Coming Up: April 3
Council meets on Monday. On the agenda this week:
Delegations
Free Youth Transit
Indoor Recreation Facility
Downtown Business Taxes
Bylaw Housekeeping
Following is more information and my take on agenda items.
As always, any mistakes or opinions belong to me and me alone, not to Council or City staff.
While I express my current views below, I work hard to go into meetings ready to listen and with an open mind. I learn new information and participate in debate. This always informs, and sometimes changes, how I vote on issues.
If you would like to watch the meeting or read any of its supporting material for yourself, you can do so by clicking here. The City will post the highlights of Council’s decisions here.
Delegations
At all Council meetings, organisations and residents are welcome to come talk to Council.
This week, a resident is coming requesting that school buses be allowed to use their stop arms on urban style roads.
I always welcome new information. But if you want to see my current thinking on school bus stop arms, you can find it here.
Youth bus passes
Council has been talking about ways to make Transit more affordable to kids. There is a recommendation coming to Council to eliminate all Transit fees for youth 17 and younger.
In 2022, there were 44,734 youth trips on our Transit system. This accounted for 16% of total ridership.
Eliminating youth fees will have an annual cost of about $90,000.
I’m likely to support this proposal. Helping youth get around town is good for their development and quality of life. Getting them comfortable with Transit will make youth who do not wish to or cannot drive more likely to stay in our community after high school. And if we get people riding the bus young, it could have long-term financial benefit to our Transit system by developing life long riders: having more riders on it makes it more efficient.
Indoor recreation facility
Youth sports are growing. Meanwhile, the City has had to shut down the old Leisure Centre. This is making our region suffer from lack of indoor sport space.
Council has been working with the County to see if there is potential to partner on expanding the Crosslink Centre. Those talks are ongoing.
However, Council has also been discussing the potential to build a soccer dome inside the City. To further this dome conversation, there are two motions coming to Council.
The first motion is coming this week. It is for Council to, in principal, support taking out up to $10,000,000 in debt for the development of increased indoor recreation. I’m likely to support this motion. The need for investment in indoor space is clear to me.
The second motion coming to Council at a later meeting, likely on April 17. It is to approve a specific piece of land in Smith for this recreation facility. This land is just south of 100 Ave and just east of the train tracks: between the Activity Reception Centre and the Rotary Soccer Fields.
Personally, I am not comfortable approving this location right now. It might be a good place for a new recreation facility to go. But the big of concerns I have:
There has been little to no engagement with Smith residents. They deserve to have a strong say before we make major change to this land.
I don’t know what traffic impacts we would expect from this facility. I need more information before I am comfortable that the neighbourhood can handle traffic and parking appropriately.
The land is currently zoned for high density housing. We desperately need affordable, seniors, and high density family housing in our community. If we are going to lose potential housing stock in Smith, I need to know what the alternative plan is.
The old Composite High School and Leisure Centre site is adjacent to two high schools, right off a major highway, near the hospital and polytechnic, and in the corner of the City where we anticipate the strongest future residential growth. It is higher on my priority list for receiving indoor recreation investment.
We’ve worked hard with the County to discuss expanding the Crosslink Centre. Expanding an existing facility may be better for the region than building an all new one. I’m worried these talks could be put to rest if we instead invest in a soccer dome in the City.
I’m looking forward to this agenda item. I’m open to continuing the conversation on whether or not the Smith land is the best place for a new recreation facility. But these concerns will have to be addressed before I can support giving final approval to building here.
Downtown Business Taxes
We have a Business Improvement Area (BIA) downtown. It exists to support the Grande Prairie Downtown Association which provides marketing and other support for businesses in our City Centre.
The Downtown Association is funded by a special tax on all properties within the BIA. This tax is collected by the City and forwarded onto the Association. It is based on the Association’s annual budget, which is created by its board and approved at its AGM. This year’s budget is $360 263, which is the same as it was in 2019.
On Monday, Council will be debating the bylaw needed to collect this BIA tax. There might be some who will question if we should be levying this tax while some businesses are struggling to recover. I think we should.
If Council doesn’t levy this tax, I only see two alternatives:
Subsidize the Downtown Association from general tax revenue. This would lead to lower taxes downtown, but higher taxes elsewhere. Many businesses in our community are still in recovery mode: it is not localized to our City Centre. Any new supports the City creates should be available to businesses throughout the community.
Decrease the Association’s budget to lower the BIA tax. The Association Board was elected by downtown businesses. This Board created the budget, then got approval from the wider membership at its AGM. It would not be appropriate for City Council to override a decision downtown business owners have made for themselves.
bylaw housekeeping
Council is debating a number of housekeeping and minor items to various Bylaws and Policies. These include:
Reserve Policy: Establish a Municipal Police Service Reserve. The money we have received from the province to fund a police transition will be placed in and drawn from it. This will enable better transparency for Council and the public on transition expenditures.
Downtown Incentives Program: Most grants within this program have run their course and run out of funding. It is recommended that they be eliminated and remaining funding be placed into grants through the Economic Recovery Fund.
Late Night Club/Events Bylaw: This is an old Bylaw that isn’t used anymore: the Land Use Bylaw and other Bylaws are now used to regulate clubs and late night events. It is recommended that Council rescind this Bylaw.
Land Use Bylaw: Various minor amendments are recommended including clarifying requirements around electronic submission of development permits, aligning development permit timelines with language found in the Municipal Government Act, cleaning up a few definitions, and fixing some grammatical errors.
I have a few questions, but am likely to support all these recommendations.
That’s what is on our agenda this week. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You can comment below. Or, you can contact me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166. I'm happy to talk online or over the phone. I'm also always willing to setup a time to meet for coffee.
We also always have great conversation in the GP Round Table group on Facebook.
After Council meeting, you will be able to find highlights posted by the City here.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan