From unthinkable crimes against St. Albert residents, to this city's contribution to the wildfire response in Jasper to massive changes to photo radar in Alberta, there was no shortage of news in the Botanical Arts City in 2024.
To ring in 2025, we've selected 12 of the biggest stories the Gazette brought to you over the past year.
January: St. Albert man convicted of sexual assault of child for third time
It didn’t take long for the dark side of the news to appear in St. Albert in 2024. In the second week of January, Donald Dupuis, a former St. Albert resident who, in summer 2022, was convicted of sexually assaulting a St. Albert child.
Dupuis pleaded not guilty to offences to have taken place from 2015 to 2018, when the child, now a teen, was six to eight years old.
The child appeared in court via video holding a stuffed animal, a support dog in their lap, as they recounted the alleged assaults to a St. Albert police officer. Their parents also took the stand in the trial before a judge and an 11-person jury.
Court of King's Bench Justice Janice Ashcroft sentenced Dupuis to 5.5 years in prison for the offence and deemed him a long-term offender in November.\
February: Food bank sheltered 14 people during January cold stretch
During the weeklong stretch of extreme cold weather in January, when temperatures dipped below -40 C, the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village managed to temporarily shelter 14 people, a number much higher than during cold snaps in previous years.
“It's always disappointing when we have to help that many people and that many people are struggling ... but I'm not surprised,” said Suzan Krecsy, the food bank's executive director. “It's certainly an increase from what we've had in previous years for sure, but all of our numbers right across the board for everything that we do here are up.”
March: No charges for St. Albert RCMP officer who arrested teen with autism
The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service will not charge three St. Albert RCMP officers who arrested a teenager with autism, despite the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team’s (ASIRT) determination that there “were reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed.”
That’s according to an ASIRT report that details the child’s arrest and subsequent hospitalization and contains witness testimony. In Oct. 2022, police arrested the then 16-year-old, who was playing in the Lacombe School Playground, for public intoxication, mistakenly believing him to be a known drug user who lived in the area.
The report refers to the teen as “Autistic Person,” abbreviated to AP. “The AP was not intoxicated,” Matthew Block, assistant executive director with ASIRT, wrote in the report. “He was a non-verbal autistic youth. Three of the four civilian witnesses who observed AP recognized that he could be or was likely neurodivergent.”
April: Millennium Park borrowing bylaw voted down
St. Albert city council voted against a $20.8 million borrowing bylaw for Millennium Park on April 16, bringing the project to a halt.
The vote saw two members of council — Coun. Mike Killick and Coun. Ken MacKay — change their positions from previous votes and join Coun. Shelley Biermanski and Coun. Sheena Hughes as those opposed
Killick and MacKay’s change of heart left just Mayor Cathy Heron, Coun. Wes Brodhead, and Coun. Natalie Joly in favour.
“What I said to the residents of St. Albert when I was elected was our green spaces, trees, parks, trails and the Sturgeon River valley makes St. Albert special, [and] I’m committed to protect and expand these for everyone’s enjoyment,” Killick said.
“That just does not seem to fit with the current borrowing bylaw to advance Millennium Park as it’s been outlined.” MacKay said he felt council had “totally changed the game in the fourth quarter for our residents,” referring to how council last year voted to ditch the original park design, which had been in place since 2018.
May: St. Albert grieves teen's death
A St. Albert teen who died after being attacked in north Edmonton was remembered by community members as an engaging youth with many friends.
Both Lorne Akins and Hillgrove School communities were “devastated” following the death of Grade 9 student Broden Radomske.
Radomske attended Lorne Akins but was previously a Hillgrove student.
“One of the assistant principals said to me that he had this sparkle in his eye,” a school board spokesperson said at the time. “He was just that kind of young man that was engaging and that people like to be around. He had a great sense of humour and a great group of friends, and I think they're going to be missing him for a long time.”
June: City commits $2.85M for downtown affordable housing
St. Albert council voted 5-2 to give Homeland Housing $2.85 million to develop the agency’s downtown affordable housing project.
The 22 St. Thomas Street project involves a mixed-use rental building that will have 118 apartments and some streetfacing commercial space on the ground floor.
As part of the city’s land transfer agreement with the agency, at least 55 per cent of the building’s rental units will need to be maintained as below-market housing for a minimum of 30 years. Homeland Housing is a public non-profit housing provider that operates in nine communities.
July: Man faces murder charge in stabbing of two St. Albert teens
A 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death and another hospitalized in an apparently planned attack.
Kaj Alexander Randall, 28, was arrested July 20 in Edmonton. RCMP allege Randall fled the St. Albert scene following the July 18 stabbing, and he was initially charged with two counts of attempted murder, as it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that 17-year-old Jaeden Chaisson succumbed to her injuries.
Chaisson, a former resident of Morinville and St. Albert, had just graduated from Sturgeon Composite High School. Following Chaisson's death, one of Randall's attempted murder charges was upgraded to first-degree murder.
Randall remains in custody and is scheduled to appear before a judge and jury at a preliminary inquiry March 26 to 28, 2025.
August: Demand for social services increasing in St. Albert: report
Demand for some St. Albert social programs grew dramatically in 2023, according to the city. St. Albert Further Education’s newcomer connection program, which helps newcomers integrate into the community, saw usage spike by 38 per cent in comparison to 2022. That adds up to an extra 464 newcomers assisted by the program, for a total of 1,222 participants in 2023.
Last year the number of hampers provided by the St. Albert food bank grew by 31 per cent to 6,247 hampers from roughly 4,310 hampers the year prior, the report says. The food bank identified 133 unhoused people and 34 individuals in the city were given crisis aversion funds to support with rent and other housing payments.
September: Teens recovering after Labour Day shooting
Three teenagers were hospitalized after a stranger fired birdshot into their vehicle Sept. 1.
The parent of one told the Gazette her daughter’s boyfriend took two direct shots to the back.
“There were pieces of the plastic shell casing in (her boyfriend’s) back, that’s how close he was,” she said. “That’s the only thing that they could remove.”
Mounties and paramedics were called to Hunchak Way at 12:51 a.m. Sept. 2, according to RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Troy Savinkoff. He said responding officers called in the assistance of the Edmonton Police Service helicopter, but couldn’t locate the suspect vehicle, a white minivan with tinted windows.
Investigators have canvassed homes around the intersection where the shooting took place and have appealed to the public for any security video they may have from that area between midnight and 1 a.m.
October: Council approves $62 million servicing of Lakeview Business District
St. Albert will borrow millions in hopes of paving the way for 5,000 new jobs in the city’s west-end Lakeview Business District. City councillors unanimously approved the $62.7 million infrastructure project in order to “open” the light-to-medium industrial park to development at their regular meeting Oct. 15.
They later approved a borrowing bylaw for the project that authorizes staff to borrow as much as $78.4 million without coming back for another council vote.
St. Albert only has about 20 acres of industrial land, and some of that is in parcels that are partial or distressed, requiring some remediation. The industrial land vacancy rate in the city has been 3.9 per cent on average for the last four years, including a six-month period where it was below one per cent.
A fully built-out Lakeview is expected to support 5,000 new jobs.
Coun. Ken MacKay said Lakeview could generate “massive, even generational economic impacts.
“It goes toward supporting long-term financial sustainability for our community.”
November: St. Albert has 'highest’ fire response times in Edmonton region: Union
The president of the union representing St. Albert’s paramedic firefighters told city councillors Nov. 5 building Fire Hall #4 – regardless of when they decide to service the northeast – would improve "extended" response times there.
Greg Harvey, president of Local 2130 of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), urged the politicians to build the fire hall whether they approve the broader infrastructure program or not, using cisterns or other solutions to bring water to its lot.
“Obviously, we’d like to get there quicker,” Harvey said, referring to a table showing St. Albert has longer response times than Edmonton, Spruce Grove and Strathcona County. “We are the highest response time of all the full-time services in the region.”
December: Photo radar suspended in St. Albert after provincial announcement
Mayor Cathy Heron on Dec. 3 expressed her concern over the effective loss of automated traffic enforcement (ATE) in St. Albert since the contractor the city uses can’t see how their business can move forward after changes announced by Devin Dreeshen, Alberta transport minister, a day earlier.
Effective April 1, 2025, photo radar will be restricted to school, playground, and construction zones, and not allowed on any numbered provincial highway. Fixed intersection cameras will be restricted to red light enforcement only, and not allowed to issue “speed on green” tickets.
“We’re going to be struggling in St. Albert,” she said. “We might be out of all ATE sites, including school and construction zones.”
The city collected $410,000 from automated tickets in 2023 according to a report, and the 2025 municipal budget anticipates that figure dropping to $85,000, according to Aaron Giesbrecht, manager of Policing Services at the city.
The service provider, Global Traffic Group, halted all activity between Dec. 1 and 5, but resumed photo radar activities in school zones Dec. 6.
The city and St. Albert RCMP are “exploring options to increase traditional in-person speed enforcement.”
