New year, new you, new Heritage Recognition statement for the City of St. Albert.
At the first council meeting of the year Jan. 21, Mayor Cathy Heron read the new statement, which replaces the Founders’ Day proclamation, into the record.
“We did a lot of work, this council, in coming up with a new policy,” she said, thanking curator Martin Bierens of the Arts and Heritage Foundation of St. Albert for their part in the joint project. The new statement “really does have this legacy of opening up our arms to people from outside of Canada who have come here to call St. Albert their home, and those people are now starting their communities and their foundations for an even richer culture here in the city.”
Bierens, who was in attendance, reciprocated before posing with a photo with the councillors present in chambers.
The Arts and Heritage Foundation requested the reading of the Founders' Day proclamation be cancelled in 2022.
"Discussion between Mayor Heron and administration took place following the request. It was decided that Founders' Day would proceed," a backgrounder from Jan. 2023 reads. “In 2022, Mayor Heron prefaced the proclamation with an acknowledgement of the sensitivity and a commitment to review the policy and the proclamation to identify opportunities to improve inclusivity in the details of the founding of the community."
The City of St. Albert recognizes Jan. 14 as Founders' Day to commemorate the approximate anniversary of Father Albert Lacombe and Bishop Alexandre Taché naming St. Albert in 1861. The day was proclaimed for the first time 10 years ago by then-mayor Nolan Crouse.
The new statement reaches much farther back in its reference to the origins of St. Albert. It recognizes that for thousands of years before that event, Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, and other Indigenous Peoples made their homes on in the Sturgeon River valley, and that Métis people established Big Lake Settlement in the 1820s.
It also references the fight with Ottawa following Canada’s creation in 1867 to maintain the traditional river-oriented lot dimensions in place in St. Albert over the square quarter sections grid federally imposed on the northwest. It took until 1884 for a map to recognize the river lots and the community’s right to maintain such traditions.
The statement then looks forward to the new century, which “brought settlers from around the world seeking new opportunities” and saw the city continue to welcome and celebrate people from all backgrounds.
“Now, therefore, I, Cathy Heron, mayor of the City of St. Albert, do hereby ask the residents of St. Albert to celebrate the city's official designation as a city in 1977, while recognizing that Indigenous peoples and cultures have always been a part of this community,” Heron said. “We honour the contributions and stories of people from all backgrounds to the rich culture cultural heritage of St. Albert.”
