Fellow citizens of St Albert, I wish you to ask yourself two questions: is the City of St. Albert going to become the capital of Canada sometime soon or perhaps just the capital of Alberta? If you believe as I do that these possibilities are never going to happen, then please make our city council see reason.
How can we afford 17 projects and turn our downtown into a huge metropolis? We cannot afford to come up with a plan to house those on a low income.
There are no financial figures attached to our Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan, I would hazard a guess that it will be at least 10 times the cost of Servus Credit Union Place.
Where does our money come from? The following exercise may help in understanding this question. Stand adjacent the St. Albert Trail Monday to Friday either from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and watch the traffic going south or if that is too early be there between 3:30 and 6 p.m. as it travels north. These are the engines that fill our financial coffers. These are the St. Albert taxpayers that work in Edmonton. Yes we are a bedroom community of Edmonton. St. Albert has no real source of income; we have no major industry.
Indeed we are part of the Capital region. Our provincial government sees us that way. Already our health care system is delivered regionally. You may have noticed a regional road being built through St. Albert. In fact our city council is really excited about an LRT line coming from Edmonton.
I suggest what we need to do is co-operate with Edmonton for our future, ensuring that we receive equitable treatment for St. Albert citizens within the Capital region.
We cannot sit like King Canute and demand that the tide rolls back. The tide of regional development is coming our way. We should be ensuring that we build channels to enable us to benefit from the flow of this development. We need representatives who understand what is best for the people of St. Albert in the Capital region.
Elizabeth Allchin, St. Albert
