While some might argue that St. Albert’s council members could expect coal or worse in their stockings this season, in the charitable spirit of the season it’s fair to assume Santa will come bearing gifts.
So what would be at the top of their wish lists if the jolly old elf came to wave a magic wand and make it so?
Mayor Nolan Crouse said at the top of his list would be a corporate land strategy for the city, to help create a bit more certainty around the various capital projects the city has coming down the pipe – including the new branch library and the long-vaunted Campbell park and ride, which has been discussed for seven years.
“Council has turned this over to administration three or four years ago and it keeps coming back with bits and pieces of it,” he said. “We don’t have a plan.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead said that he would love to wake up Christmas morning to find a slew of new commercial development, saying that’s what’s needed to take some pressure off residential ratepayers.
“We’re poised for growth in the west of the city, and I’d like to see that come to fruition in 2017,” he said. “And a lot of good things would grow out of that.”
Coun. Cathy Heron said stable predictable infrastructure funding from the province would top out her list, adding it’s going to be one of the biggest issues in 2017 for all municipalities.
The provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) grants to municipalities were first put in place in 2007 with a 10-year time span, and she said there’s still some uncertainty about whether they will continue and how much they will be.
“What I would want is an infrastructure program that is very predictable,” she said. “It’s very hard to do a capital budget when we don’t know what kind of grant money we’ll get from the province.”
Coun. Sheena Hughes said she would hope to wake up Christmas morning and find a cheque with a great big bow on it for the city’s $310 million capital shortfall over the next 10 years.
“I don’t know how we’re going to handle this capital shortfall,” she said. “We have a surplus, so to speak, this year but next year we’re another $20 million in the hole.”
Coun. Cam MacKay would hope to find, coming down his chimney, money and the political wherewithal to get Ray Gibbon Drive twinned – something he said would benefit all St. Albertans but might need a Christmas miracle because of the potential cost.
“It would be a big thing for our community,” he said. “Especially when you go driving nowadays and see all the traffic on the road.”
Coun. Tim Osborne said that, in a sense, this city already has everything it really needs and would hope to be able to share more of the same around his Christmas table – good health, good neighbours and a strong sense of community.
“I think we need to continue supporting the work that brings people together to build a stronger community,” he said in an email. “It's easy at times to focus on the negatives, but we have so much to be thankful for in this community and I think it is important to build on our strengths.”
Coun. Bob Russell, like Brodhead, would hope to open his stocking and find more non-residential development in the city, which would help offset the property tax rates for St. Albertans.
“That’s our biggest need for the city,” he said. “Residential development costs us money; non-residential is what we really need.”
It remains to be seen what, in fact, the jolly old elf has in store for the city this holiday season.
Wish List
’Twas the night before Christmas and through St. Al’s Place,<br />Not a councillor was stirring, up that third-floor staircase.<br />But the stockings were hung in the chambers with care,<br />In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
