St. Albert city councillors have set themselves some new year’s resolutions to tackle when it comes to their role in municipal governance.
Coun. Wes Brodhead’s resolutions include continuing work on the pursuit of train whistle cessation in the city as well as some housing goals.
“In 2014 I’m going to work hard on the next stage of North Ridge Lodge. Certainly it’s a low hanging fruit in terms of providing not only affordable housing but affordable seniors housing in our community,” Brodhead said, noting they already have the land to build it on.
“I’d also like to find some direction forward for the next Chateau Mission Court,” he said.
Coun. Cathy Heron said she has a “couple little tiny pet projects” she’d like to move forward in the new year.
Those projects are more boat launches along the river and more garbage cans along Red Willow Trail.
In addition to discussion on how the city treats new assessment growth revenue in future, she hopes to see dirt moving on some new developments and also plans to bring forward talk on a new hiring policy.
“I’m going to bring forward a motion to try and do an inclusive hiring policy in the new year,” Heron said.
Coun. Sheena Hughes doesn’t normally make resolutions, but plans on continuing to learn her new role.
“My goal is just literally to learn just as much as I can and to try and represent the residents as best I can,” Hughes said. She notes just because she’s been elected doesn’t mean she gets to stop learning – in fact, there was no training until after she’d won the election.
“It’s sort of like learning to play football when you’re on the field and there’s playoffs and there’s a lot of people watching and there’s a television screen,” Hughes said.
Coun. Cam MacKay wants to figure out why new assessment growth was listed differently in the final version of the city’s 2014 budget than it was forecasted at during budget deliberations.
“It’s missing revenue. What changed?” MacKay said.
As well as seeking clarification on that front, MacKay’s other resolution is simple.
“Trying to inject some reality into city hall,” he said.
Coun. Tim Osborne is hoping to look at traffic safety and keep working towards a better relationship with Sturgeon County, but his main resolution involves availability to residents.
“I think for me continuing to work towards improving communication with residents is really important,” Osborne said.
Coun. Gilles Prefontaine got started on his resolution a little early, introducing a motion to look into St. Albert’s housing mix in December.
“It’s making progress towards bringing more affordable living into St. Albert,” Prefontaine said, noting that also involves looking at utilities and the land use bylaw.
He’d like to see the community being inclusive of young professionals and families, as well as seniors.
“There’s a lot of work in that,” he said.
