St. Albert city council kicked off their "heavy" budget deliberations this week and the mayor expects they will only need two meetings to get through dozens of motions put forward by councillors.
Council held the first of three scheduled budget deliberation meetings on Tuesday, Nov. 29, and worked through 21 of the 40 motions council will need to discuss before the 2023 budget is finalized.
The proposed budget includes a 5.8 per cent property tax increase, a 3.8 per cent utility rate increase, an already approved five per cent electrical franchise fee increase, and approximately $117.1 million in spending earmarked for 34 utility and municipal projects to address St. Albert's infrastructure and growth needs.
"It's probably one of the more heavy budgets we've had in the last couple years," Mayor Cathy Heron said in an interview, adding that she expects council will only need two meetings to work through the 40 motions filed by councillors after the proposed budget was released in October.
"I would say the majority of motions are adding to the budget instead of taking away from the budget," she said.
Likewise, Coun. Ken MacKay thinks council is facing a "big budget challenge" this year.
"We're gonna have to look at how we keep the impacts as low as possible," MacKay said in an interview, adding that the 40 motions council will vote on may not have major impacts on next year's proposed property tax increase.
"There might be a couple (motions) that would have significant impacts, but again, some of them are capital projects, and ... capital projects don't necessarily have an impact on the operating budget," he said.
One capital project motion that was passed during the Nov. 29 council meeting, put forward by Heron, had to do with a multi-purpose trail project in the Oakmont neighbourhood.
The motion was to eliminate two of the three sections of the multi-purpose trail proposed for Oakmont with construction originally planned for 2023 and 2024.
The two sections of cancelled trail were for the Old Bellerose Drive alignment, an unofficial multi-use pedestrian trail, and along Otter Crescent. The Old Bellerose Drive trail section was to cost $687,800, and was planned for construction in 2023, but after the passing of the motion, those funds will be returned to the capital fund for use on other capital projects, as per Heron's motion.
The Otter Crescent trail section, planned for construction in 2024, had an estimated cost of $1,041,600. Those funds will also remain in the capital fund for use on other projects.
The section of trail not eliminated from the project charter is along the Sturgeon River, "south of Oakbay Point and Otter Crescent," according to the project charter. This segment's estimated cost is $1.9 million, and construction remains scheduled for 2024.
"I live in Oakmont, so I'm very well aware of where there's breaks and gaps in the trail system," Heron said, adding that from her experience, the Old Bellerose Drive trail, which is a gravel path, is currently "very walk-able."
"I just didn't feel that the the $600,000 to put a trail in there is a need at this point," she said. "[For the second section], there's sidewalks the entire way. It would be nice to have a trail but not a need."
Heron's motion passed unanimously.
Contaminated sites
Another motion council passed on Nov. 29 was to put $30,000 towards reviewing and updating the city's Public Works Risk Management Plan, which was originally developed in 2010.
According to the project charter, the $30,000 is a cost estimate "to re-evaluate environmental risks associated with two city-managed contaminated sites that have salinity groundwater plumes resulting from historic pickled sand storage."
The two city-managed sites are the former Public Works Yard in Riel Park, and the Jack Kraft Public Operations facility in Campbell Business Park.
The review was included as an unfunded capital project in the proposed 2023 budget.
In an interview, Coun. Wes Brodhead, who put the motion forward, said the project's cost is minor when worst case scenarios are considered.
"It's better if we understand what's going on with our brown-fields than to let it go and then all of a sudden, a couple of years down the road, we find ourselves with the problem that perhaps a higher order government will say, 'you need to fix this and fix it now'," Brodhead said.
"To continue monitoring [the sites] is money well spent," he said.
Regardless of whether or not Brodhead's motion passed the city would continue to monitor the sites, using the old criteria from the plan created in 2010 council heard from administration. The current risk management plan for the two sites was developed 12 years ago, administration said, and this motion simply allows the city re-evaluate how they monitor and manage the two contaminated sites moving forward.
Brodhead's motion passed with only Coun. Sheena Hughes opposed.
Intersection safety
A motion put forward by Coun. Mike Killick to provide $100,000 towards addressing safety concerns surrounding the Sturgeon Road and Beaverbrook Crescent intersection in Braeside passed with only Mayor Heron opposed.
What council eventually passed was quite different from what Killick initially put forward, as his initial motion was to provide $90,000 in funding to complete safety reviews on the Boudreau Road and Campbell Road intersection and the Boudreau Road and Sir Winston Churchill Drive intersection. Killick put forward the original motion because he heard a lot of complaints from the public about the two intersections.
In a backgrounder prepared in response to Killick's motion, the city's transportation manager, Dean Schick, wrote that the safety reviews are actually one piece of a larger transportation network improvement program.
Schick stated that while the safety reviews of the two intersections on Boudreau Road are a part of the network improvement program, the Sturgeon Road and Beaverbrook Crescent intersection was considered the highest priority as there are significant visibility concerns for drivers turning left onto Sturgeon Road from the crescent.
"Key improvements to improve safety with better visibility may be achieved with sole improvements to the berm grading," Schick wrote, adding that $100,000 would be enough to complete the grading work.
As a result of Killick's revised motion, the safety reviews of the two Boudreau Road intersections will not be completed in 2023, as Killick had proposed in the original motion. The Beaverbrook Crescent and Sturgeon Road intersection will get funding for improvements instead.
Council will continue budget deliberations on Dec. 1, and if required, council will have another meeting on Dec. 6 to finish deliberating.
Visit stalbertgazette.ca for more budget coverage.
