Coming Up: August 24
Council meets on Monday. We’ll be meeting over video conference. On the agenda:
Delegations
Public Information Campaign: COVID-19
Bylaw & Policy Review
Sale of City Land
Transportation Master Plan
City Reserves
311 & Citizen Service
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 & CORRESPONDENCE
During all Council meetings, members of the public are welcome to come address Council. More information about how to do that can be found here.
This week, three delegations have told us they will be taking part in our meeting:
A resident expressing opposition to a potential Face Covering Bylaw
Residents asking for support towards a project that will add indigenous histories, teachings, and stories into outdoor recreational spaces
A resident asking the City to reconsider naturalizing land behind her house
COVID-19 PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN
City Administration is seeking Council approval to proceed with a COVID-19 public information campaign.
The proposed campaign will have three main themes:
How to properly wear a mask
Information about mask use protecting others
Communication about the importance of hand washing and social distancing in addition to wearing masks
I’m likely to support this campaign.
As we shape our approach to COVID-19, it is important to be listening to Dr. Hinshaw and other medical experts. They’ve encouraged people to wear masks when social distancing is not possible. But they’ve also emphasized that masks don’t protect the person wearing them, that improperly wearing a mask carries risks, and that mask use doesn’t substitute for hand hygiene, social distancing, and staying home when sick. To protect our residents and our economy, I think it is worth the City helping these messages be heard.
BYLAW & POLICY REVIEW
Earlier in the term, Council recognized that a lot of City Bylaws and Policies had gone a long time (sometimes decades) without being reviewed and updated. So Council established a Bylaw and Policy Review Committee.
This Committee reviewed all City Bylaws and Policies which were no longer relevant to modern municipal operations. It also reviewed all City Bylaws and Policies which had financial implications of $1,000,000 or more to the City or external organisations.
The Committee sees a need for City Bylaws and Policies to be reviewed on a regular basis. However, now that the most pressing ones have been reviewed, it does not see the need for a stand alone body to do review. So the Bylaw and Policy Review Committee is making two recommendations to Council:
To disband the Bylaw & Policy Review Committee in order to free up Council and Administrative time
To add “Bylaw & Policy Review” as an agenda item to other Standing Committees, and to have every Bylaw and Policy come before a Standing Committee once per Council term
I support these recommendations. Regular review is important. These changes will allow it to happen in an efficient manner.
POTENTIAL SALE OF CITY LAND
The City owns land along Resources Road, west of the rail tracks and just north of 68th Ave. A map from this report:
It is recommended that Council approve an Expression of Interest process to see if there are private developers interested in purchasing this land.
This process does not create any commitment on the City’s part. If there are interested buyers, Council may choose to put the land up for sale. However, the City would not be obligated to sell the land if it gets responses to the Expression of Interest.
I’m likely to support this recommendation. Seeing if there is market interest to guide future management of this land makes sense to me.
TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN
It is recommended that Council endorse a new Transportation Master Plan. This is a very high level document which will guide City investments in transportation expansion as our community grows.
I’ve shared more about it here.
I do intend to vote in favour of this Master Plan. I support the work that it lays out.
That being said, I think there are two additional pieces of work that need to be done on our Transportation Systems:
92 St: This Master Plan doesn’t project significant additional growth pressure (and therefore significant road network expansion) on 92 St for years to come. However, the south end of 92 St is creating safety concerns for many residents now. A Council Committee has directed administration to bring forward an additional report on potential improvements to 92 St between 68th and 84th Ave. I look forward to seeing this report: some work to expand shoulders and make other improvements should be done in the next year or two.
Active Transportation: I’ve got a decent understanding of and a lot of confidence in our planning to move vehicle traffic through the community. However, active transportation is also important. Some people are unable to drive: they still need to safely and efficiently get around. And when people walk or bike, it has social and health benefits for them, and reduces the amount of cars on our [very expensive] road system. And I’m not convinced we have done as great a job planning for how these people will get around. I’m going to be spending time over the weekend reading our active transportation planning documents. Depending on what I find, I might be making a motion at Council to initiate more detailed work on our active transportation network.
FINANCIAL RESERVES
The City maintains a number of Financial Reserves.
Some of these reserves are legislated by the provincial government. Two examples:
When a landowner develops bare land, they make a contribution to our Transportation System Levy Reserve. This money is used to expand and improve roads in order to accommodate growth from new development.
We make annual contributions to a Cemetery Perpetual Care Reserve. The interest from this reserve will be used to maintain cemeteries after they are full and no longer receiving internments.
There are other reserves which the City voluntarily maintains. They are meant to smooth out tax rates. We know that on occasion we will incur large costs that don’t happen every year (ex: replacing a roof on a large building). Instead of raising and lowering taxes to flex with these costs, we make regular contributions to reserves and then draw from them when a big, one-time cost occurs.
In Grande Prairie, we have relatively low reserves compared to other municipalities.In 2019, here is how we stacked up with our closest neighbours and with other cities in Alberta (taken from this staff report):
Compared to other municipalities, we don’t have large reserves. Because of this, our Council has focused on making sure they are well managed.
Because of our attention to reserve management, two recommendations are coming before Council:
RCMP Retro-Pay Allocation
RCMP members recently won a legal fight which allowed them to unionize. They are now in collective bargaining with the federal government. This will almost certainly lead to salary increases, including retro pay going back to when the legal fight started. The federal government is likely to require the City to contribute towards this retro pay.
To properly plan our finances, it is prudent to earmark this money now. It is recommended that Council earmark $3.1 million from the Future Expenditures Reserve to fund this retro pay.
I support this recommendation.
Policy Changes
There is a recommendation to change policies governing our Fleet Management and Facility Renewal Reserves. These reserves are used to replace City vehicles when they get too old to maintain, and to undertake major repairs on City buildings.
Under current policy, these reserves receive annual contributions to maintain a set minimum balance. However, this has had two problems:
Annual contributions have to match annual withdrawals, creating fluctuations in our operating budget (which kind of goes against the whole point of using reserves).
These reserves have been over-funded: they have more money in them than is needed
Over the past year, our staff have done a good job inventorying our buildings and fleet. They have a great understanding of what conditions our buildings and vehicles are in, and how much money is likely to be spent on repairs and replacements in coming years.
This knowledge is leading to a recommended change in how we handle the Fleet Management and Facility Renewal Reserves. If the recommended policy is adopted, Council will no longer make annual contributions to keep these reserves at a set minimum. Instead, annual contributions will be set to the average contribution needed to meet fleet and building requirements over the next 10 years.
This will have two benefits:
Since they are based on 10 years of upcoming projected spending instead of 1 year of previous spending, annual contributions will not fluctuate as much
We’ve found that we can meet projected costs with lower reserve balances than we have today. The levels of these reserves will be drawn down overtime, allowing the City to keep less tax payer money in its account
I support the recommended policy changes.
311
Every single year, the City handles about 33,000 interactions with citizens. This includes phone calls, emails, and social media responses.
Over the last couple of years, our administration has worked to make our interactions with citizens better. We want it to be easy and pleasant to get information or make requests to the City. We also want to respond to citizens while being as efficient with tax dollars as possible.
To further these goals, administration would like to setup a 311 system. This would limit the need for residents to lookup the City’s phone number. Instead, any call to 311 made within City boundaries would go to our Citizen Contact Centre. Of course, residents would also still be able to use the current number (780-538-0300) to reach the City if they are outside City limits.
On Monday, it is recommended that Council authorize City administration to apply to the CRTC to implement a 311 service within the City. I’ll be supporting this recommendation.
That’s what is on our agenda for Monday. 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