City council is scheduled to make a major decision this Tuesday — borrow $33.75 million to build a solar farm in the city’s west end or scrap the project altogether.
Public engagement has been discussed around the council table, and most councillors campaigned on transparency during last fall’s municipal election.
In June of 2021, council passed first reading of the borrowing bylaw. Since then, little information has come forward for public consumption. Yes, estimates were released by the city as to how the solar farm would contribute to city coffers — generating an estimated $2.42 million a year and powering up to 2,500 homes, but that was scaled back this spring to ... well, we have yet to see.
The city also initially estimated that remediation of the Badger Lands (some soil has been contaminated because the land has been used by the city as a snow dump) would cost somewhere between $15.5 million and $25 million.
Residents immediately challenged the numbers, and the city recently lowered the remediation costs to a maximum of $4.5 million — a far cry from the original estimate. That huge variance alone should give major pause to council and residents.
Residents have been waiting for a thorough, pragmatic, and unbiased report from the city that explains the business case for the proposal. Are there alternate uses for the land that could provide ongoing tax revenue to the city? Prices are up for solar panels due to supply and demand issues around the world. Borrowing costs are up. How will these impact the project?
The long-anticipated report is due sometime this week, but not available at the time of this writing. Hopefully, it will satisfy residents’ angst.
The problem is, there won't be much time for council or the public to digest the contents of the report. Toss in a long weekend and gorgeous weather, and it’s tough to imagine many spending the last long weekend of the summer poring over a solar farm report before registering to speak at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Last August, council directed administration to undertake public engagement "inclusive of the broader community within St. Albert" for an approved $30,000 from the city’s stabilization reserve. The Gazette reported in May that the city’s plan for public engagement was still developing and would likely include additional opportunities. So far, that has consisted of an online survey the city posted on its website in April. Those results are expected in the report coming this week.
At the time of this writing, council, like the rest of us, does not know the contents of the report. Of course, administration could recommend against proceeding with the project, which could make for interesting debate come Tuesday.
It is difficult to engage citizens when they don’t have a complete picture and that has been the case all along with the proposed solar farm.
Citizens should finally have a clearer picture when the report is released this week, however, they’ve been left little time to digest it, let alone prepare to speak to it at council. The taxpayers, who will be on the hook for up to $33.75 million, are owed that opportunity.
Editorials are the consensus view of the St. Albert Gazette’s editorial board.
