Throw a bowl of spaghetti against a wall and while most of it will fall off, some of it is likely to stick. Same as with an ugly rumour. It can be denied, even proven wrong, but the stigma remains.
And so it is with St. Albert’s reputation as a business unfriendly city. Whether it’s true or not — and the growing impression is that it’s a well-deserved rap — for the moment the city is stuck with it. The question is, what do we do about it?
Well, for starters, how about city council, and in particular Mayor Nolan Crouse, actually standing behind the city’s entrenched target of an 80-20 split between residential and non-residential tax assessment? We don’t need our leaders wondering aloud if 80-20 is an achievable goal.
The gap at the moment is about 89-11 and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, if it ever does. Opportunities to increase the non-residential growth have been there but missed by this council and previous ones.
The Heritage Lakes area is an obvious one. Once zoned as non-residential, it is now totally residential, with homes backing onto railway tracks with huge power lines looming overhead. It was ideal industrial land the city wasted.
It seems like year after year council talks the talk when it comes to the 80-20 split, but not often enough does it back up its words. Perhaps it’s too easy for council to give in to land owners and developers and let them build even more housing to create an even wider gap between residential and non-residential bases.
How many boom times has Alberta gone through in the last 30 years, without St. Albert taking advantage by luring industrial development to the city? There are various reasons why St. Albert has been branded as business unfriendly.
• Lack of suitable industrial land.
• City departments that don’t seem to speak to each other, sending conflicting signals to potential new clients. It’s time someone in city hall eliminated this situation.
• A mayor and council giving the impression they’re more interested in building houses than businesses.
And where has it left St. Albert? Depending on who you listen to, or how one interprets various studies and reports, the city is either destined to remain a bedroom community for Edmonton, will evolve into a retirement settlement devoid of the youthful population needed to give it energy and excitement, or it will simply continue to just, well, exist.
The danger is, without increased non-residential development, the city won’t be able to generate enough taxes to sustain itself, possibly exposing itself to, dare we say it, annexation by Edmonton.
Since 2001 St. Albert’s annual population growth rate has been declining. From 2006 to 2010 our average growth rate was one per cent, compared to 8.2 in Leduc, 6.0 in Spruce Grove and 5.7 in Fort Saskatchewan. In the last two years Morinville has grown by 11.4 per cent.
The chamber of commerce states our 39 and under population has decreased by 26 per cent over 30 years, while the plus-40s has increased by 27 per cent.
In a meeting with the Gazette’s editorial board this week, the city’s general manager of business and strategic services, Jennifer Jennax, said she would like to see 20,000 jobs in the city created by 2024. That will require significant new commercial, industrial and retail investment, but it is an admirable goal. Without suitable jobs there’s no real hope to keeping our youth in St. Albert.
The vast majority of working-age St. Albertans make the drive into Edmonton every day to work so, like it or not, we are a bedroom community.
The question is, what will we be in the future? It’s time to stop wavering and take a stand. Commit to making the city business friendly and do whatever it takes to attract businesses.
Without that, taxes will continue to rise and we’ll continue to chase out younger generations.
