This week St. Albert city council debated the relative merits of a variety of names for the Employment Lands area north of Big Lake. The 250-acre area will establish a business park and generate non-residential revenue for the city.
This week St. Albert city council debated the relative merits of a variety of names for the Employment Lands area north of Big Lake. The 250-acre area will establish a business park and generate non-residential revenue for the city. This area is a significant part of the city's future and coming up with a name is important to properly market the area to businesses.
A panel consisting of local history experts and city staff considered a variety of names grouping them in the categories of geographic references, historical references and inspirational references. St. Albert planning branch manager Kristina Peter consulted with the panel and recommended the name Lakeview Business District.
But council was lukewarm on this name. Several councillors had preference for other names. Council postponed its decision until next month. Councillors have been asked to submit notices of motion with their preferred names for the next debate.
This situation is not that surprising. Ask 10 people on the street to come up with a name for a new area of the city and you might get 10 different answers. Parents spend significant time when it comes to choosing a name for their children and they often get suggestions from friends, coworkers and family as well. Many of us feel like we're experts on the topic.
Coun. Cam MacKay did not support postponing the issue and suggested council shouldn't spend any more time on it.
“Let's just get this over with. We could come back in a month and still have seven different opinions,” he said.
Instead, by postponing the issue council voted to spend more time on the naming issue and encouraging councillors to submit notices of motions will likely cultivate the type of scenario MacKay is predicting.
Putting together a committee to tackle the naming issue was the right way to do it. You can depoliticize the issue and get recommendations from an outside party. The committee considered numerous options, ruled out names that could create confusion and picked a name that was reflective of the development scale and the geography. But for some reason this was not good enough for members of council. What's wrong with the name Lakeview Business District?
This is certainly not the first time council has rejected a committee's recommendation. Earlier this year council opted not to take the advice of the independent Council Remuneration Review Committee on several issues related to councillor pay. One of the reasons to form a committee to make these types of decision is to remove politics from the equation, but that only works if you take the recommendation. Otherwise, you are just wasting the committee members' time.
That's not to say the council should always accept the recommendations that come from committees. We elect council members to make decisions, we don't elect committees. But committees can be effective in giving a fresh perspective and avoiding lengthy debate. Naming the Employment Lands is a good example of an issue that council does not need to spend a lot of time on, yet they voted to spend more time on it.
What's in a name? Taxpayers' time and money. It's time to stop playing the name game and move on.
