expenditure over the next decade by all orders of government, households and businesses could serve to mitigate the impacts of climate change and provide a significant return on investment ($2 to $6 for each dollar invested)."
Speaking of heating up, city staff also recommend hiring a new fire marshal at a cost of $126,000 in 2025 and $176,000 in 2026 and 2027, who would lead the daily activities of the fire prevention team at St. Albert Fire Services aimed at “improving response times to public inquires and engagement opportunities."
The budget warns the Fire Prevention division has failed to meet inspection targets outlined in the city's Quality Management Plan for two years.
"This failure is a result of a difference in the capacity of the two existing officers versus demand," the document reads. "These results were reported to the Safety Codes Council. Continuing to fail to meet inspection requirements may lead to some dwellings falling out of compliance with the Alberta Fire Code thus creating higher risk to occupants and first responders."
City council will decide whether to include the proposed hires in the final budget. Others include:
- Two new transit supervisors, one that would place “efforts in positively influencing, assisting and supporting of all Fleet Services projects, processes and services;” another that would “oversee bus operating contract management, routing, scheduling and ridership tasks of the (operations) branch;”
- Two FTEs to support the “implementation of the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Strategy;
- A contract management specialist to “is required to address inconsistent contract management processes across City departments as identified in the Procurement Audit Recommendations;”
- An additional HVAC technician;
- A risk and insurance advisor;
- A new position and funding for consultants “to support establishing corporate oversight, coordination, and implementation work that matures the Corporate Security service to ensure employee, customer, and stakeholders' physical safety and asset security;”
- An IT application analyst;
- A land co-ordinator for the city’s engineering department;
- A planning technician/analyst to maintain existing levels of service and to meet regulated processing timelines;
- An electrical safety codes officer for the Building Inspections Services Branch, also to maintain service levels;
- An executive assistant for directors and managing directors; and
- An administrative assistant for city councillors, whose positions are becoming full-time.
Staff also recommend somewhat firmly that the city earmarks another $200,000 for the 2025 municipal election as a result of Alberta’s Bill 20.
“Two of the new requirements are to require a permanent electors register and prohibit automated voting equipment, such as electronic tabulators” which “mean that the City will incur new costs to create a permanent voter registry and incur contract labour costs and space for manual counting.
"The City must take these steps in order to comply with the Provincial Legislation."
Councillors began budget deliberations Tuesday, Oct. 22, with time set aside for more debate Oct. 24 and 29. In 2023, they approved the 2024 budget on Dec. 19.
