Coming Up: April 5
Council meets on Monday. The agenda includes:
Council Advocacy Plan
Downtown Business Levy
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.
Advocacy Priorities
A big part of Council’s job is to advocate to the provincial and federal governments on behalf of our community and the City. Council is always actively engaged in advocacy.
While all members of Council have different passions and priorities, there are some issues we all agree are important. These shared issues are the focus of our advocacy.
To increase transparency of what we are advocating for, Council will be approving a list of priorities. You can read more details about it here. But the short version of what appears on it:
Police Services Model Review: the province is exploring an Alberta Provincial Force. The City is monitoring this provincial work and providing feedback where it is likely to impact municipal governments.
Police Act Amendments; The Police Act is an outdated piece of legislation that will be receiving modernization this fall. The City supports the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association hopes for Police Act amendments which would create more Effective and Legitimate policing in Alberta.
COVID Re-Opening Regulations: The City requests greater clarity and transparency surrounding changing restrictions, supports, and vaccination efforts
New Hospital Staffing: The City advocates for AHS to fully staff that new hospital so that every unit is fully operations when it opens
Community Based Health Supports: Grande Prairie’s street engaged community does not have access to the same level of provincial health resources as communities in other Alberta mid-sized cities have. The City is advocating for local resources to be increased.
GPRC Degree Granting Status: The City is calling for the provincial government to follow through on its promise to allow GPRC to grant degrees
Highway 40: 19 km of Highway 40 south of the City is being twinned. The City has already made substantial investments to accommodate this twinning. It continues to advocate for provincial funding to allow for construction to remain on pace.
Industrial Attraction: The City closely monitors provincial and federal grant opportunities and policies to assist with industrial attraction in our region
Phillip J. Currie Museum: The City requests that the provincial government provide operational funding to the museum
Low Income Rent Subsidy: The provincial government recently made a 25% cut to its rent subsidy program for low income individuals and families. This is an important program to reduce poverty in our community. The City advocates for funding to be restored.
Red Tape Reduction for Permanent Supportive Housing: The City is working to get more Permanent Supportive Housing opportunities in Grande Prairie. However, provincial funding is tricky because there are separate applications for operational and capital funding. Which creates a real Chicken & Egg situation: you can’t get one without the other, and both often have different requirements and timelines. The City is asking for a streamlined application process that aligns capital and operational requests.
Infrastructure Funding: As a regional hub, the City incurs infrastructure costs that other municipalities do not incur. The City requests that provincial municipal grants recognize this, and provide extra funding to regional hubs to support regional infrastructure.
Disaster Recovery Program (DRP): The province recently made a change so that an individual property can only ever receive provincial DRP funding once. On its face, this makes sense: if a property is damaged by a disaster once, its rebuilding should include steps to make sure that that disaster won’t damage it again. However, the City is requesting that properties which have received DRP in the past still be eligible in the future if they face a different type of disaster. For example: a property that received DRP funding following a flood would be ineligible after future floods. But it could still be eligible if it was damaged by a wildfire.
Education Property Tax: In Grande Prairie, about 25% of your property tax bill goes to the province to pay for education. The City has been making efforts to reduce taxes over the past three years, and hopes to keep taxes reduced. It is recommending that the Province freeze its property taxes for the next three years.
Drug Treatment Court: By combining mandatory treatment with criminal prosecution, Drug Treatment Courts have been shown to massively decrease recidivism for drug related crimes. The provincial Justice Minister has indicated that Grande Prairie will get a Drug Treatment Court. The City is requesting that this be formally announced and then funded.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice: Despite the Court of Queen’s Bench Act requiring that one or more judges reside in Grande Prairie, that is not currently happening. Judges have to travel to Grande Prairie from other cities, which introduces unnecessary costs and delays. The City is advocating for the Justice Minister to appoint a Court of Queen’s Bench judge to reside in Grande Prairie.
Airport Funding: The City is advocating for the federal government to provide additional financial supports to regional airports to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): In most provinces, the producers and manufacturers of recyclable waste pay for recycling programs through EPR programs. In Alberta, municipal rate payers pay for those recycling programs. This provides less incentive for producers to create less waste. It means all Albertans pay the costs of waster whether or not they consume it. And since EPR costs in other provinces are built into national pricing, Albertans pay for recycling twice: they pay to recycle in other provinces through increased prices on merchandise to cover EPR costs, then they pay to recycle in Alberta through property taxes or recycling utility bills. The City joins other municipalities in calling on the province to implement EPR in Alberta.
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE): Pace is a provincial opportunity for municipalities to provide low-interest loans for energy upgrades on properties. These loans are completely secure because they are paid back through property taxes on the subject property. Helping these upgrades can save the property owner money and have environmental benefit. It can also create activity in construction and trades, which are hurting right now. The City is advocating for a successful role out of this program.
Downtown Business Improvement Area Tax
Businesses in the Downtown are members of the Downtown Business Association. The Association exists to promote, enhance, and advocate for the downtown. It is governed by a Board of Directors elected by the members.
Every year, the Downtown Association Board creates a budget. This budget is then approved by members at a spring Annual General Meeting. The proposed budget for 2021 is $303,000.
This budget is primarily funded through a special tax. The City collects a Business Improvement Areas (BIA) Tax on businesses in the downtown. The proceeds from these taxes are then given to the Downtown Association to fund its operations.
On Monday, Council will be debating Bylaws to institute the 2021 BIA tax. I anticipate it will pass, and intend to support it myself.
I suspect that some in our community will object to this tax being passed. They’ll say it isn’t fair to have an extra tax for downtown businesses when our economy is struggling and downtown construction is about to happen. However, in response, I’d highlight that if Council doesn’t pass the BIA Tax, it only has two other options:
Overrule the decisions made by downtown business by refusing to fund the Downtown Association. This would effectively mean Council is saying to businesses “sorry, we know what is best for your operations” while undermining their efforts to be viable and profitable.
Fund the Downtown Association through the City’s general revenue. This means that property tax owners throughout the City would be footing the bill for activities that they get no say in and no direct benefit from. Residents would be directly funding the Downtown Association. And businesses across the City would be paying for the marketing activities of their competitors in the City Centre.
Neither of these is a good alternative. The BIA Tax should be passed.
It’s also worth highlighting:
This tax isn’t new. It’s an annual tax that started in 1984 at the request of downtown businesses.
The tax amount is set by a Board elected by downtown businesses and is then approved at a meeting open to all downtown businesses. I attended that meeting, and didn’t hear a single objection to the budget.
I haven’t had a single business reach out to me and request that this tax not be levied.
Because of our current economy and this year’s downtown construction, the promotional and advocacy activities of the Downtown Association are more important than ever.
Provincial properties traditionally pay ~$60,000 into the BIA tax. However, the province has recently decide to no longer pay property taxes, which is a big hit to downtown. The Association is making up for this by reducing its budget, not by increasing what member businesses pay.
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