Coming Up: January 25
Council meets on Monday. The agenda includes:
Mandatory Mask Bylaw
Downtown Rehabilitation Borrowing
Hockey on Outdoor Rinks
Delegations and Letters
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.
CORRESPONDANCE & DELEGATIONS
Members of the public and other organisations are always welcome to come speak to Council about anything that is on their mind. At each of our meetings, we have times at 3:00 & 6:00 for that to happen. If you ever want to come to Council, you can do so by filling out the form found here.
This week, a number of delegations will be taking part:
Alberta Health Services: Alberta Health Services will be coming at the request of Council. This will be an opportunity for us to ask about COVID-19 and health resources in our community. I look forward to this conversation, and appreciate AHS being willing to have it.
Inclusion Grande Prairie: This organisation exists to help families who have family members with disabilities. It is applying to the province for funding for a Family Resource Centre, which would help families to better utilize the funding available to them to get help and support for their relatives. Inclusion Grande Prairie is requesting that Council write a letter of support for this project.
Restaurant Industry: A local restaurant owner who is very connected to other owners locally and provincially will be speaking to Council. He’ll be requesting a plan to re-open hospitality businesses safely, and long-term support for businesses that are shut down.
Council will also be receiving a couple letters:
BILD Grande Prairie: BILD GP is advocating to Aquatera in regards to infrastructure charges. These are fees charged to new buildings to pay for future upgrades to infrastructure (ex: if new development means a bigger lift station needs to be put in, it would be paid for through these infrastructure charges). BILD is requesting a 12 month pause on residential infrastructure charges. It is also requesting a review of how infrastructure charges are calculated. It is asking that Council support these requests to Aquatera.
City of Cold Lake: The Municipal Government Act doesn’t permit most voters in a municipal election to vote by mail. In light of COVID-19, the City of Cold Lake would like to see the province change this rule for the 2021 election. It has requested that Grande Prairie Council support its advocacy efforts.
I look forward to talking about the topics that will be raised by these delegations and letters.
Mandatory Mask Bylaw
In September, Council passed a Mandatory Face Covering Bylaw. It required masks to be worn in enclosed public spaces when there were over 100 Active cases of COVID in the City and County. It got triggered in October.
My understanding is that, to date, no tickets have been written. Enforcement Services has had to talk to a number of people to make sure they understood the Bylaw, but they haven’t had to write tickets for people continuing to refuse to wear a mask in a public space.
Like all members of Council: there were parts of the Bylaw I supported, and others I would’ve liked to see changed. But after many hours of debate, the Bylaw was eventually passed unanimously. To see my full thinking, you can checkout www.bressey.ca/masks.
Something I liked about the Bylaw (and which I proposed): it has a sunset clause. Unless Council amends it, it will no longer be in effect after January 31st.
However, the province has also instituted a mask mandate of its own. The City has no authority to override provincial health orders. So no matter what Council decides, masks will still be mandatory in indoor public places on February 1st.
On Monday, Council will be debating whether or not to amend our Bylaw to leave it in effect. I’m still thinking through where my support will land.
One one had, I’ve said from the start: public health decisions like masks should be a provincial decision, not a municipal one. Now that the province has stepped up, done the right thing, and made a decision of its own: there is a lot to be said for the City stepping back by allowing its Bylaw to expire.
On the other hand, provincial legislation carries a minimum fine of $1200 if a ticket needs to be issued. If the Bylaw expires, this would be the only enforcement tool available in Grande Prairie. But the Bylaw carries a $100 fine- allowing it to remain in effect would give enforcement officers a lesser fine amount if appropriate, and I see value in letting them have multiple tools available.
A very important note: Council is debating whether or not to remove the sunset clause from the Bylaw. But if Council does, that does NOT mean masks will be mandatory until the Bylaw is rescinded. It would still have a triggering mechanism in it, whereby masks would not be mandatory after we had 14 days of below 100 Active Cases in the City and County.
As we approach this conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Downtown Rehabilitation Phase 4 Borrowing
This summer, Phase 4 of the Downtown Rehabilitation Project will be happening. This will replace aging roads, sidewalks, and pipes on 100 Ave between 100 St & 98 St. It will also upsize pipes so that more dense development can be accommodated in the future.
A project like this takes a lot of time to plan and procure. It was approved by Council in 2019. At the time, I voted against this project. You can see why here. While I understand the benefits and see merit in this project, I don’t think it is worth the money needed at this time.
However, this project was approved by Council. Council has not changed course. And contracts to go ahead have been signed. This project IS happening this summer. Which means that no matter how we feel about the project, all Councillors should be focused on seeing it happen as smoothly as possible. Part of that means paying for it from an appropriate source.
When it approved this project, the funding source selected by Council was borrowing. Now we are at the stage where a Borrowing Bylaw has to be given first reading. The province’s Municipal Government Act does not allow Council to debate a Bylaw on first reading- we will just get to vote on it. But my thinking:
The Borrowing Bylaw will authorize up to $14,000,000 in debt to be taken out for a 30 year term. At today’s interest rates, repayment will cost the City ~$650,000/year.
When we get to debating this Bylaw at a latter date, it won’t be a debate about whether or not the project should happen: that decision has already been made. This is a debate about how to fund it. I don’t see other viable funding sources available for a project this large. I also think that it is appropriate to ask future tax payers pay for the downtown infrastructure they’ll enjoy. That is best accomplished by funding it through debt, rather than having current taxpayer upfront the full cost.
So I will likely be voting in favour of the first reading of this Borrowing Bylaw on Monday.
Something I do want to touch on is the timing of this project.
I’ve had some suggest the project shouldn’t go forward this year because of the pandemic and because of the economic downturn. I get the concern here. But I also get why my Council colleagues who support the project think it should continue this year. If it is going to happen sometime in the near future, there are a lot of reasons 2021 is better than 2022 or 2023. Those include:
A lot of people are out of work right now. This will create jobs in our community.
With the economic downturn, we don’t have big competition against private industry for labour and material. That means now is a less expensive time to build.
When the City takes out debt, interest rates are maintained throughout the whole term: they aren’t variable. And today’s interest rates are low. This will further reduce the cost of this project.
Many downtown businesses are facing COVID restrictions. Many are also receiving rent and/or wage subsidies from the federal government. If construction is going to make it harder for customers to access businesses, many feel it is better for that to happen this year than in a year where they could be fully open and there are no subsidies available.
HOCKEY ON OUTDOOR RINKS
Hockey on outdoor rinks has been a very recent hot issue in our community.
Due to leagues and indoor arenas being shutdown, many are playing hockey outdoors. This is technically against City Bylaws. And while most hockey being played is fine, a few individuals are doing so in inappropriate ways: they aren’t sharing the ice with skaters, and some are taking shots that are damaging houses and landing in yards.
This week, a Council Committee directed administration to look for strategies to change our approach to hockey. The desire is to allow hockey while also protecting houses, people, and opportunity for free skating. I wrote this blog post with more information here.
On Monday, administration will be presenting its recommendations to Council. My understanding of these recommendations is to:
By default, allow hockey on all neighbourhood rinks
If a rink is being maintained by neighbourhood volunteers and those volunteers wish to prohibit hockey on it: allow them to do so, and support them by posting a “no hockey on this rink” sign
On rinks without hockey style boards, limit the size of nets to 1’ in height and 6’ wide. This will prevent players from raising the puck for shooting practice or to beat a goalie.
This sounds like a sensible approach to me. I look forward to hearing other’s thoughts on it, but am likely to support it.
I’m also considering making a motion to direct administration to provide a set of low pond hockey nets upon request from neighbourhood volunteers maintaining a rink. However, prior to making a motion like that, I need to ask a few questions of our administration to see if it is actionable without having big impacts on other City services.
If these recommendations are approved, I also think Council needs to keep a close eye on this issue. I want there to be lots of opportunity for residents to play hockey. But it is completely unacceptable to have pucks hitting houses and going into yards. If that continues, then I think we’ll need to either create more limits on hockey play or spend money to modify rinks.
Finally: I’ve had some residents say they’d like to have high boards in their neighbourhood park. In the past, more outdoor hockey rinks has been low on the priority lists created from resident feedback (for example, see page 20 of this household survey). And before last week, I don’t recall any resident suggesting to me that we need more outdoor rinks. So I’m unlikely to support the City building more rinks on its own.
But I also believe in supporting residents who want to put work and resources into improving their own neighbourhoods. So if there are groups of neighbours who want to get together to build something in a nearby park: I’d love to chat to see if and how they can be supported. I’d also like to highlight the Community Improvement Grant which is a City program created to support projects like this. Signature Falls is one Neighbourhood Association that has used it in the past for their rink.
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