I would like to offer kudos to all members of city council and our mayor for taking what many of us perceive to be a new strategy on council.
That is seeking out ways to save money for all of St. Albert's weary taxpaying public. It is extremely difficult, tedious and time consuming to review and respond to previous commitments made yesterday by others, but positive progress is being made.
However, the saying goes that you cannot improve without change.
Leading the council charge, credit goes to Couns. Cathy Heron and Cam MacKay, but otherwise it’s an overall excellent team effort and we must thank them.
My specific comments are as follows:
• We must urgently reinforce our protective services (the RCMP and bylaw), as these are the thin line between peace and chaos in our society and resources must be provided. Rose-coloured glasses are out of stock as we see from current crime stats. I have worked with the RCMP in a variety of school safety and immigration safety programs in the north and rarely is credit given to these fine law enforcement members.
• We must be prepared to make unpopular decisions and understand the difference between essential and non-essential services to citizens. This line was completely blurred when we took up residence four years ago. Servus Place was the topic of choice and their staff has worked hard to control costs and must be commended.
• While we may have a spending problem, we also in fact have a revenue problem and must aggressively attract more industry to St. Albert. That may include corporate headquarters. It is not inconceivable that the chamber of commerce sponsor an up-to-date video of St. Albert extolling its unique qualities and residential advantages. Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Lethbridge all pursued business in this way.
• As a former member of Alberta Historic Sites Services and subsequently very familiar with the history of Alberta, I am very disappointed that there is no plan to contract an author to produce an up-to-date book on the broad history of St. Albert covering all aspects of commerce, stories from all its senior citizens, current development and its present multicultural and aboriginal history. Yes I did review The Black Robe’s Vision with Dr. John Gilpin, Alberta's noted historian, but we agreed that a readily available book with a broader perspective is urgently needed at a reasonable price. Most communities in Alberta have done this. The Black Robe’s Vision published in 1985 is priced at $80 for a set of two volumes but does not meet the criteria for a broad history of the region from Edmonton's early beginnings and trade and commerce with east and west. Most tourists will not spend $80 on a religious-focused work. (Dr. Gilpin is one of Alberta 's foremost research historians and an associate professor of history). Over $500,000 will be spent in 2011 on our 150th anniversary, but other communities have published their history books for $100,000, which was returned in sales very quickly at $25 to $30 a copy. Perhaps it’s not too late if our historical society can initiate this. Note also that Chapters has nothing at all on St. Albert.
• As our year ends very shortly, as relatively recent residents, our family and friends thank our local print media, the St. Albert Gazette, for providing us with a top quality, award-winning community newspaper twice a week and omitting to bill us for it. Nobody does it better.
Happy Christmas and Joyeux Nöel to all.
Bert MacKay, St. Albert
