Municipal Policing: there’s been a lot of talk about it this week!…

…Grande Prairie is my home. I am raising my kids in Grande Prairie. I’m passionately involved in nonprofits and co-own a business here. Most of my dear friends live in this region. I want us to have the best community possible. And I do believe a municipal police model best supports a safe and financially healthy city.

The RCMP is a remarkable model for federal and rural policing. But once a community hits a certain size and complexity, there are big flaws to contract policing. Many RCMP-policed cities have identified big advantages to forming their own police services. And urban policing is putting an incredible strain on the RCMP. 

80% of Canadians receive policing from non-RCMP services. In my strong opinion, it makes sense for us to join them. A Municipal Police Service will allow us to better meet the expectations I've heard from residents. It will also help us get better value for the tax dollars we spend on policing.

I know that many of you reading this will disagree. Strongly….

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ve been seeing chatter and getting direct feedback about the Leisure Centre fieldhouse being closed with no immediate replacement available. While I agree with some of what I’m hearing, I’d also respectfully push back on a lot of it.

The biggest thing I’d push back on: the speed of decision making for “next steps.” It is being done at a deliberate, appropriate speed.

Kids aren’t missing out on play because Council is refusing to take action or dragging its feet. Instead, we are doing what it takes to build something that will be the best possible long-term solution for our community. In my opinion, that means building something new on the Composite High School and Leisure Centre sites. But that is physically impossible until the old buildings are fully gone….

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Administration has spent months working with Council’s Strategic Plan to create business plans, analyze service levels, and evaluate programming. This work has gone into creating a proposed budget for 2023-2026. You can read it here.

This week, Council will be questioning, debating, and amending the budget. Then in a few weeks time, it will approve a final budget.

Following are 5 key things to know about the budget.

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Today the Transit re-design launched. I tried the new system out with Councillor Mike O'Connor.

We started in an On-Demand area. Booked a ride to Towne Centre Mall and caught a transfer on the Shopper's Shuttle (#3) to Westgate. Councillor O'Connor [allegedly] kicked my butt at shuffleboard. Then I took the Shopper's Shuttle downtown again and caught a transfer home.

On Demand was really slick…

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