My main goal for the city of St. Albert is to create and support a Sustainable Future. This means ensuring our children and grandchildren will be able to afford and enjoy living in St. Albert the way we have. We can do this by working toward the following smaller goals:
1. Reducing personal property taxes through cutting costs and attracting industries/businesses to set up in St. Albert so they can pay more of the tax burden.
2. Improving St. Albert’s Transportation through improved public transit, widening Ray Gibbon Drive and creating better traffic light timing on our streets.
3. Improving St. Albert’s Education & Recreational Opportunities by:
adding a second branch library (when it is truly needed)
adding a second indoor swimming pool capable of hosting swimming lessons
adding additional sheets of ice for hockey and skating
The challenge to item 3 is paying for these wonderful facilities!
I believe that the first way is to start accruing funds for them by raising funds outside of property taxes, preferably using a professional fund raiser (like the wonderful people who plan many events for STARS® Air Ambulance).
The second and less glamorous way is to cut back on our spending and do one project at a time. After all, there is no way we could possibly afford to do everything right now!
Please note that there are also changes to the Municipal Government Act which will ensure that new construction developments will pay much more toward new facilities.
