Gazette Q & A (Consolidated for your convenience):
1.) Following the removal of the Grandin name from municipal assets, how would reconciliation play a part in your role, if elected?
Laws can help in reconciliation, but they can also be divisive. Healing needs to be more than rules. Real change happens when people spend time together. When we work, play, and learn side by side, we build trust and understanding. As your representative, I will support non-profit organizations and community programs that bring people together. By joining good laws with strong community ties, we can turn reconciliation into something real in everyday life.
2.) How important is regional collaboration to you in the absence of the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board, and how do you see it impacting your role?
Regional collaboration (i.e.: bus services and road development) is very important to drive economic growth by getting employees to their jobs efficiently and quickly through a shared partnership. In order to keep costs lower, working together with other communities, such as Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, and Stony Plain is crucial. This includes marketing our region, working together for sporting events and collaborating on transportation.
3.) What is your stance on non-residential growth in an attempt to shift the tax burden in St. Albert?
Planning for more industrial and commercial areas like Riel Park and Campbell Business Park allow non-residential areas to be developed, offsetting the residential tax burden. We need to be competitive (taxes, land values, utilities) to bring businesses here, but our local residents have the skill set to make businesses a success long term.
4.) How do you feel St. Albert should handle policing services, given uncertainty in the contract situation between the federal government and the RCMP, as well as the creation of Alberta’s provincial police service?
I believe that the RCMP is best suited to handle policing in St. Albert. A nation-wide integrated police force has deeper resources, better training, and world class officers. Do we really want discount police services in St. Albert?
5.) How will you balance the role of a councillor now that it’s considered a full-time job with a 30 per cent pay increase over last term?
The role of city councillor will be my primary focus. It is a full time job and it needs to be treated as such.
6.) What are some of your top traffic concerns in St. Albert and how would you like to see them addressed?
Requesting the City Manager (when and where possible) to only work on one road (at the same time) crossing the Sturgeon River in order to minimize the impact to St. Albert's drivers.
Improved public transit (through better scheduling).
Continuing to widen Ray Gibbon Drive
Setting aside road allowance for Ray Gibbon to eventually connect to highway 2 north of St. Albert
Creating better traffic light timing on our streets.
7.) How would you like to see the servicing issue in the city’s northeast solved? And do you think council should conduct a review of Flourish, the city’s Municipal Development Plan (MDP)?
The servicing issue in the city’s northeast was caused by undersizing the stormwater, sewage, and water infrastructure capacity when developing Erin Ridge North and Oakmont because it was not designed to handle the extra load of continued development in Erin Ridge North and Jensen Lakes. The only way to solve it is to slow down future development until we can get the current capacity upsized to handle the drainage needs now and into the future. See next answer re: “Flourish”.
8.) What do you think needs to be done to support more affordable housing choices and developments in St. Albert?
Flourish, the city’s Municipal Development Plan (MDP) contains 2 sections that affect affordable housing and developments “7.1. Housing Diversity” and “7.2. Housing for Everyone”. The entire MDP should be reviewed by council at least once every 4-years to make sure that the goals contained therein align with the needs of St. Albert Residents. When properly implemented the goals in the MDP will help supply more affordable housing choices in St. Albert ... see: pages 45 and 46 of the MDP at stalbert.ca/site/assets/files/6503/schedule_a_mdp_document_bylaw20_2020.pdf
9.) What unique qualities do you bring to the role of either mayor or councillor that makes you the ideal choice for voters?
I have a deep love for St. Albert having raised my family here. I have a blend of over 35 years of business experience including accounting, sales and project management. I have personally dealt with annual budgets up to 64 million dollars, and I can relate to how those budgets affect the general residents here in St. Albert. This unique blend of skills will allow me to assist in planning for the future without sacrificing our needs today.
10.) What is your stance on residential infills?
Residential infills require a balance between growth and the current feel of the community. I don’t support large duplexes or fourplexes replacing single family homes unless it fits in with the neighborhood.
I do support building on vacant lots (i.e.: downtown) to utilize the land more fully, as long as we are not sacrificing park spaces to do so. Ultimately, infills need to be supported by the surrounding community.
11.) What is your stance on the province inserting itself into municipal politics? For example: the banning of electronic voting tabulators in Bill 20 as well as the move to eliminate municipal codes of conduct?
I don’t believe that the province should be inserting itself into municipal politics. Banning of electronic voting tabulators is an unnecessary step that increases the costs of running elections. Recounts should be done manually, but most elections would be streamlined by using computerized means. Generally speaking, municipal codes of conduct are good to have. Why eliminate them?
12.) With Alberta seeing record breaking heat over the past summer, what do you think the city can do to continue to address its impacts on the climate?
As rooftops get redone on city buildings, it would make sense to add solar panels to reduce the city’s operating costs. This would also reduce the impacts on the climate. By only doing this as rooftops get resurfaced, the costs can easily be managed in smaller amounts (compared to the Solar Farm proposal that city council reviewed in 2021).
I have never supported a solar farm as a city run business. St. Albert's 2021 Solar Farm Proposal was a financially unsustainable idea as it would have increased the debt load of the city to an unacceptable degree.
