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Council votes to develop accessible playground strategy

Currently, St. Albert has one fully accessible playground, with another planned for later this year
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The Rotary Playground in Riel Business Park is one of 63 city-owned playgrounds the city will assess to see if making it fully accessible is "appropriate." FILE/Photo

St. Albert will spend $120,000 next year developing an “Accessible and Inclusive Playground Strategy” after council passed a motion by Coun. Wes Brodhead on July 2.

A consultant will develop the strategy, which will “address standards and planning for the development of inclusive and accessible playgrounds” in St. Albert, a report to council said.

The Fountain Park Playground is the only one of 65 city-owned playground that is fully accessible, although a second playground on Lodgepole Crescent is being replaced with a fully accessible structure after a local family raised more than $150,000 to help the city fund the replacement.

“Many of the remaining playgrounds have some elements of inclusivity and/or accessibility, including partial or fully accessible play surfacing,” administration's report says.

RELATED: Family raises money to make neighbourhood playground accessible

Brodhead's motion came after another administrative report in May said the city could, over time, turn every existing city-owned playground into a fully accessible and inclusive facility by increasing the city's annual playground redevelopment budget by an additional $190,000 per year. That would mean spending about $550,000 every year on playground replacement. 

READ MORE: Accessible playgrounds would cost $190k more annually, report says

On average, the city replaces one playground per year, and replacement projects are undertaken once a playground reaches the end of its 20-year life cycle.

In its May report, administration recommended against increasing the annual playground replacement budget. It said not every playground should be made fully accessible, because doing so “would reduce play diversity opportunities across the city, and may not support needs across the full range of ages and abilities.”

Instead, administration recommended council support the creation of an accessible playground strategy — a recommendation Brodhead followed.

“Administration believes that each playground should be designed as part of a city-wide network of playgrounds, which, together, meet the needs of our community,” reads the new administrative report. “This means that, while not every playground is fully inclusive and accessible, a lens of inclusion and accessibility should be applied to all playgrounds, and fully accessible playgrounds should be available in appropriate places throughout the community.”

“[Once] developed, a network-based strategy would consider how playgrounds can work together to provide a range of play experiences for all children in our community.”

Brodhead argued St. Albert can't afford to replace all of the existing playgrounds with fully accessible versions at the same time, and the city should have a strategy to guide administration as each individual playground is replaced and new ones are built.

“How do we manage 65 playgrounds, which quite honestly represents a significant financial burden, if we were to immediately have to raise the accessible standards of those playgrounds,” Brodhead said. “What comes to mind is, how do you eat an elephant? You eat an elephant one bite at a time, and how do you get the playgrounds in our community accessible to caregivers and to those [who need accessibility considerations]? By doing one at a time, in a way that you can afford to do it.”

“In order to do that with any kind of practical success in mind, you have to plan how to do it.”

Coun. Natalie Joly, who referred to herself during debate as the “choir” of accessibility advocacy, voted against creating the strategy. 

“I'm really concerned about creating another strategy when we haven't even finished the overarching universal [access] plan,” Joly said, referring to the 227-page document the city commissioned in 2017 that contained over 50 recommendations for how the city could plan for all city operations, buildings, and public spaces to be more accessible.

On July 2 council heard administration has been trying to determine how to “finish that policy off” when it comes to implementing the universal access plan in city policies, procedures, and building standards, although limited staff capacity has prevented any meaningful work from being completed on the file.

Joly said she would have supported a motion to change the city's existing repair, maintain, replace (RMR) program policy of replacing all city-owned equipment and facilities with a “like for like” philosophy or to simply increase the city's 2025 playground replacement budget to ensure the next playground replaced by the city was replaced with a fully accessible version.

“That's my really long-winded way of saying absolutely this is a priority, but I think there's a better way to do it in terms of making our dollars go further in a time where they're absolutely being stretched,” she said.

Coun. Ken MacKay, who also voted against the creation of the strategy, agreed with Joly's argument, and added that he thought the city was already working towards accomplishing what Brodhead's motion set out to accomplish.

“It is a priority,” MacKay said. “Yes, this moves it a little bit forward, but I would much rather see it have come forward as outlined by Coun. Joly's argument.”

Mayor Cathy Heron, speaking in favour of creating the strategy, said she didn't think the city could accomplish Brodhead's goal of eventually having all of St. Albert's playgrounds be made fully accessible without the strategy, although she did also say that it's possible the strategy could be to not make every playground fully accessible.

“Maybe the strategy says that not every park is accessible and inclusive,” Heron said. “Maybe it will identify some that are specifically geared to mobility issues, and some that are specifically geared to sensory issues, and that's maybe is the cheaper option [and] a more efficient way to to build our community.”

“Until you have a plan, you'll never actually move forward on your priorities, and I believe that this says a statement about who we are as a community.”

Creating the strategy will take a year, according to administration's report, and it is “unlikely” to be done in time to have its recommendations included in the 2026 budget process, meaning any work that comes from it won't happen until 2027.

Heron, Brodhead, Coun. Sheena Hughes, and Coun. Mike Killick voted in favour of creating the strategy.

The $120,000 needed to create the strategy will be taken from the city's stabilization reserve.

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