Saddling city administration with the task of finding ways to eliminate the city’s eyesores is becoming increasingly common with this council, more specifically with Mayor Nolan Crouse. While banning strip clubs, limiting camping in Walmart parking lots and making life hard on businesses that sell drug paraphernalia might seem important, it demonstrates a potential lack of focus on the part of council when it comes to big picture issues.
Based on what has come out of council recently, residents might be inclined to wonder exactly where that focus lies. During Monday’s meeting, Crouse and Coun. Cam MacKay both made known their disdain for stores that sell drug paraphernalia. Two of these businesses operate in St. Albert legally. Council subsequently directed administration to bring forward all possible options council could take to make life hard on such business owners.
Earlier in the year, Crouse put individuals who camp in Walmart parking lots in his sights, wanting to limit the length of time a recreational vehicle can be parked in such an area, as well as limiting “camping type activities” such as fires. Crouse called the practise an eyesore. Administration responded that the city has not received one single complaint about these campers.
And in 2009 it was Crouse who brought forward a motion to remove any reference to adult stores, strip clubs and swingers clubs from the land use bylaw, despite the fact none exist in St. Albert and a warning from administration that such a move could open the city up to costly litigation. According to Crouse at the time, he brought the motion forward because he heard there was a small group of local residents engaged in the swinging lifestyle. The motion subsequently failed, but Crouse has promised to resurrect it.
Why the mayor and council feel the need to focus on supposed or imagined fires is difficult to understand. These are very small issues that, at least in one case, few people have publicly complained about. It’s as if council suddenly sees itself as a moral authority, trying to sanitize the city of real or potential threats to its purity. But St. Albert is a city now and every city has its warts.
We have bigger problems at hand than bongs, campers and potential strip clubs. While there is no one specific cure-all that will solve all of our city’s issues, action on small problems that don’t warrant council’s meddling could create the impression those bigger problems aren’t being addressed. Economic diversification will take time, and given the glacial pace at which such changes move, the public might be under the impression the bigger problems are no longer on council’s radar. There is even the risk that putting administration to work on these unimportant problems could water down administration’s resources.
There are other issues that continue to grind along slowly. The physician attraction committee has some ideas it wants to pursue. Sub-committee member Coun. Malcolm Parker is looking at ways to attract a developer to build a medical complex like one in Spruce Grove, but he also called for a political champion to push it forward. Crouse doesn’t seem interested, stating instead that the market will take care of the problem even though to date that hasn’t happened. Couple that with a report on the Sturgeon River that is slowly working its way through city hall and it’s easy to see why some might perceive council has lost its focus.
Bong shops might be distasteful and the legal line might be very fine, but our 40 Asset Development Program is supposed to give our youth the tools they need to resist the activities associated with such enterprises. These small fires could drain administration’s resources instead of allowing it to focus on the bigger problems our city faces.
Homeowners care more about their property tax bill than campers at Walmart, about having access to a family doctor than someone possibly setting up a strip club. What they want to see is progress of any kind instead of distractions.
