St. Albertans will have the first half of February to come up with a new name for the Grandin neighbourhood that city council can fall in love with.
Between Feb. 3 and 21, residents can suggest a new name via the city’s Cultivate the Conversation portal.
City administration will take the suggestions and make a recommendation to council in a report that is to appear on their March 18 meeting agenda.
Residents are asked to justify their choice with background information and a supporting argument.
“It’s important, names have meaning,” Paul Pearson, the city’s director of communications and public affairs, told the Gazette Jan. 30. “We’re hoping to have that sort of genuine, thoughtful engagement on how we name parts of our community.”
The deletion of Grandin’s name from St. Albert is not a sure thing. City council will have the final say, first, whether to rename Grandin or not, and second, to accept or reject the suggestion of city staff.
"We also have considered how we will work with the residents who will be impacted" if the name changes, Kristina Peters, the city's director of planning and development, said.
She said if council decides to change the name, the city will provide residents living on Grandin Road, Grandin Lane or Grandin Place with information on the steps they need to take to change their address.
The change would also affect Grandin Clubhouse and Grandin Pond. The denaming request was received by the city last fall.
Residential school system architect
Outrage over the use of Bishop Vital Justin Grandin’s name increased after the reported discovery of the suspected remains of 215 children on the grounds of Kamloops Indian Residential School in Tk’emlúps te Secwèpemc First Nation in British Columbia in June 2021, according to a document on the city’s website. No remains have been found at the site to date.
A Roman Catholic priest, Grandin, 1829-1902, was instrumental in establishing Canada’s Indian Residential School System (IRSS). Efforts to remove his name from assets have also surfaced in Morinville, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and elsewhere in the country.
In 2021, Catholic school boards in St. Albert and in Edmonton voted unanimously to remove Grandin’s name from schools.
“The City of St. Albert had two residential schools: The St. Albert Youville Residential School was in operation from 1873 to 1948 and the Edmonton Residential School (located at Poundmaker) was in operation from 1924 to 1968,” according to the St. Albert document, titled Addressing Public Concerns About Grandin Placenames. "Recovery work is currently underway for the St. Albert Youville Residential School.”
The Catholic school boards in St. Albert and Edmonton voted unanimously in 2021 to remove Grandin’s name from their schools. Vital Grandin School in St. Albert was renamed Holy Family on Sept. 27 of that year.
No request for Duhaime Place
The city has also confirmed that it has not received any other applications for the removal of the naming of municipal assets.
The update came in response to a query about the status of a renaming request for Duhaime Place. The Gazette first reported in 2022 that an out-of-province podcaster had unearthed accusations of sexual abuse against as many as 15 Indigenous children by its namesake, Father Anthony (Antonio) Duhaime.
