Coming Up: Feb 24
Council meets on Monday. The agenda includes:
Eastlink Centre Combined Heat Power Unit
Aquatera Dividends
Election Bylaw
Election Advocacy to the Province
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.
Eastlink Centre Combined Heat Power Unit
It has been recommended that Council approve the installation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit at the Eastlink Centre.
A CHP uses natural gas to generate electricity. The waste heat from this generation is captured and used. In the case of the Eastlink Centre, it would go towards warming the pool. This is a proven technology that exists in municipal facilities throughout the country. There are also a number of units owned by private industry operating in our area.
Installation of a CHP would reduce the City’s Green House Gas emissions by 1000 - 1600 tonnes/year. It would also reduce costs in a few ways:
Our utility bills would be greatly reduced
Our carbon tax costs would be reduced
The pool heating system would get less heavy use, extending its life
Conservative financial estimates show that the full cost of a CHP would be recovered within 15 years. Meanwhile, the unit would last for 25 or more years. It will lead to significant long term cost savings.
A CHP would also lead to immediate savings to municipal tax payers. That is because it would be funded from grants, not property taxes. So City taxpayers would see immediate operational savings without paying for the upfront costs.
There are two funding sources this project would use:
$750,000 from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre. This is a grant that can only be applied to this project. If Council doesn’t authorize the CHP installation, this money will be lost to the City.
Up to $1,865,000 from our Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funds. This is a provincial grant that we can apply towards a variety of infrastructure projects. Historically, spending from MSI grants have been spread out several years. This allowed us to do a consistent amount of infrastructure spending even as MSI amounts fluctuated. However, there is a possibility that the province will take back any MSI funding not spent within the next year or two. We need to accelerate our spending or risk losing it. The Eastlink Centre CHP is a good opportunity to insure that MSI money gets invested in our community rather than taken elsewhere.
I’m likely to support this recommendation. We’re working hard to spend money better. This is a great example of how to do that: it will save taxpayers money while also delivering them more environmentally friendly services.
Aquatera Dividend
Aquatera is owned by the City, County, Sexsmith, and Wembley. One of its mandates is to generate a profit for shareholders in order to lessen the amount of money they need to collect from taxes.
The Aquatera Board of Directors has declared a 2019 Discretionary Dividend of $2,099,818 ($1,590,015 of which would go to the City). This accounts for 1.7% of the value of the company’s shares. It is in addition to Mandatory Dividends of $2,400,400.
For this dividend to be disbursed, the City needs to offer its consent. I intend to vote in favour of doing so.
To learn more about Aquatera, including the difference between Discretionary and Mandatory Dividends, click here.
Municipal Election Bylaw
Council will be debating a new Elections Bylaw. You can see it here.
There are two main intentions of this Bylaw:
To consolidate our rules into a single Bylaw. Previously there were three separate Bylaws.
To bring our rules into conformance with recent changes made by the province
Additionally, this Bylaw will change the number of Nomination Signatures required by a candidate from 5 to 25. This was an idea I brought forward to Council. You can see why I view it as important here.
I intend to support the passing of this bylaw.
Provincial Decisions Regarding Municipal Elections
The Province is making a number of decisions that will have dramatic (and I would argue very negative) impacts on municipal elections.
One of those changes: the province intends to add a number of ballot measures to the next municipal election. I am very concerned that this will erode local democracy. When residents and media are discussing big and controversial provincial and federal issues, they will have less time and ability to discuss local issues. They won’t be as capable of holding local Councils to account nor of helping shape the future vision of their community.
Adding ballot measures will also increase the costs of administering municipal elections.
It has been recommended that Council approve asking the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) to make this a point of advocacy. The recommendation is that AUMA advocate to “maintain local elections for local issues.” It is further recommended to advocate that, if the province refuses to keep local elections local, it should share in the costs of administering those elections.
I wholeheartedly support this advocacy recommendation. I am profoundly disturbed by province’s current approach to local elections.
Worth noting: the province is also conducting limited public engagement on further changes to municipal elections. Most concerning is the fact that it appears to be considering introducing more money into our elections. I’d encourage you to read about and provide feedback on potential changes here.
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