Dan Wong's Blog

PC Party Leadership Race for GP-Smoky

2012-01-28T10:51:00.001-08:00

PC Leadership Nomination for Grande Prairie-Smoky

Whether you’re a supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party or not, voting in this leadership race is a good idea because it allows you to choose a potential future MLA without jeopardizing your own political views -- you aren’t putting in a competitive vote against any other political party.

In order to vote, you need to be a Canadian citizen, living in the GP-Smoky constituency area and 16 years of age or older. You also need to purchase a membership to the PC Party, which will cost $5.

The GP-Smoky constituency covers a huge geographic area from Grande Prairie to beyond Fox Creek. City of Grande Prairie residents need to live north of the tracks on 98th Avenue to be eligible. The voting station is at the Grande Prairie Inn. You can check by postal code whether or not you live in the right area, http://streetkey.elections.ab.ca/skSearchPostal.cfm.

Voting is done on a preferential ballot, so voters can select a first and second choice. Your second choice vote will come into effect after the votes determine who the top two choices are. The second choice votes from the unsuccessful candidate(s) will then be added to the votes of the top two candidates.

We have 3 really great candidates for the leadership race. Here’s a summary of the background for the political candidates that I’ve compiled (in alphabetical order). I apologize in advance if I’ve missed any important information.

Tom Burton
Tom has lived in the DeBolt area since 1976. He is currently a heavy equipment operator, but his former occupations include surveyor, owner/operator of a service station and restaurant and general manager for the local agricultural society. His background includes being a volunteer member of the DeBolt Fire and Rescue.

As a Councillor with the MD of Greenview for the past 11 years, Tom is passionate about working for the region. He is also Director of district 4 for the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, a provincial advocacy group. His many years on council have provided him the opportunity to sit on many boards and committees dealing with provincial issues such as the Alberta Rural Utilities Association, AUMA/AAMDC Strategic Alliance Operating Committee, Endangered Species Conservation Committee, Fire Services Advisory Committee, FireSmart–Partners in Protection, Forest Protection Advisory Committee, Justice Policy Advisory Committee, Used Oil Management Association, and Cabinet Policy Committees, to name a few.

Tom would like to represent the regional on issues like education, health care, the oil and gas industry, forestry and agriculture. His only promise is to work to the best of his ability and for the people.

Everett McDonald
Everett was raised in the Grande Prairie area, on a farm east of the city. His family has roots in this area that date back 100 years. He has over 19 years experience on council for the County of Grande Prairie, including 8 years as Reeve. Everett currently serves as Chair of the Northern Alberta Elected Leaders, a group of urban and rural leaders who meet to discuss issues important to northern communities. He has sat on various boards throughout his political career.

Everett has demonstrated strong leadership at the County of Grande Prairie, poising the County as one of the strongest municipalities in Alberta. He has demonstrated successful lobbying at the provincial government level. He believes his experience as a leader in a rural municipality will translate over well into regional, representing both urban and rural, if elected into the position of MLA.

Top priorities for this candidate include health care, MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiative) Grant funding, simplifying agriculture program forms, improving seniors’ quality of life, fiscal responsibility, responsible development of resources, and the fight against the mountain pine beetle infestation.

Tab Pollock
Tab grew up in the city of Grande Prairie and is involved in organizations such as Rotary, Ducks Unlimited, Scouts, Minor Hockey as a coach, and the Community Foundation of Greater Grande Prairie. He’s a past chair of the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce and on the executive of the Alberta Chamber of Commerce. He is a small business owner with 22 years of retail business experience and is a Dale Carnegie Trainer of business and leadership programs.

Tab is a young, innovative leader who has connections to influential people at the provincial government level. He has little in the way of a political background, which he feels is a strength, in providing the region with a strong voice. His background is urban with family roots in rural Alberta, which would provide him with a balanced point of view.

Priorities for Tab’s campaign include strengthening the economy, health care, education, funding for municipalities, technology for voting, and collaboration between different levels of government.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL NOMINEES! We have 3 great choices and can’t really go wrong with any of them.

Developing a Brand for Grande Prairie

2011-04-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

There has been quite an uproar in the community over the development of the new city slogan. Many have expressed issues with the proposed slogan, some feel that the City should have hired a local company to develop the brand and others feel that the process is a waste of money. I’ll try to address each of these issues.

Branding is the process of creating an image for an organization, company, product or community that allows you to more easily describe a key message you want to relay. In the case of Grande Prairie, the brand that’s adopted should be both an honest depiction of the community today as well as reflecting an image of where we would like to be in the future. Branding is not necessarily something that is mandatory for an organization to do, however, every organization, business and agency gets “branded” whether they like it or not. I feel that if it’s at all possible, it’s wiser to help direct that brand rather than allow it to develop in an uncontrolled manner. Branding also has the potential to attract people and businesses to your community, depending on how well you market the brand.

City Council made the decision almost 2 years ago to develop a brand for Grande Prairie. There are hundreds of cities around the world that have already done this with varying degrees of success. Since the process began, there have been a number of public open houses and focus group meetings to allow for public input. The branding document that was produced, was created based on those meetings and was subsequently adopted by City Council. This document made up the bulk of the work and the tag line (or slogan) and logo, were to be the next steps. It’s important at this time to mention that the city’s nickname, Swan City, is not going to be replaced, nor is the City crest. Those 2 elements are part of the city image, but aren’t necessarily affected by the tag line and logo.

In terms of hiring local companies for this, I wish it were possible. The major challenge we have when choosing proposals for these types of projects is that the City is not allowed to favour local companies over others that bid. There is provincial legislation that allows for fair competition, through the TILMA agreement, and the City could face fines for breaching this legislation.

As for the cost of the branding process, I believe the budget was a total of $65,000 by the time the entire process is completed. At this time, the costs have been “frozen” until the City can get past the slogan and logo phase. There are a few members of the public who are concerned over the costs on a go forward basis. City Council has chosen to keep the costs at a minimal level. Since we aren’t necessarily replacing the City’s crest, the new logo will only be replaced on business cards, letterhead, decaling and so on, when the current stock runs out or in the normal process of replacement. The phasing in allows us to keep additional costs at a bare minimum.

The new slogan and logo has not been decided on at this point and will unlikely go through in its current form. The consultant, GDS, has done a good job at gathering public input and developing the “brand promise” to date. The tag line and logo is a small part in the entire process, but has caused us to reach a bit of a sticking point. As an organization, the City is welcoming additional input from residents to try to overcome some of the differences in opinions. We’ve also changed the process to get all of council’s input in on one session instead of just going to committee. It means a little more work and attention from Council, but this seems to be fairly important to many in the community. In fairness, there are a lot of other programs and issues that Council and staff have been working on that have taken priority over choosing a new slogan. Council has decided to dedicate a working session on the slogan to have one final look at all the input that’s been received and review it in the context of the brand promise that was developed. I expect that a decision will be made and we’ll move on to the final steps.

As a final bit of information, here’s and excerpt from the branding document that summarizes the brand promise that was developed:

“In Grande Prairie, you will have opportunities to achieve your dream. In Grande Prairie there is a willingness to try new things. Your creativity and ingenuity will be received with an open mind. We offer an environment that nurtures your innovative spirit, and a friendly nature to help you achieve your goals.”

Continued Snow Removal Efforts

2011-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Monday Feb. 14, 2011:

CREWS ARE PRESENTLY REMOVING WINDROWS & SNOW PILES.

MONDAY, FEB. 14: Crystal Ridge, Poplar Drive & South Patterson areas.

TUESDAY, FEB. 15: Lakeland & Crystal Lake Drive areas

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Working around the clock with city crews and contractors, it took nearly 2-1/2 weeks to clear the snow from Grande Prairie streets after the extreme snowfall condition in the middle of January. This was a significant shortening of usual 5-6 weeks to get around to every street in the city under "normal" snowfall conditions. Council is now looking to review the service performance and look for ways to increase efficiencies and improve the process. I have to give credit to all those who were involved in the snow clearing. They worked for 3 weeks straight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get the job done.

Other cities experienced something similar this winter and dealt with their share of challenges. One of the things that needs to be standardized is the reporting on progress and explanation of service levels. Many cities were reporting that they were able to clear their streets in about 4 days. In reality, they were clearing only their major arteries and collector roads. Our city was also able to get these cleared under 5 days. It's the residential snow removal that took most of the time.

In additional to snow clearing, we were left with 35,000 to 40,000 truck loads of snow in the windrows that are still being removed, which is a very timely process. Major collector roads were the first priority, followed by school zone and then bus routes. The crews are at approximately 60% now and working their way through residential neighbourhoods.

Public Works Review of Snow Removal Efforts

2011-02-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

The Public Works Committee has asked for a review of the snow removal policy and procedures from city administration. We will discuss ways to improve the efforts in the future through support to staff, communications, addressing efficiencies, adding equipment, etc. I believe the aim of the review should also be to define a level of service that is acceptable during a “normal” winter as well as defining an emergency procedure for “extreme” conditions. This is a complex issue that needs to be addressed.

Currently, the snow removal system takes about 6 weeks to make one cycle throughout the city. The process indicates that Priority 1 (main collectors and arterial roads) and Priority 2 (bus routes) be completed first as each of these types of roads handle thousands of traffic movements a day. Once these roads are passable, residential snow plowing is resumed.

On January 18th, the city received an extreme storm that broke a 60 year record for snowfall. The efforts to remove this amount of snow will be completed by Thursday, Feb. 3rd, approximately 2-1/2 after the storm. Priority 1 roads took 2 days to clear and Priority 2 roads took another 3 days. Those roads represent just over 50% of the internal city roads. Residential snow removal didn’t begin until the 6th day, following this event and takes a lot longer due to the service levels the city has adopted. Another result of the snowfall was approximately 30,000 truckloads of windrows that will need to be removed and hauled to a provincially approved snow dump site. With one truck only able to make about 20 loads per 10 hour shift, the process will be a long one, even with the dozen trucks that are on hand.

The current budget for snow removal is about $6 million per year and there is a reserve that can be accessed if needed. I believe that we can be a little more efficient in our processes, but the level of service will need to be adjusted. For example, we currently have the crews remove snow from the end of driveways. In order to get around the city faster, this practice will need to be suspended during emergencies. Also, years of poor subdivision developments have created roads that are difficult for the snow removal crews (narrow streets and cul-de-sacs). Public cooperation is also required to make our system more efficient. We still have residents that refuse to move their vehicles from the road when the signs go up for snow removal. Finally, I think we need a couple more pieces of equipment to optimize our efforts.

A major delay in our snow removal efforts is our snow dump site which is situated on Park Road, just west of 92nd street. The site is about halfway along a road that has limited accesses, creating about a mile of "dead" haul time in both directions. A second site on the north west side of the city is being considered. Cost is a major factor in getting this up and running since the site must be engineered to Alberta Environment standards. According to provincial regulations, snow may be pushed to the boulevard for storage and/or windrowed along the street. Once it is collected in a truck, it's deemed a hazardous material and must be stored as such.

We’re currently taking input from residents on this topic and will consider suggestions on how to improve the city’s snow removal, keeping in mind that additional equipment and/or service levels will impact taxes. The review will provide us with more information to act upon. I think a good piece of input to consider is how much snow removal is expected by residents in a normal year – one, two, three or four times per winter. I think we currently get an average of two clearings a year around the residential neighborhoods. If people want more, we should set a realistic number as a target and find out how much that will cost.

Finalizing the Snow Removal Since the Storm

2011-02-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

February 2, 2011

Residential Campaign Nearing End

Over the next two days, the last areas needing service following the record snowfall in mid-January will be ploughed.

These include the Lakeland, Crystal Lake, South Patterson and Country Club areas. Garbage pickup is today in the two southern neighbourhoods and residents are asked to remove their carts as soon as possible after collection.

“The warmer weather is helpful as it means the ice releases easier and we can get down to the pavement faster,” says Robert Carroll, Transportation Services Manager. “We are also working our way through many back alleys and that will continue.”

Once the residential areas are complete, the focus will be on removing snow piles and windrows. There is up to 20,000 truckloads of snow to haul away.

Residents are asked to clear any catch basins they see with snow and ice build up or if they are unable to, call the Transportation Services Department at 780.538.0354.

At week’s end, equipment will go through much-needed servicing in advance of anticipated weekend snow.

City and contract crews have been working around the clock to reach all residential areas as soon as possible.

“Seeing the end of this major campaign is a relief for the community,” says Mayor Bill Given. “We appreciate the patience of residents and recognize there has been inconvenience as snow ploughing operations have worked to get the City back up to speed.”

Snow Removal Update

2011-01-27T17:56:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest City of Grande Prairie media release on snow removal. I'll provide a debrief later.
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Feb.1, 2011

Crystal Ridge and South Patterson Neighbourhoods Ploughed Today

Crystal Ridge and the South Patterson neighbourhoods are on today’s schedule for snow ploughing as City and contract crews continue to clean up after the mid-January record snowfall.

Lakeland, Crystal Lake and the Country Club areas follow with completion expected Thursday.

Clearing of back alleys throughout the City is ongoing with high volume spots and identified problem areas taking top priority.

“Warmer weather throughout the week will make it easier on equipment and speed up operations,” says Robert Carroll, Transportation Services Manager. “We ask residents to help our crews monitoring catch basins by watching for any build up of snow and ice. If they are unable to clear them, we ask they call us at 780.538.0354.”

Snow hauling work is occurring simultaneously between 10 p.m. and 2 p.m. Removal of snow piles has concentrated on bus routes and school zones. Other crews have been ploughing trails.

“The forecast for the next few days is on our side as we reach the final stages of this campaign addressing the mid-January major weather event,” says Mayor Bill Given. “We’re glad to see the entire City will be back functioning smoothly.”

Twenty pieces of contracted equipment are in use, doubling the size City of Grande Prairie forces involved in the effort to clear residential streets. Snow removal and ice control costs $6 million in 2010. In addition, there is a snow removal reserve of $2.5 million that can be accessed.

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January 27, 2011

Pinnacle and Hillcrest Areas Focus of Thursday’s Snow Clearing

Snow ploughing efforts addressing the mid-January record snowfall are centred in the Pinnacle and Hillside residential areas today.

Wednesday, crews were able to complete Mission Heights, Mountview and Copperwood.

Milder conditions have been a boon, helping to decrease the size of windrows. However, slippery streets have meant that sanding and salting needed to occur.

“Our staff are monitoring drainage issues, checking out typical areas where we need to clear catch basins,” says Robert Carroll, Transportation Services Manager. “There are hundreds of catch basins in the City and we appreciate residents clearing them of ice and snow if they see them covered. If this is not possible, we encourage people to call us at 780.538.0354.

“Once the last areas that hadn’t received service before the major snowfall are cleared, we will return to the neighbourhoods that had a visit from crews earlier and resume our regular routine.”

Twenty pieces of contracted equipment are in use, doubling the size City of Grande Prairie forces involved in the effort to clear residential streets. The City has a $6 million snow removal and ice control budget. In addition, there is a snow removal reserve of $2.5 million that can be accessed.

Crews are working around the clock and will continue until all residential areas are caught up to. In addition to ploughing, staff are working to avoid springtime issues by carefully placing snow piles away from drainage. As well, care is taken to minimize the potential for property damage.

“We continue to work through the accumulation in residential areas as fast as we can,” says Mayor Bill Given. “Handling the extreme weather event is the top priority for Council and Administration. We appreciate some residents are anxious to see a plough on their street and we look forward to all areas being cleared.”

Value of Conferences and Planning Sessions

2010-10-10T14:30:00.001-07:00

The value of conferences and strategic planning sessions has come into question by some members of public. Strategic planning sessions, once called “retreats” have especially been troublesome for members of City Council who are worried about the perception and connotations associated with the idea. I’d like to provide my perspective on the topic.

First of all, conferences and planning sessions are a valuable tool that all municipalities participate in. Corporations also make use of these types of meetings as a method of exchanging information, gaining education, networking and comparing performance with others. Strategic planning sessions or business planning sessions are utilized to gather all senior levels of an organization together to find better ways to work towards short and long term goals as well as re-evaluate the vision for the organization. Team building is also an essential part of these sessions. When considering the value in the meetings, one needs to consider whether or not it would be a good idea for the City of Grande Prairie to not participate in them when all other municipalities in the world find them extremely valuable.

Secondly, I feel Grande Prairie needs representation at conferences, not only for education, but to provide a voice for our city. Provincial Ministers and MLAs are typically in attendance as well as Federal MPs. Conferences are good for providing valuable opportunities to develop relationships between City officials and other levels of government. It may or may not be a good time to lobby a Provincial Minister, but the influence of a good impression goes a long way.

In exchanging information with other municipalities, conferences are invaluable for this opportunity. Educational sessions provide time to with other elected officials to discuss common issues and dinner breaks allow for candid conversations about what is working well and what is not.

Like all things in this world, conferences and strategic planning sessions cost money. There are some taxpayers who may feel that we are spending an unusually large sum for these meetings. For example, the annual strategic planning sessions cost around $25,000 for approximately 2-1/2 days worth of meetings. Participating in these meetings are all members of council, senior administration and a facilitator (about 18 people). These meetings have typically been held out of the city, so there is the cost of meeting rooms, hotels, travel and subsistence, as well as per diems for members of council.

In order to judge whether or not we get value out of this meeting, let’s analyze the costs versus the benefits. It’s difficult to dispute the value of conferences if they are utilized by the right people. The city has benefitted from hundred of thousands of dollars worth of grants directly identified through conference participation.

As for the strategic planning session example, we need to look at that from a corporate perspective. Why? The city (not including school taxes and interdepartmental transfers) runs on a cash budget of approximately $110 million per year. Of that amount, about $70 million comes from property taxes. This means that about 40% of the city’s operational funding comes from corporate type sources, like permits, fees, grants, etc. At $50 million per year, this makes the City one of the largest businesses in Grande Prairie. An organization that manages $120 million per year and spends about $25,000 (0.021%) to ensure that it is growing in a health direction is probably not abusing its spending privileges. As a business that earns $50 million per year, the $25,000 (0.05%) expenditure is also reasonable. What does this mean to the average taxpayer? It means that, for an average household that pays $3000/yr in property taxes that about 63 cents goes towards the strategic planning session. On a side note, that same taxpayer puts about $9 towards all of Council’s salaries.

Curbside Recycling Issues

2010-10-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

There’s been some discussion over the curbside recycling program and whether or not the additional $4.39 charge for the service is fair, given the fact that we all already pay $7.82 in recycling charges in the city.

I have to admit that I may have mistakenly given bad information regarding the current service. In the Daily Herald Tribune article, it is implied that the entire $7.82 fee goes to Recycle Plus, when in fact that isn’t true. The fee is a combination of efforts between Aquatera and Recycle Plus. Aquatera runs the landfill, Eco-Centre and is in charge of managing the other recycle depots. Recycle Plus collects the material from the depots (blue bin locations) and processes the recyclables by compacting, sorting, transporting and sometimes selling the processed goods.

Recycle Plus has a contract in place with Aquatera for the depot service until the end of 2012. The value of the contract varies depending on how much material is processed. Recycle Plus thinks that the average per household is about $3 per month, while Aquatera feels that the number is closer to $4.50 per household per month.

The additional costs to the consumer are for running recycling services at the Eco Centre and the city landfill. On top of the cardboard, paper, plastic, tin, etc. that we are allowed to recycle in the blue bins, Aquatera offers additional services. Aquatera collects fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, paint, oil and other hazardous material. They also take larger appliances at the landfill and e-waste. The collection and processing of this material also has a cost associated with it.

When I mentioned in the paper that after 2012 some of the costs would drop off, I was referring to the Recycle Plus portion and not the remaining Aquatera portion. I was a little embarrassed that I didn’t make myself clear. It’s difficult when you only have a few minutes after a Council Meeting to provide information to the media.

In any case, there is a little controversy over the overlapping service between implementing the curbside program and the expiration of the Recycle Plus contract. Note that Recycle Plus is mainly responsible for the processing of the collected material. The new curbside program would be awarded to a different company who plans to collect the material and send it to a processing facility in a larger centre (Edmonton, Calgary or Red Deer). What I’ve been told is that these other facilities are offering much lower processing costs and the savings are passed onto our residents. That is why Aquatera has chosen not to continue the contract with Recycle Plus.

As for the period of overlap, residents would be asked to pay a redundant $3 or $4.00 per month to have both services in operation for a while. I believe that some overlap is required anytime you switch from one service to another. Perhaps the time period for this overlap is too long. I admit that I was quite excited about the prospect of curbside recycling that I probably didn’t give as much attention to the reaction of the fees by the general public. The way I saw it, we spend more than $3 a month on gas driving to and from the recycling depot in my household. Also, the surveys showed that over 80% of the public wanted this type of convenient service. Since this motion passed unanimously, I assume that others on Council felt similarly.

I believe that we should look for opportunities to encourage recycling and make recycling more accessible to the community. Diversion of waste from our landfill will save us millions of dollars in the future by not having to find a new landfill site and not having to build and manage that site. However, this is not an initiative that would suffer from a short delay. I would be open to delaying implementation of the curbside recycling program by a year, until the spring of 2012. This would be a good compromise for everyone and would give us time to properly deal with the current depots (a meeting with Aquatera indicated that delaying for a year would not be advisable since Council already passed the motion to go ahead -- it was worth asking though ~ Nov. 2010). It wouldn’t make sense to delay it any further than that because we don’t want to go without recycling services and the spring is the best time to start a new program. That being said, it may not be possible to make that change since the new council may not be in place before the new contract is signed. Motions of council are acted on as soon as they are passed and the decision to go ahead has been made.

Curbside Recycling

2010-10-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Curbside recycling is an initiative that residents and elected officials have collectively advocated for and is finally becoming a reality in Grande Prairie. Aquatera and Recycle Plus have both conducted extensive surveys that show a demand by over 80% of respondents in favour of curbside recycling. Curbside recycling has many benefits to a community. Not only will we divert more recyclable material from the landfill, but it encourages a recycling mentality from people who receive the service. Hopefully, they will carry those habits into their workplace, which is where recycling will make a major impact since commercial waste makes up over 75% of all material going to the landfill. In any case, residents will be happy that they will no longer have to burn fossil fuels in order to do their recycling.

This matter comes forward to City Council on Monday, October 4th. Council will decide on the type of container system and the consider whether or not the associated cost will be acceptable to residents. As this is a new service, there is a price tag associated with it. I believe the additional cost is just under $5 per household for weekly curbside recycling using a biodegradable blue bag system.

COUNCIL REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

2010-10-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Sept. 9th – Community Futures Board Meeting
- Western Economic Diversification has not yet provided Community Futures with a new 5 year contract. As part of the last federal budget, they were only able to provide funding for 1 year, with a promise to re-address the funding within the next year.
- Without funding, the organization would be at risk of shutting down, however we remain optimistic the organization will be seen as a success. In the meantime, we continue to operate as usual and hope that funding in Western Canada is approved shortly.
- With the help of our grant specialist, the Wapiti Corridor Planning Society received a $75,000 CIP grant to help develop the multi-use plan along the Wapiti River.
- The Agri-Food Value Chain Project is well under way. They are currently in the interview stage with people in agriculture industry, matching them up with other businesses and individuals and developing business plans to take them to the next level. Only a few are ready to go, but there are over 100 individuals to be interviewed.
- Community Futures has also helped to set up the contracts for the Tourism Destination Marketing Fund project. By next spring we should see an Tourism Economic Impact Study and a website to allow for online reservations for owners and operators of any tourist destination facility in the region.

Wednesday, Sept. 8th & Thursday, Sept. 9th – Alberta CARE Conference at the Holiday Inn.
- Successful conference with over 180 elected officials, municipal staff and recycling facility operators in attendance from all over the province.

Friday, Sept. 10th – Tender Opening at City Hall

Saturday, Sept. 11th – South Fire Hall for the Firefighter’s Memorial commemorating the fallen firefighters of 911 and fallen firefighters across Canada.

Sunday, Sept. 12th – Multiplex One Year Out Celebration at the Coca Cola Centre.

Tuesday, Sept. 14th – Rotary Food Bank Drive for the Salvation Army.
- collected over 102,000 items. Increase of 25% over the previous year, which was a 60% increase over the year before that.

Wednesday, Sept. 15th – Community Knowledge Campus Steering Committee Meeting

Thursday, Sept. 16th – Multiplex Regional Resource Committee Meeting.

Thursday, Sept. 16th – Holiday Inn Relaunch Party.
- launch of their new look.
- Pacrim hospitality has renovated the rooms in the Holiday Inn and is planning to re-invent the restaurant in the future.
- Extended a thank you to the City for hosting the Alberta CARE conference in their facility.

Friday, Sept. 17th – GP Airport for the Airport Expansion Celebration.
- Congratulations to the Chairman Gustafson and the rest of the Airport Commission on a much needed and successful expansion project.

Friday, Sept. 17th – Tender Opening at City Hall

Saturday, Sept. 18th – Attended the Community Foundation Gala as a volunteer wine steward.
- The CF plays an integral part in our city by promoting philanthropy throughout the community. Through the CF, anyone can start a permanent community endowment fund to provide grants to individual or community group in need. The category can range from arts, to sports, to education. Saturday night was an excellent event and I’d like to congratulate new board chair Brent Oilund, E.D. Tracey Vavrek and the staff of the CF on a successful evening.

Sunday, Sept. 19th – Volunteered for the Terry Fox Run at Muskoseepi Park and listened to the Mayor deliver a speech about Terry Fox to kick off the event.

Monday, Sept. 20th – City Hall to meet the other candidates for the Oct. 18th election.
- today was the deadline for nomination forms to be submitted by candidates running for Alderman and Mayor. I wish all the candidates the best of luck.

Rotary 2010

2010-06-06T20:20:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy year, but I always make sure that Rotary is a part of my life. This is the first year that I've had a lot of trouble making all the meetings. I've been able to keep up with make-up meetings and am currently only 2 meetings short of perfect attendance. I plan to finish this year at 100%.

At the start of this year, I had worked on a grant application to send 300 wheel chairs to non-profit organizations is Chile. The grant was approved and we have begun ordering the chairs. Part of the project will involve a group of us traveling to South America and delivering the chairs over 900km to a few different communities. This is such a heart warming experience that I'm not sure it's even fair to call it work.

I was also able to continue hosting the poker fun night for the club. Our Merv Crouse Memorial Poker Fellowship is a great event that I've been running for the last 2 years. Merv was a great Rotarian and friend who gave of his time whenever he could. He exemplified our motto "Service Above Self" and this tournament is a way that we can remember him and honor his memory in the company of fellow Rotarians from all 3 Rotary Clubs and the Rotaract Club.

The Rotary Greenathon was a great experience this year as well. The weather was awesome an I was able to help clean up our city.

Taxes

2010-06-06T20:09:00.001-07:00

I agree with many of the concerns out there that city taxes are high and continued increases are not acceptable, however, I don’t agree that taxes are high because of over spending by council. Taxes need to keep up with basic inflation, which was around 4.5% from 2003 to 2008. Northern Alberta experienced inflationary rates at closer to 5.5% during the same period. This means that in order to keep up with inflation alone, taxes needed to go up by a minimum of 5.5% per year. In order to keep up with service demands and infrastructure needs, the actual tax increases were higher than that.

2009 was different because of the recession which saw near zero growth, and if anything, reduced inflation. However, due to shortfalls in provincial revenue, provincial grants were significantly lower than what was pledged. The City of Grande Prairie was forced to increase taxes in 2009 in order to make good on projects that had already begun. By 2010, council was able to adapt to the shortfalls and slow down in the economy. The tax increase was set at the decade’s record low of 2.8%.

When it comes to municipal taxes, it has become clear why the rates continually rise – the city of Grande Prairie has grown with an unhealthy mix of residential, commercial and industrial tax base. Also, many of the new residential subdivisions were designed to cost more operationally than previous neighborhoods.

Changes have been made to policies by this council so that future councils will have an easier time managing costs. The new Inter-municipal Development Plan (IDP) will provide the city with more land to increase our industrial tax base. Changes to the Municipal Development Plan (MDP) have ensured that new subdivision development will cheaper to manage in the way of snow removal and other operational costs. Electronic agendas will ensure that we don’t waste time and money on producing mounds of paper that council will need to sift through. Unfortunately, all of these changes will take time before residents will feel the impacts on their tax bills.

Don’t get me wrong, there will still be many challenges ahead. The need for a new RCMP building, recreational facilities, roads and other services will continue to be on the list of demands. Prioritizing is one way of dealing with the needs, but a more comprehensive and sustainable plan needs to be laid out. As a person understands city planning and politics, ideas of how to meet service demands while keeping taxes low become clearer and clearer. I have my own ideas of how to make this happen as do some of the other council members and future candidates. My suggestion to the public is to ensure your choice for mayor is able to provide you with a plan for the future of this city.

Aquatera

2010-06-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

The formation of Aquatera as a regional water utility has been a subject of much debate. There are many that would argue that Aquatera was the city’s biggest mistake because we gave away a resource that gave us a major competitive advantage over the County of Grande Prairie. I believe that this is a moot point because the decision was made and it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to go back on that decision. It is highly unlikely that the province would allow us shut down Aquatera without just cause.

The final reason as to why Aquatera was formed has to do with infrastructure needs. Our water treatment plant at the city was, and is still, in need of major upgrades. Since the city has a legislated debt limit, the financial needs would have exceeded what the city can borrow to upgrade the system. As a separate corporation, Aquatera is able to borrow on its own without affecting the city’s ability to take on its own capital projects.

Aquatera operations have also been a subject of controversy with the rate increases that seemingly happen every year. In additional, there have been allegations of inefficient operations and mismanagement of funds. The truth about Aquatera’s comes down to issues when the corporation was first formed.

The Unanimous Shareholder’s Agreement (USA) that was in place when Aquatera was formed had problems with it that led to financial difficulties with Aquatera’s operations.

Firstly, the USA called for many decision to be made that required unanimous consent from all shareholders. That means that all board members assigned by the City, County and town of Sexsmith need to agree unanimously on major decision, especially those regarding share structure, finances and governance. I don’t believe this was a good idea because it means that minority shareholders are given as much power as majority shareholders on key issues. However, it is no longer possible to change the USA on this issue because it is impossible to unanimous agreement to do so. After all, who would want to give up power they have been granted from day one?

Secondly, the payout of cash dividends hurt Aquatera financially because it essentially took all retained earning and paid them out to the shareholders. The shareholders then used that money to subsidize taxes in their municipalities. Without any retained earning, the Aquatera was unable cover shortfalls in revenue when the economy started to slow down. Since inception, Aquatera paid about $7 million to its shareholders. If it were allowed to keep even a portion of that money, we would have seen rates stabilize instead of steadily increase.

Governance structure was also a problem when Aquatera was first formed. Each shareholder was given a number of directors to assign based on the percentage of ownership in the corporation. All shareholders also had political representation on the board. In some cases, as with rate increases, the political members would not want to vote in favour of rate increases, regardless of whether they were necessary, because it contradicted their interests when they went back to council. Also, political members don’t necessarily have the expertise to run a utility corporation. To make things even more complicated, the political members on the board didn’t necessarily represent their shareholders – they represented a position that may or may not be supported by the rest of their respective councils.

As a final note, the allegation that corporation was running inefficiently may have been correct. This happens in every corporation and is periodically is self-corrected. The slow down in the economy has definitely forced Aquatera to tighten up their operations.

A committee made up of City, County and Sexsmith council representatives reviewed the USA and governance structure. I took part in these negotiations along with the mayor and other 2 other members of council. Through hard work, many of the problems identified above were resolved and will allow Aquatera in the future to operate without the financial problems that were plaguing them beforehand.

Reviewing the problems caused and encountered by Aquatera in the past, it’s easy to see how finances were responsible for the majority of them. For example, Aquatera was accused of competing with the private sector in roll-out bin waste hauling. The decision to enter this business to supplement income was necessary since financially, the corporation had no retained earnings to buffer its operations. Rate increases were imposed when revenues dropped due to environmental efforts by Aquatera in their public campaign to encourage reduction in water usage and promotion of recycling. Both these initiative cost the corporation in revenues when marked improvements in public behavior reduced the volumes in the landfill and the water meter. Again, with no way to retain earnings, the corporation had zero reaction time.

Other examples can been be sited, but I am fairly confident that many of those problems have been corrected in the recent negotiations. One of the main principles corrected is that Aquatera will be allowed to keep retained earnings and still be able to pay out dividends to its shareholders. The only issue that was not possible to resolve was the voting structure of the shareholders, which is to remain unanimous consent.

York Hotel Purchase

2010-06-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

There has been much discussion over the recent purchase of the York Hotel by the City of Grande Prairie. Both sides offer sound reasons, but I supported this decision mainly to get rid of the crime and take back our down town. City council followed the precedents set by two other municipalities. Edmonton purchased their York Hotel to demolish it in order to clean up the illegal activities in their city. Prince George did the same thing with their Prince George Hotel.

Once organized crime gets a foothold in your community, it is difficult to police them. These groups have been operating for decades and are good at getting around the criminal justice system. While there have been businesses that have been attempting to revive the downtown, we’ve all witnessed the degradation of the area around the old York Hotel. In the past few years, the situation had gone from bad to worse. Enforcement was costing this city and taking valuable resources away from other areas of the city that could use RCMP services.

The city had undergone the process of expropriating the York Hotel because of unpaid taxes. This is a one to two year process. During this time, the company that owned the hotel decided to file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy essentially stopped our process because ownership of the hotel would end up at the courts, who would put the hotel up for auction. We took into account a rumour that the organization that controlled this hotel was positioning them self to purchase it back from the bank at auction, which was not acceptable in our minds. Regardless, we felt as a council that a change of private ownership would not solve the issue of crime in that area and decided to follow the example of Edmonton and Prince George and take control of it ourselves.

After purchasing the hotel, there were three options that we explored:
1. Put the hotel on the open market and control who the buyer would be.
2. Renovate the hotel and allow a non-profit agency to use it for a different purpose – we would have issued an RFP (request for proposal) for this option.
3. Demolish the building, which would generate new options once completed.

After reviewing the state of the building, we decided it was best to demolish it. The condition of the building was fairly good above ground, but had several safety issues that needed to be dealt with in the basement including mechanical upgrades and hazardous health and safety concerns. In addition, the upper and lower level of the building was not up to code for current fire regulations, which would be a significant cost.

As a final note, there have been concerns over the fallout of the York Hotel closure. Drug dealers and prostitutes have relocated to other parts of the city and the homeless are also scattered throughout. These are issues that our RCMP are trying to deal with. It will be a difficult transition period for people that are affected, but I believe the ultimate result will make our city a better place to live in. I know this is little comfort for you if you have an undesirable element just outside your home. We must work together to solve this problem. These elements exist in our city and we are trying to rid ourselves of it. It was wrong when it existed around the York Hotel and it is equally wrong now that it has moved to a different location. The difference now is that they don’t have a safe haven to operate in. As the drug dealers and street walkers try to establish new places to operate, this should create an opportunity for enforcement to deal with it.

Crystal Centre Expansion

2010-06-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

The expansion is basically a $38 Million plan to expand seating to 5000, including corporate boxes, premium seating as well upgrading of the Bowes Crystal Garden event centre. Council referred this plan to the fall budget session so that the next council can decide the course of action.

To ensure that all information was provided to council, administration was asked to bring back additional information on the management structure options including the system used by Dawson Creek’s Encana Centre. The Encana Centre is getting many of the larger concerts. Part of the reason is that they have a larger facility and promoters are potentially able to make more money with the additional seating. The other reason is that they are part of a management group that is able to leverage their buying power by booking performers at several facilities.

There is also speculation that Grande Prairie could get a WHL team if we had a facility capable of seating over 5000 spectators. I heard unofficially that this is unlikely to happen, but we will definitely never be considered without a facility meeting a 5000 person capacity.

Concerns: parking, cost to taxpayers, operational costs, other needs in the community.

I'd be interested to hear some opinions from the public in regards to the potential of expanding this

Races for this year

2010-05-16T20:24:00.001-07:00

Brian Harms Memorial Race
I managed to get out to this event which was held on May 9th at South Bear Creek. Due to a cold, I had to scale down to 8km from the original 16km that I was planning to run. The cold has really set back my training. Still managed to finish strong at 45:05. There were over 200 runners and walkers at the event and was very well organized.

Brooklyn Half Marathon
This race was full and we really didn't expect to get in, but had ourselves on the standby list just in case. A few days ago, I received an email telling us that there were a few spots that opened up at the last minute. So on May 22nd, we'll be among the 10,000 other runners at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. We're really excited about the opportunity to run a race in different city. I sure hope my past training holds up because my most recent training hasn't been spectacular. To top it all off, I've booked some physiotherapy sessions in June to take care of some pain I'm experiencing in my right knee. Hope the leg holds up as well. Wish me luck.

Council Report for May 17, 2010

2010-05-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 4th – IDP Open Public Hearing

Wednesday, May 5th – Combative Sports Commission Training Session
- reviewed the procedures and operations for holding combative sports events
- commission members were trained on the expectations required of them prior to an event, during the event and shortly following an event.
- reviewed all the paperwork required to run each event.

Thursday, May 6th
- Continuation of training for Combative Sports Commission
- Multiplex Regional Resources Committee

Monday, May 10th – Information Exchange with Downtown Association

Tuesday, May 11th
- Attended Community Development Committee meeting to discuss the future of the Canada Games Arena.
- Arts Development Committee guidelines review for festival funding

Wednesday, May 12th – Materials Recycling Task Force

Friday, May 14th – Provincial funding announcement for CAIRN on the boulevard

Monday, May 17th – National Public Works Week Proclamation

Community Futures Board Meeting
- Agri-Food Value Chain Project is finally underway. The grant application went out in 2008 and was approved by RDI for funding. The RFPs deadline was earlier this year and a local company, Innovisions & Associates, was selected as the successful proponent. We are expecting our first disbursement from RDI very soon and will have the contractor start up this week.

- Go-Forth Institute is offering entrepreneurship training through the internet. We have a link on our website for this business service. The cost of the 3 module lessons is $299 and includes about 10 hours of training broken up into 20 minute sessions.

- We have partnered with Creating Pathways to deliver a workshop on May 20th called 12 Steps to Succession Planning. If you’re interested in attending the workshop, please call Holly Sorgen at 814-5340

Council Report for May 3, 2010

2010-05-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 21st – Reel Shorts Film Festival (Faces of Eve)

Thursday, April 22nd
- Earth Day Proclamation at the Montrose Cultural Centre. Mayor Logan presented the proclamation on behalf of the city and spoke about Environment Committee initiatives.
- Aquatera USA Review Committee
- Sierra Club and SPOC presented on renewable power and green jobs in Alberta.

Friday, April 23rd
- Council met with members of the Sierra Club to discuss their ideas around renewable power and green energy jobs. Encourage the public to look at their website at www.repoweralberta.ca.
- Opened a tender for the Montrose Cultural Centre security contract.

Wednesday, April 28th
- Council attended the flag raising ceremony for the CUPE Local Day of Mourning
- Met with Danielle Smith and her contingent from the Wildrose Alliance Party.
- Attended the GP Hospice Palliative Care Wine & Cheese

Thursday, April 29th – Attended the Chamber Business Showcase at the Crystal Centre. Many members of council also attended and the City of Grande Prairie had a number of booths set up. Kudos to everyone for their good work.

Saturday, May 1st – Participated with other members of council on the Rotary Greenathon. The kids did a wonderful job cleaning up the green spaces around the city. On that note, I wanted to remind everyone that it’s City Scrub week and we’re encouraging everyone to help make this city cleaner and greener by spending at least 20 minutes picking up trash around their businesses and homes.

Wapiti Corridor Planning Society
- Held 2 public stakeholder engagement meetings last week dealing with recreation groups: one for non-motorized trail users and the other for motorized trail users.
- The users identified areas just south of the city that they use. Most of the land in question is crown land, but some is not.
- They were also asked to identify issues they’ve encountered while using the land.
- At this point, we’re just collecting the data, not trying to come up with any solutions.
- There will be more at least a couple more opportunities for members of the public to get involved in the land use planning process.
- One of the most difficult challenges we’ll have is trying to engage the individual users that are not part of an organized club.
- There’ll be several more of these meetings coming up to have discussions with industries, leaseholder and other stakeholders.
- I’ll try to keep council up to date as the meetings occur.

Community Futures Board Meeting
- There’s an exciting opportunity for youth in Northern Alberta this summer.
- Nayec is the Northern Alberta Youth Entrepreneurship Camp which takes place from August 15-21.
- This year, it will take place at the Moose Lake Gospel Camp in Bonnyville, AB.
- NAYEC is a one-week business planning camp for youth ages 13 to 15 and designed to improve business, academic, and life skills through entrepreneurship.
- The camp creates an opportunity for regional youth to gain valuable, transferable entrepreneurial skills, such as creating business plans, while enjoying the traditional summer camp experience.
- Participants’ fees are covered by sponsors, so there is little or no cost to attend this camp.
- Youth must apply to be chosen to attend this camp. The deadline for applications is June 30th.
- More information is available by going to www.nayec.ca

GP Regional Tourism Association
- The Deh Cho Trvavel Connection officially launches on May 15th which is when visitors can pick their passports describing the entire trail.
- It’s approximately an 1,800km circuit that passes through cities, towns and campgrounds covering northern Alberta, BC and southern Northwest Territories.
- The road passes through Mile Zero on the Mackenzie Highway and Mile Zero on the Alaska Highway.
- The passport is part of a contest to encourage people to travel through the towns and cities along the way. Grande Prairie is one of 20 tourism centres where visitors can collect passport stamps.
- If you collect at least 4 from each province or territory, for a total of 12, you can send in your passport to be entered to win prizes in their Diamond in the Rough Contest.
- First prize is a genuine Polar Ice Diamond valued at over $7600.
- So on May 15th, pick up your passports at Visitor Information Desk at Centre 2000.

Council Remuneration to Remain Status Quo

2010-04-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

The final report and recommendations for City Council members remuneration was received and approved by council. I was in support of the findings and the work that the committee did. The recommendation was to keep the pay levels status quo, which is the right thing to do. I was, however, not supportive of the parameters that the committee was asked to stay within. We put together an intelligent committee that was capable of doing much more than just a cursory review. Unfortunately, they weren't given enough latitude to think and make recommendations "outside the box".

The comparison of salaries really only included Red Deer, Medicine Hat, St. Albert and Lethbridge because they were comparable sized cities. Information on Counties was looked at, but dismissed as not comparable. It is interesting to note that County council members make at least 50% more than City council members because of a "per diem" based system.

The summary for Grande Prairie was as follows:
- The Mayors in all 5 comparable cities were full-time and our Mayor was on the low end of the scale, but within reason.
- Alderman in all 5 cities earn a similar salary in the part-time role.
- The per diem amounts should stay the same at $100 per half day and $200 per full day.

The recommendation was to keep everything the same for the next council and allow for CPI adjustment (Consumer Price Index) to account for inflation.

I personally feel that the amount is sufficient for our current situation, but the way we calculate it needs to change in order to be fair for future councils. It took years to adjust council salaries to a decent level so the position would attract the best candidates from all sectors. I think the system still makes it prohibitive for some people to participate in municipal government at the level the citizens of the city deserve. Council is a busy job and every member is faced with the decision to participate in meetings and events or spend time at their other jobs. The possibility of missing out on valuable information that can sway a decision has been a reality. I have made the choice to make council my priority and have allowed my business to suffer a little because of it. Not everyone is able to make that choice.

A formula needs to be developed to encourage and compensate members of council for fulfilling their duties. In the private sector, if you don't show up for work, you don't get paid - if you put in extra time, you get paid more. Other municipalities have remuneration systems that are based on this principle. Working strictly on a per diem system is not effective either, but a blended system would offer the best of both worlds. City of GP council has a per diem policy in place, but it is very infrequently used. It is not used for meetings within the city boundaries and typically not even claimed if the meeting is held outside the city, but within the County of GP borders. The per diems kick in only when travel outside of the region is required.

My suggestion was that a blended system would include:
- adding a per meeting/event honorarium of a nominal amount like $25 which is not applied to any regular council or committee meetings.
- take the existing salary, average the workload based on the honorariums and reduce the base annual salary for council members so that the resulting totals stay the same for the first year.
- meetings over 4 hours be allowed a half day per diem regardless of their location, but must be approved beforehand.

I haven't worked out a new system in its entirety, but the basic concepts are captured. I believe we need to encourage and reward additional work/participation by Aldermen. We need a system that has a built-in ability for Council to grow into full-time positions with the proper checks and balances as well as transparency to the public.

The position is extremely rewarding on its own, but also takes more time than most people can appreciate. The meetings are only part of what Council must participate in. We must factor in the time spent corresponding with the public, dealing with issues or just passing along information. The meetings provide council members with information on specific issues, but time is also required to talk to public and bring back their views to the council table. I have made a point to work hard for the people I represent. I hope they see that. I work hard because of the strong work ethic that was passed down to me and because governing this city has become a passion for me. I don't do it for the money or the votes, but I need to hope that these will be taken into account and fairly distributed by some other means.

Vehicle Idling

2010-04-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

At the City Council meeting held on April 5th, the issue of vehicle idling was discussed. The initial recommendation to council was amended a couple of times and the follow motion, more or less, was passed.

1. Implement an Idle-Reduction education campaign involving the City Fleet and staff and develop a Vehicle/Equipment Idle Reduction Policy,
2. The City partner with fleets and organizations community wide, to implement an Idle Reduction education campaign,
3. Develop an Idle-Reduction education and awareness campaign for the general public, and,
4. In one years time, review the data gathered in steps 1 to 3 to pursue the question of developing a stand-alone Idle Reduction bylaw, and further,
5. Direct Administration provide a report regarding implementation of the four step Idling Reduction Program with priority given to the first three steps, for review at a future Protective Services Committee meeting.

I have a few comments regarding the motion that was passed. First of all, Ald. Bill Given was able to amend part 4 of the motion so that Council felt comfortable with the direction we were taking. The majority of us felt that developing an anti-idling bylaw would be premature at this point in time. Other municipalities are trying different things, but I don't feel they are really clear about what they are trying to accomplish.

I believe a bylaw should be written so that it is possible for the majority of citizens to comply with the law. In addition, any bylaw that we pass should also be enforceable by our Bylaw Officers. Finally, in the matter of environmental bylaws, I believe we should always try to educate the public and give them time to voluntary change their habits before we try to legislate behavior. Changing how people act can be a slow process, and we should allow people time to adapt when the behavior we are trying to change isn't directly and immediately harmful to another person.

My amendment to the motion dealt with the changing the wording from "idle-free" to "idle-reduction". I couldn't in good conscience direct our administration towards and "idle-free" policy. Although it is always a good idea to set your goals high, I believe you should always say what you mean and mean what you say. I personally tested a 3 minute maximum idle time this past winter. The fact that I keep my vehicle in a garage, made it easier on me than most people in the city. I did, however, park my vehicle overnight in the unprotected outdoors during minus 30 weather and also for several hours during the normal course of my life. I had little problems on many days, other than a little discomfort from the cold. There were issues that I discovered on over half the days I left my vehicle exposed to the elements.

In 3 minutes, I found that there were days that I physically could not remove the snow and ice from my vehicle in time. On extremely cold days, or days with a higher humidity level, my windows frosted over as I was driving away. This is a safety concern that could be a major issue as it happened on days that were no colder than about -15 degrees. This problem extended to rainy days when the rain would instantly freeze on the windshield if my vehicle wasn't properly warmed.

I was reminded that idling is also an issue in the summer when the temperatures get warm enough to require air conditioning in vehicles. People travel with children and pets in their vehicles and air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter are necessities of life. Without the proper research, it would be irresponsible for City Council to embark on legislation. My own research, as limited as it was, showed that it was difficult if not impossible to adhere to only 3 minutes of idling in the winter. Many exceptions would need to be in place to make this a reasonable request from our residents.

As for an "Idle-free" policy, I'm not sure that's even possible. I can see it working in the summer, but again, during a normal year in Grande Prairie, it doesn't seem reasonable. I had a hard enough time making a 3 minute timeline work. That's with a new vehicle, a garage and making a real effort to comply. Telling people that it is possible to be idle-free in Grande Prairie is mis-informing them.

I believe that we can all reduce whenever and where ever possible. Maybe our educational campaign needs to let people know information like: if you reduced your idling by just one minute every time you started your car, you would save yourself a tank of gas every year. I'm not sure if that information is true or not, but people need to know how it affects them personally.

Community Planning Association of Alberta 2010 Conference

2010-04-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

Highlights from the conference:

New Tools for Conservation Stewardship
The Alberta L.U.F. began as an initiative in 1973 Alberta Land Use Forum to address issues regarding the conservation of farm land. Alberta was one of the fastest growing provinces with cities consuming massive amounts of prime farm land which would be used to facilitate urban growth.
In examining land uses throughout Canada, it can be determined that approximately 5% of our livable area is either built on prime farm land or is immediately adjacent to prime farm land. With the majority of food producing lands being in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, it is up to the prairie provinces to look at protecting these lands for the future while still allowing responsible levels of growth.
As part of the L.U.F., the government developed Bill 36: Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) and passed it into law in June 2009. The purpose of ALSA is to promote responsible regional planning by addressing matters of environmental concern – watersheds, land uses, natural habitats, natural resources, etc. The bill identifies how environmental conservation can potentially conflict in land use with economic and social factors such as industrial development, urban sprawl, and acreage/sub-division development.
Conservation and stewardship tools came out of ALSA, but have not been fully developed and implemented. These tools are:
Conservation Easements – voluntary legal agreement (includes agricultural land) that protects land from development and fragmentation.
Conservation Offsets – legislation that offers a counterbalance to development of lands that have an ecological value (ex. Wetlands or forests) and requires developers replace or compensate for these lands.
Conservation Directives – regional plans that direct which lands are to be conserved. This will be rare situations, but land owners will be allowed to apply for compensation.
Transferable Development Credits (TDC) – tax credits that will be used to compensate land owners whose land falls in a conservation area. The credits are sold by land owners to developers who will have these TDC as incentives to intensity development within a development area. This system is currently in place in the U.S. and is seen as a successful model.
In order to best deal with stakeholder concerns, education and information must be offered to the public, municipal leaders, planners and developers. In addition, the process must be seen to be as transparent and as fair as possible. Discussion from conference attendees begged for simplicity in whatever system is implemented and some type of measurement system to track progress and measure successes. It was agreed that regional plans were necessary as a single plan is not able to meet the specific needs of each of the 7 areas identified in the L.U.F.
In summary, the tools identified in ALSA are intended to be “land owner friendly” and flexible tools to promote conservation as well as providing economic incentives to offer fair compensation to land owners.

A Watershed & Landscape Approach to Regional Planning
• Different landscapes (combination of grassland, forest, water, rock structure, etc.) require different management.
• Management needs to be coordinated across jurisdictional boundaries.
• Management units are best described as a combination of land and sub-basins (water).
• “Balancing” land uses is a motherhood statement that need to be more clearly defined. The statement only makes sense when it is expressed in a practical sense and illustrated spatially.
• Integral to determining a “balance” is a vision based on principles of conservation based around maintaining biodiversity of an area.
• Equally important is the need to protect and understand our watersheds (i.e. water quality) since every water source is a downstream product of another one.
• Don’t make the mistake of believing that increasing densities in urban development is the only solution. Increased densities create other problems such as production of “impenetrable lands” (runoff from roads, buildings and parking lots) that don’t promote re-absorption of water back to the soil and into the water table.
• Increased densities should be planned alongside of increased open spaces (parks). This has many benefits in terms of higher populations and increased recreational lands, but does not necessarily address the issue of urban sprawl because more than 10% green space is required (should be closer to 25% depending on population density).
• Conservation and development must be planned together, otherwise you may lose a natural ecological resource that can never be reclaimed again.

Balanced Rural Communities
There were a number of factors that were identified as making a rural community balanced and sustainable. The main factors include access to services (medical, utilities, recreation, education, police, fire, etc.), good infrastructure, tax base (industrial, commercial and residential), sense of community (events, volunteers, etc.), ability to attract and retain youth/residents, and ability to grow and adopt new technologies.

After much discussion on how rural communities address infrastructure needs and service deficiencies, the common thread behind the discussion was that rural communities don’t necessarily need to deliver the services/infrastructure themselves, as long as they have access to needs and wants within minutes of their community. The appeal of rural communities comes from the community bonds and friendships. Rural communities should focus on satisfying core needs and perhaps the one key element that makes them unique, but more importantly, focus on the sense of community that people are looking for in a rural environment.

Proposed Electoral Boundary Changes

2010-03-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

The provincial electoral boundary commission released a draft report with proposed changes in the boundaries for our MLA's. This is one of those issues that has many pros and cons when you compare the current system to the proposed system.

City Council voted a few months ago to advocate for a purely urban riding plus one that covers the city and the county. Currently, the boundary splits Grande Prairie in half between the north and south of the city and both MLA's also have the responsibility to represent their rural constituents. Thus we have the Grande Prairie-Smoky and Grande Prairie-Wapiti ridings. The proposed changes will have one MLA representing approximately 80% of the city and another MLA covering the remaining 20% plus a rural area almost twice the size, previously required to be covered by either of our MLA's. The drawing of these boundaries is loosely based on covering a population of 40,900 people.

As a city resident, it makes sense to have an MLA dedicated to representing urban concerns. The provincial government tends to favour rural municipalities in matters of funding. The only exceptions to this are Edmonton and Calgary, which are by far, the largest cities in Alberta and have the most (and therefore strongest) representation at the Alberta Legislature. What our government fails to understand is that Alberta is an urbanizing province that faces struggles in growth as our towns develop into sustainable cities. Rural counties rely on services provided by towns and cities who end up spending significant amounts of dollars in infrastructure development and maintenance.

So does the answer lie in changing our boundaries for the MLA's? In my opinion, I don't think that boundary changes will accomplish any significant changes for us in Grande Prairie. It's possible that the effect will be completely opposite of what we initially expect. The problem is that we need to start thinking of ourselves as a region instead of one city, surrounded by towns and villages, surrounded by a county and MD. Changing the boundaries creates another "us versus them" scenario that is not healthy for regional cooperation.

In the current boundary configuration, we have 2 MLA's elected to represent Grande Prairie and region. Each of these MLA represent roughly 25,000 residents of the city and 15,000 in the county. I have been informed that when an MLA is assigned a Minister's position (essentially a promotion), the job tends to keep the MLA quite busy travelling around province and the country. His/her constituents almost never see their elected representative. We have been fortunate in our area to have a minister come out of our region quite regularly. Unfortunately, we lose contact with that MLA. However, because there are 2 MLA's in Grande Prairie, we have the advantage of contacting the other representative who can still pass on concerns because they are colleagues as opposed to adversaries.

Under the proposed changes, we take the chance of losing one of our representatives because this MLA would only represent 10,000 residents of the city and 30,000 in the county. The perspective of this MLA would be weighted towards the rurals. In addition, if the MLA representing the city of Grande Prairie becomes a minister, his/her effectiveness in the city would be compromised and so would our voice in the Legislature.

In summary, there are good arguments from both perspectives, but I feel we are at a point in time where the city can utilize the current system to the advantage of Grande Prairie and everyone in the region.

Recycling Glass

2010-03-07T23:25:00.001-08:00

I had a question posed to me about recycling of glass containers. It seems that we collect glass at our recycle bins, but it seems to end up at the landfill anyway. I checked into this and found some very interesting information.

First of all, recycling is a business which is subject to local, regional and world markets. The product that we all recycle, gets processed and sold to buyers in the larger centres. The market is subject to extreme fluctuations in pricing which can make recycling centres difficult to financially manage. For example, a couple of years ago, the price of cardboard fell to almost nothing, which meant that our recycling centre ended up losing money in order to get rid of their supply.

The market for glass is currently non-existent. No one in Canada is collecting it at this point in time because they can't get rid of it. In Grande Prairie, we are still collecting it because people want a place to recycle their glass containers. What ends up happening to it is that it is stockpiled in our landfill and they crush it and use it as a substitute for gravel. This is not the ideal solution, but I'm happy that it's getting used once more rather than getting discarded.

It seems that, ultimately, we may stop collecting glass containers because there is no market and no "real" re-usability. I'm hoping that we can come up with a better solution. At one point we were crushing the glass into a coarse particle and selling it to sandblasting companies. That didn't work out well because it tended to destroy the equipment in the process of creating the particles. Until another solution is found, glass will most likely end up in the landfill.

Nuclear Debate

2010-03-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

I have been doing some research on Nuclear Energy in Alberta lately. My role as the chair of the City's Environment Committee means that I need to educate myself on both sides of the issue. I have been receiving information on both sides of that debate and I can see why this is such a controversial topic. I'll post some information once I get a chance to summarize it. There is quite a bit of literature to wade through.

Environment Committee

2010-03-07T23:19:00.000-08:00

I chaired my first meeting of the Environment Committee for the City of Grande Prairie. I wouldn't say that I'm an avid environmentalist, but I have very balanced views when it comes to taking care of this planet and what will be accepted policies and legislation for the general public. I look forward to taking on the role and making things happen.

New York Here We Come

2010-03-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

In my quest to see the world, my wife and I decided to travel to New York city this year. My brother and his wife have been there numerous times and have nothing but good things to say. My sister has also been there for business and is also impressed by the Big Apple.

We'll be visiting for 7 days in May and already have the flights and hotels booked. We are looking forward to running through Central Park, seeing a show on Broadway and visiting some famous restaurants. There are also so many sites to see that I'm almost a bit overwhelmed. Thank goodness there's lots of time to plan

Council Committees

2010-03-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

A typical question I get asked is how many committees I sit on and how much time that takes up. The amount of time is a difficult question to answer because it varies from week to week and month to month. I think it's easier to list the committees, meeting frequencies and approximate durations. I find that it's difficult to determine how much time it takes to prepare for meetings, but the meetings themselves are easy to track because they occur fairly regularly.

1. City Council Meeting - Every 2nd Monday (2 hrs)

2. Council Information Exchange Sessions - Every 2nd Monday (2 hrs)

3. Public Works Committee - Every 2nd Tuesday (2 hrs)

4. Protective Services Committee - Every 2nd Tuesday (2 hrs)

5. Environment Committee (Chair) - Every 4th Monday (2 hrs)

6. Council Committee of the Whole - Once or twice a month (1 hr)

7. Arts Development Committee - Quarterly (1-1/2 hrs)

8. Combative Sports Committee - Once every 2 months (2 hrs)

9. Multiplex Regional Resource Committee - Once a month (1 hr)

10. City-County Joint Meeting - Quarterly (3 hrs)

11. Regional Recreation Committee - Quarterly (2 hrs)

12. Aquatera USA Review Committee - Every 6 weeks (2 hrs)

13. Community Futures - Every 3rd Thursday of the month (4 hrs)

14. GP Regional Tourism Association - Every 3rd Friday of the month (2 hrs)

15. Materials Recycling Task Force - First Wednesday of the month (2 hrs)

16. Wapiti Corridor Planning Society - Every 3rd Thursday of the month (3 hrs)

I did a quick calculation and ended up with 8.8hrs per week in meetings and an average of 4 meetings per week that I have been assigned to. Then there are the additional/optional meetings that make up City Council work as well as sub-committees that I didn't include in this list as they are unofficial, although they take up a substantial amount of time. I would estimate another 4 hours per week on those.

Finally, there are a number of time commitments that a person forgets to consider when they run for office. These are the events, phone calls, emails and personal meetings with community members and organizations as well as the time it takes to read and do some research on all the reports you receive. Events such as ribbon cuttings, ceremonies, mixers, etc. are really great to attend, but regularly take up about 3-6 hrs per week. The rest can take up about an hour a day. So the grand total is between 21 and 25 hrs per week as a minimum. There are months when it's possible to put in 40 hours a week, but that only happens about 3 or 4 times a year.

So there you have it. A quick accounting of the time commitments on City Council from my perspective. I feel that we're not quite at a full-time level, but things are consistently busy. As a part-time position, my only other comment is that I end up losing a bunch of time to driving back and forth between my regular job and the meetings which take place all over the city. Don't get me wrong, I love the experience of being busy, connected with information and able to make a difference in my community.

Mission Completed!!

2009-10-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

What a great day out there on October 11th. The 30th Annual Royal Victoria Marathon was incredible! This was the largest race they had ever held with almost 12,000 participants in various categories. The city was buzzing, to say the least, and the trip was awesome.

Karen and I powered through the race beginning that balmy Sunday morning at 8:30am. We began our day with our usual routine of oatmeal and toast, packed up our gear and headed out to the 8 degree weather to meet everyone else at the start line. We decided to line up near the back of the pack since our official time wouldn't start until our timing chips crossed the starting mat.

It didn't take long to get warm that morning as we headed up our first hill and into the sun. The road became a sea of runners as far as the eye could see in front of and behind us. It was now time to put our training to the test as we settled into our run. My only issue was that I may have over hydrated in the morning, meaning I had to find a port-a-potty soon. The only problem was that the line-ups would slow me down. Other runners were also in the same situation.

At every 3-4km, they had volunteers manning aide stations. They handed out water, gatorade and power gels. With every water station, I weighed the pros and cons about taking another drink. In my mind, I figured I could wait an hour or so before I burst or I could hope that the sensation would simply go away. Little did I know that I would have to wait over 3 hours to relieve myself. In retrospect, I should have just waited the minute or two near the beginning.

Nevertheless, the run felt great. Karen and I managed to keep our pace steady throughout the race. We each experienced some high and low moments as we made our way up and down the rolling landscape. There were times when my legs tightened and I wanted to stop and give them a rest. But our strategy was clear, we had to keep running as long as we could and walk only as we passed the aide stations for a drink and maybe some food. So keep moving we did.

As time passed it was evident that this race would be as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. The spectators, volunteers and supporters were amazing. The energy around us showed us why this is such a popular event to take part in. There were entertainers playing music, dancing, singing; there were people holding up signs of encouragement; and there were people calling out your name "You can do it Dan, you're the man!" How did they know my name? It was printed on my race bib along with my race number. What a nice touch.

As we hit certain distances along the way, I remembered my training runs. This is what it feels like to be at 30km, now just push past 35km and you're home free. At 32km I pushed past Karen. She was at a low point and didn't want to hold me up. So away I went, grinding out the last few kilometers. Up the hills. Down the hills. The course was rarely flat. Every time I got to the top of hill, I breathed a sigh of relief. At 37km I neared the top of one of the last long hills. I was so thankful. This part of the course I was familiar with since we had just run part of it the day before. One of the volunteers called out "Only 5km left Dan. Give me 5 solid kilometres. Promise me." I nodded as I came over the hill, taking nice long strides as I sped down the next 2km. My legs were pretty tight by now so even though going down hill felt much better than up, it hardly felt really good at all.

I was happy to see the water station at the bottom of the hill. I quickly grabbed a cup of gatorade and then a cup of water. No time to doddle, got to keep going. I chucked by cups and started moving my legs. Not even five strides, I heard a familiar voice. I turned quickly and to my surprise and delight, it was Karen. She had pushed through her low point until she regained her rhythm and somehow had managed to catch me. Wow! She's pretty amazing.

With only 3 kilometres left, I felt a renewed sense of determination. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a vision of me breaking up the last 3km running and walking and doing whatever was necessary to get finish it. With Karen by my side, there was no way I would even consider stopping now. As we approached each marker, the energy levels increased. The last few twists and turns of the course burned the legs, but brought us closer and closer to the end. And as we got closer to the finish line, we kept running faster and faster. As the finish line came into sight, we began sprinting. We passed others who were casually jogging their way to the end.

What a finish. And we crossed the line at the exact same time. It was so exciting with music playing and an announcer calling out our names. But I remember it only as a quick blur. Our official time - 4 hrs 23 min and 04 sec. After a few days of rest, I'll be at home, dreaming up the next crazy scheme for us to do.

Rotary Update

2009-10-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite organizations to be involved in is Rotary. There are few organizations that can accomplish what Rotary can in the community, locally, regionally and internationally. Here's a highlight of last Rotary year.

In October, a small group of us traveled to Arauco, Chile to follow up on some projects we've been working on. The latest was the installation of a heating system in a seniors care centre. We also donated $5,000 to stock a library in a technical school for the youth. We stayed with host families while we were in Arauco and had the opportunity to make some good friends. We spent 10 days in total touring Chile, working on projects and also doing some sightseeing. It was an amazaing experience! I got to re-live that experience when we got back because I was in charge of writing the follow up accountability report. No worries, it was well worth it.

I spent a week in Birmingham, England at the Rotary International Convention in June this year. My wife, Karen, and I decided to work that into our summer vacation. It was an incredible experience to be sitting with about 25,000 other Rotarians worldwide listening to addresses from the Rotary International, the United Nations and other influential people in the world. It gave us quite a perspective on the impact of the projects that we get involved in.

Once we made it back to Grande Prairie, Karen and I took a group of Rotary members and our exchange student to Grande Cache to hike a leg of the Death Race. It was a great time, although very challenging. We did leg 2 of the Death Race which I think is the hardest leg of the race. It's 26km up and down 2 mountain peaks (Flood Mountain and Grande Mountain). We, of course, prevailed and made it an experience that Noemi, our exchange student, will never forget. She was awesome and we miss her since she went home.

Karen and I both volunteered for the Terry Fox Run. The 10km run is in support of cancer research and honors a Canadian hero, Terry Fox.

We took a couple of young kids to participate in our clubs Food Bank Drive in support of the Salvation Army Food Bank. Our efforts helped raise over 81,000 items this year.

We had a visiter from a Rotaract club in Mazatlan - Laura. She is such a nice person and helps to coordinate all our activities in Mexico when our club delivers the buses, ambulances and firetrucks on an annual basis. I think there's over 30 donated vehicles from Grande Prairie that have been delivered to needy organization in Mexico. We wanted to repay Laura by showing her even a portion of the hospitality they give us during our visits.

Next on the agenda is a fun poker tournament that I help organize and then some more paperwork for a couple of new projects. The first project is an international one with Chile. We're trying to get some wheel chairs for a clinic. The second project falls under our vocational services, which is an education exchange between Mazatlan and Grande Prairie. Finally, we have a new exchange student from Denmark and Karen and I are excited about getting in some time with her.

Update on Council

2009-10-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I mentioned anything about City Council. Being an Alderman, it seems I end up talking a lot of politics. The truth is, I'm trying to create some kind of balance in my life, so I didn't want to just fill this blog with political information. It turns out however, that there are a few people that are checking in to see what my political views are. So I decided to start a City Council topic and I'll try to keep it up to date.

Let's begin by saying that September has been extremely busy. Everything starts up again, including the associations where the city has assigned me to be a board member. We've discussed everything from the new Municipal Development Plan, to our Branding Exercise, to our Strategic Goals, etc., etc., etc. Here are a few highlights including my commentary:

Municipal Development Plan - This document affects the standards to which the city will be developed, including residential, commercial, industrial and park space. It looks good overall, but needs to be more attractive to industirial and commercial development.

Branding Exercise - This will help define what our city is trying to portray as it's main image. Some think it's a waste of time, but I believe that it's extremely valuable to our city. Like any business, you develop a brand whether you choose to or not. People will get to know you by certain attributes. If we don't steer this into something positive and sustainable, it will evolve on its own into who knows what. By taking control of "our brand", we can develop it into something marketable to industry and potential residents of this city.

Aquatera USA Agreement - The Aquatera Unanimous Shareholders Agreement is being revised to help strengthen it as a corporation, while making sure that the political leaders aren't put into a position of conflict of interest. Also, it is our hope that improving the leadership on the board of directors will make the corporation stronger financially without Aquatera needing to compete with private industry. The board will be selected based on experience, knowledge and leadership skills. They stay accountable to the municipalities because they'll be required to follow a mandate set out by the municipalities as well as adhere to a set of guiding principles.

Recycling - The recycling effort continues in Grande Prairie, but we are forming a Regional Recycling Committee. I have the honor of helping to represent the City of Grande Prairie along with Michelle Gairdner from the City.

Regional Recreation Committee - We'll be meeting soon with our County partners to discuss the recreational needs in the region. As our multiplex is still almost 2 years away, the County is looking at examining the next set of immediate needs and will try to fill that void.

Transit - The Transit Master Plan was adopted by council, but will need to get ratified at the budget in order for it to be meaningful. A couple of new routes have already been started, but without extra buses, a main station and transfer terminals, the Master Plan will be wasted.

Montrose Cultural Centre - This summer was an exciting time when the new library and partial art gallery opened. These facilities are a gem to our city and are already being utilized by a lot of people. Library members went up 200% after the first month and the Art Gallery has seen a 400% increase in traffic.

The Multiplex - Construction continues and is over the 25% mark. You can link to the cameras on the City of Grande Prairie website to see the construction in real time. www.cityofgp.com.

New Fire Hall - The location of the new fire hall was chosen and the architectural firm hired to begin designs.

Wapiti Corridor Planning - This is a regional initiative designed to come up with a planning document for the area on either side of the Wapiti River from Pipestone Creek to the old Bezanson town site. The idea is to have an open dialog with everyone possible including residents, recreational clubs, industry, property owners, government, etc. Once everyone has been consulted, we will try to create a zoning plan that accommodates the multiple uses in the area that balances the needs of industry, environment, recreation, and whatever else we find needs to be considered.

Grande Prairie Regional Tourism - I am working on a very exciting project with the tourism association that involves the Grande Prairie Regional College. We are trying to enhance their Tourism and Hospitality program by offering "real life" experience. The idea is to expand this project to eventually include our sister city, Mazatlan, Mexico. Mazatlan's economy is 90% tourism and can offer our students an insight they can't get from just studying in Grande Prairie. I am hoping to involve the Rotary Clubs from both ends in order to ensure a quality experience and to protect the safety of the students.

There are other issues that we deal with on a day to day basis. Too many to cover off in one sitting. I'll try to keep these posts updated as the issues come up. November is budget time and we have many issues that will naturally come up at that time.

Last Week of Training

2009-10-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's around the corner now - the Royal Victoria Marathon is only a week away! Training has been quite an experience. Leading up to the race, I have to admit that I'm a little nervous. I have my good days and my bad when it comes to running. I've had a lot of time during the training runs to experiment with running styles, food, pace, music, and a whole gambit of variables. Coming up to the last week it's a matter of hydration, rest and nutrition at this point.

Our training runs were great, but a few of them were gruelling. We steadily increased our distances until we peaked at 38km. At that point, it's as much a matter of survival as it is conditioning. It felt good when we started to taper those back down. The weather was nice most of those days. Never any rain, but we did have some extremely hot and cold weather. On the 4 hour runs, it's almost impossible to avoid getting caught in temperatures hovering around 30 degrees Celsius. We learned quickly that lack of hydration will almost always knock you on your ass. Thank goodness for a little something called Muscle Melt. GP Holisitic Health sells these epsom salts infused with essential oils that do wonders for your muscles after you're finished torturing them.

The goal now is to make sure we stay healthy before we leave on Friday. The chilly weather along with cold and flu season, don't make that task too easy. Tried running on Saturday, but 3 degrees Celsius with a stiff wind was a big deterrent. Still managed to get 11km before needing to get out of the cold. I had images of catching the sniffles this week and spoiling months of training. This week, I just want to eat healthy, stay really strict on the no alcohol policy and keep the exercise to a minimum. From there, I just have to hope that the training will take over and I'll survive my first marathon. I'm not putting any pressure on myself by setting time goals or anything like that. My goal is to finish and still be walking afterwards. Wish me luck.

Gasification of Solid Waste

2009-08-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

I attended a presentation the other day which I found extremely interesting. It was a way to make the landfill a little "greener". The technology is called gasification. Basically, you take your typical munipal solid waste (household garbage) and dump it into a bio-reactor. The reactor burns up the garbage and produces 2 by-products: syngas and ash.

The syngas is a mixture of hydrogen gas, H2, and carbon monoxide, CO. The gas is burned to produce electricity to be used locally or sold back to the grid. The heat from burning the gas could be used in a district heating system, which basically heats water (or a mixture of water and glycol) in pipes which is used to heat nearby buildings. It's possible to build a network of insulated pipes to carry the heated water to building several kilometres away.

The solid ash that comes from this process can be used as filler for pavement or concrete. It may be possible to sell this by-product to paving companies. In any case, compared to the amount of solid going into the system, the ash is 10 times smaller in volume than garbage.

Our landfill in Grande Prairie brings in about 150 tonnes per day. Of that, only about 60 tonnes is household garbage and the rest is made up of construction and industrial waste. Other than tires, none of the other waste will burn up in this system. In addition, you wouldn't want to burn up wood or any organic waste that could become good compost. However, doing some quick math, we have the potential to turn 40% of our current landfill garbage into something usable right away and stretch out the lifespan of the landfill. If our current landfill has an estimated 25 years left, we have the potential to stretch out its life to 35 years. If we got really creative and started "trading" garbage with our regional partners, we could do even better. Why would they want to "trade" garbage with us? We would be taking the "smelly" garbage that is environmentally unpleasant and they would be taking the construction waste which is relatively inert and potentially resold at a profit. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

So what's the downside? We need to do a feasability study to determine whether or not the economic benefits offset the pricetag. In order to get into this kind of technology, we would have to be willing to invest in the neighborhood of $20 to $30 million. There are plenty of government grants for environmental initiative, so it may be possible to reduce the city's investment. I'm hoping that Council will fund the study and set us down this road.

July Marathon Training

2009-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Still managing to keep up with the marathon training. Karen and I were away on vacation and I was a little concerned that it may set us back a little in our training. Fortunately, we were able to fit in some decent runs during our European vacation. Started with a 5km road race in Hyde Park in London. The Serpentine Running Club in London was hosting their "Last Friday of the Month Run" and Karen and I were able to register before we left. Very nice group of people. Their club has well over 1000 members. The next stop in our vacation was Barcelona, where we were able to run along the sea wall next to the beach. Beautiful weather and gorgeous beaches made it easy to combine some training with sight seeing. Finally, we jetted off to Paris where we were able to fit in a 20km run through one of their parks.

Upon arriving home, our next big adventure was a hike in Grande Cache with our Rotary exchange student. We decided to hike leg 2 of the Death Race which entails 27km up and down 2 mountain peaks. Although it was only a hike, the strength training was great for the legs.

Following the hike, we were able to get some shorter runs into the week. Near the end of July, I experienced a bit of set back. Everyone was planning on getting a 30km run in on a Saturday morning. Within minutes, I realized that something was wrong with my stomach. I was able to muscle out 16km before I had to give up. A little food poisoning the night before took me out of commission for the next day, curled up in bed waiting for it to pass. It took another 3 days to start eating normally again and definitely no training or any exercise that week.

The following weekend, I tried again. Since everyone had done their long run the week prior, it was up to me to catch up on my own. The group ran 16km and I continued on to reach the 30km goal. If I couldn't do this, I would be behind Karen and the other marathon runners. I felt a little nervous when we started, but soon fell into my zone. I was able to pace myself and reached 30km in just over 3 hours. At the end of the run, I still felt like I had it in me to continue my run. So I decided to take my neices out for a short 2km run. They have been wanting to join me, but weren't sure whether or not they could keep up. With 30km behind me, this leveled the playing field a bit. Especially since I had just dropped in on them unexpectedly and they weren't ready to go. The legs tightened up a bit while I was waiting, but in the end, I managed to pull of an additional slow paced 2km. Not wanting to risk injury, I decided to stick with the program and finish on a high note.

So that's where I am as of today. I'm actually feeling like this marathon is definitely achievable. This coming weekend, I'll attempt another long 30km+ run in order to get back in sync with Karen. From this point on, our training will be more focused on the 2 of us. We plan to stick together during the race and it's time to see if this is going to be possible. In order to stick together, our paces will have to be in sync as well as our eating, drinking and resting patterns. With only 6 good weeks of training left, it's time to kick it into high gear.

Press Run - May 30th, 2009

2009-06-01T11:54:00.001-07:00

Only 2 weeks after the Red Deer 1/2 marathon, I was ready to run the Daily Herald Tribune Press Run. 4 days after Red Deer, we took our training group out on a 10km run to get them familiar with the race course. The conditions were perfect and we all finished with great times. The following week was an 8km training run which began the tapering down of our distances. We didn't want the participants to be overly tired on race day.

Karen had decided to run the 10km race, so she can support our training group and cheer them on. I had decided long ago that I needed to continue getting longer distances in, so I registered for the 1/2 marathon again. I was a little worried coming off of the Red Deer 1/2 in such rough shape. I did well in the training runs, but was never able to get into my zone and regulate my breathing very well. I also noticed that I was a little "shell-shocked" about running the hills on our trail system. Pschologically, I wasn't quite ready to be running 21km again. Physically, I needed to get some rest.

The day before the race, we put together a nice spaghetti and chicken dinner and had Marla over to load up on the carbs. I think we were all a little nervous and excited at the same time. Made sure we got plenty of rest.

Race day was sunny but very windy. There were 389 racers registered and because it was in Grande Praire, we knew a lot of people there. Everyone seemed pretty pumped up. A couple of runners in our group were just recovering from colds, so they were a little worried about how they would perform.

The race began with an uphill climb right away and then straight into the wind. Made it tough to catch your breath. Within a few minutes, we ran down into the RV park and then up another with the wind in your face. Finding it difficult to catch my breath, I decided to let the pack in front of me pull away. Most of them were 10km runners anyway who were running at a faster pace. I focused on running my own race and finding a pace that wouldn't hurt me in the long run.

The turn-around point for the 10km runners seemed to come up quickly. I was able to cheer on a few of runners coming back the other way. Since we've run the trails a lot, it was nice to know that I wasn't too far behind the pack. I ended up settling into my zone about 6km into the run. Slowing down made a huge difference. Another big difference for me was that I didn't bring a watch to this race. I found myself too focused on my watch last time, so decided to leave it at home. I gauged everything by distance instead. By 9km, I knew it was time to get a little food in. I studied the map beforehand and timed my food to coincide with the water stations. I made sure that I put a little bit of food in me at regular intervals as not to deplete my reserves.

I got back to Pavilion with plenty of energy left in me for the last kilometre. The last sprint down the hill and around the corner to the finish felt incredible. May have pushed it a little hard, but I felt good enough to do that. People were at the finish cheering me in and I even got a little bit of a push from a guy who was hard on my heels for the last few steps.

My official fisishing time, 1hr 53min 22sec. Wow!! What a race. Not only did it feel really great, I knocked over 10 minutes off my previous 1/2 marathon time. The volunteers were all great and made the event that much better.

We hung around for the medal presentations and it turns out that several members of our training group placed in their divisions. Congrats to Jeff (2nd), Derek (2nd), Gert (1st) and of course, my sweetie Karen, who took 2nd place in her division. No placement for me since I'm in a very competitive age classification. I'd need to shave another 15 minutes from my time to even come close. I'm very impressed by the first place runner in the 21km, Darren, who finished in an astouding 1hr 16min. That's not for me. I need to push the training distance out achieve the 42.2km goal by October. Maybe in another life, if I come back as a cheetah.

The Effects of Red Deer

2009-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Red Deer 1/2 marathon was really tough! There were a lot more hills than I was expected and it was the first time I tried to run a longer race without carrying any food or water. That turned out to be a big mistake for me. It was a beautiful day with the weather peaking to 20 degrees and the scenery in the trails was gorgeous. The water stations were well spaced and I was on track to make a great time. I think I crossed the 11km sign at just under an hour.

At the 15km marker, I noticed my energy levels depleting and having no food on me, began to crash pretty hard. By 17km, I was running on fumes and craving sugar like you wouldn't believe. The hills and the sun had taken their tolls and there was nothing left but sheer willpower to drive me to the finish. I had to walk a few times, which didn't seem to make my legs feel any better. By 19km I understood what it meant to hit the wall -- my legs felt slow and heavy and I felt like i was barely moving. Racers kept passing me and I wasn't sure the end would ever come. Every hill felt like torture.

Finally reached the last hill and I moving pretty slow by now. Only half a kilometre left I though to myself. A few steps onto the the hill and I found myself need to walk. It seemed so steep and long, at the pace I was going, I'd never get to the top. My legs burned, but I decided to go for it. Just then, one of the volunteers ran down from the top to give me some encouragement. She ran me to the top, cheering me on all the way, "It's all down hill from here... push through it!" Thank you, whoever you are, I needed that.

I hit the top and coasted all the way to the finish, picking up speed the closer I got. Karen was waiting for me, cheering me in with her friend, Orlene. I finished in 2hrs and 3 minutes. Not the best time for this distance of race, but I was glad to take it. Karen kicked butt and finished in about 1:59 with no problem and full of smiles. She tried to get a little playful with me when I told her I needed some sugar, but I would have none of that -- straight to the food tent for me to get some oranges, juice and cookies.

Lesson learned after this race -- pack some food or suffer the consequences. We had a nice lunch with Karen's aunt and uncle and then drove 6 hours back to Grande Prairie. Pretty tough on the legs sitting all day after running a grueling 21km.

Half Marathon in Red Deer

2009-05-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

Karen and I will be participating in the Woody's RV marathon in Red Deer on the May long weekend. We've both registered for the half marathon as part of our full marathon training. We're both pretty comfortable with the 21km distance at this point, but as always, have a bit of the race jitters. We both want to do well at this race, which means getting finished in under 2 hours for us.

We've been helping the Grande Prairie Run/Walk club with their training program for participants of the Press Run at the end of May. This has been good training for us as well since it forces us to keep up with the training. I found it tough at first, since there were a few very fast runners in our group whom I had a tough time keeping up with. After discovering that trying to run faster was counter productive to my distance training, I learned to hang back a bit.

Last weekend We ran about 20km on Saturday and then another 9km on Sunday for the training group. Haven't done much since. It's time to take a bit of a break and rest before the long weekend race. Karen's uncle Claude and aunt Brenda have been nice enough to let us stay with them while we're in Red Deer. They've even offered up a feast of pasta the night before the event. How can you say no to that?

Marathon Training Update

2009-03-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks I have been training on the treadmill, trying to increase my distance. I have a long time to train, so I'm not pushing it as hard as I could. I've been mixing it between longer runs to increase distance, and shorter but faster runs to improve strength and stamina. I've finally been able to get over the "treadmill boredom" by focusing on watching T.V. and listening to my iPod shuffle. Here are the results:

Short run: 11km in about 1 hour
Long run: 20km in about 2 hours

The days that I only run for an hour, I try to get some strength training by working my legs on the machines. I think that will be the key for me - bulking up the muscles on my skinny legs.

Today, we took a group from the GP Run/Walk Club out for a training run. It was cold and icy, but we all persevered through the winter-like conditions and felt great. We'll all be training for the Press Run on May 30th for either the 10km or 21km race. Karen and I are leading the training for the 10km intermediate running group. We started the training at 3.5km and will build from there. In 10 weeks, everyone in our group should be ready to run 10km.

My comment on running outside today is that it felt very different from the treadmill. The ground was hard, the air was cold, and the wind chapped by face and hands. Also, no T.V. to keep my mind occupied, so I had to settle for conversation with fellow runners. All in all, it was a great experience and I can't wait until next week.

Multiplex or Hospital?

2009-03-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

I've heard many positive comments about the need for a new aquatics centre and multiplex in Grande Prairie. Our Leisure Centre is a great facility, but the pool is busting at the seams and its condition is up for review in a few years. The new facility should be able to satisfy the needs of the community for a while, but I really believe that we'll outgrow it in short time. There will be a need to build a facility on the north side of the city to make it easier for those residents to access a recreational centre.

A very common comment that I've been hearing is that some residents feel that a new hospital or a twinned bypass is more important that a new multiplex. Although that question is debatable, the truth is that hospitals and bypasses are the jurisdiction and responsibility of the provincial government. City Council is consulted to some degree about these infrastructure needs, but the real decisions are made by provincial bodies, like the Health Region and Alberta Transportation. If you wish to have your voice heard on these topics, it is best to contact your local MLAs, Wayne Drysdale or Mel Knight.

Marathon Training

2009-03-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is a tough one! Training for a marathon this year means that I have to commit to running on the treadmill for hours on end. I find the treadmill is as much an exercise in alleviating boredon as anything else. The built-in television is pretty awesome, but the commercial breaks seems to drag on and on.

So far I've been fairly consistent with my weekly training. Every week, Karen and I are doing a longer run at the gym. We're at the 2 hour mark and still increasing steadily. I found myself with a couple of busy weeks in a row, so I missed my mid-week workouts. Also fought off the start of a cold. Consequently, Karen kicked my butt last week by a mile over the 2 hours. I'll have to smarten up.

We took a trip to Drumheller to Karen's family, but still managed to find a treadmill at the local gym. Running for the first time without a t.v. made it really tough. I'm going to have to learn to run without those types of distractions soon. Can't wait until we can run outside.

The half-marathon in May in coming up soon and we are both more than ready. The goal is to pick up our speeds and make a good time. Feeling pretty good so far. The training gets much tougher from this point on. I'll keep you posted.

Blogging

2009-02-05T17:34:00.001-08:00

As you can tell from the date, this blogging this isn't going too well. I've had a lot going on in my life and can't seem to find time to compose a decent message. This is what I've decided to do. As of New Year's day, my wife Karen and I have decided to run a marathon in October of 2009. We'll most likely enter the Royal Victoria run.

To keep me accountable in my training, I will include my training details in this blog. It will be a quick weekly record of how far I've run and any other training. I'll have to admit that I'm not great when it comes to controlling what I eat, so I may or may not include a summary of meals and caloric intake.

Hope this works!

Good Times!

2008-11-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

Had a great weekend with the guys! Nine of us headed out to a cabin at Wapiti Garden to hang out, play some poker and have a few drinks. It was a good mix of guys. I had a little trouble with the poker, at first, but managed to pull it together by the end of the night.

Rick had the cabin scorching hot with the wood stove. Felix cooked us a couple of awesome meals. Drakes cleaned the kitchen and the rest of us got to just hang out and insult each other and have some laughs. It's nice to get away. Good Times! We'll have to do it again.

The City's New Multiplex

2008-11-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

In response to editorials posted in our local newspaper regarding the $100 million multiplex. The posted letters make it sound like city council has not thought through the situation or have considered input from residents of the city. Granted a plebiscite on the borrowing issue would have given a definitive answer, but with voter turnout being anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the eligible population, the answer would not have been any more representative of the population than any of the polls already conducted. In addition, the plebiscites results that were in favor of proceeding with multiplex projects, resulted in substantially higher tax increases than what is being proposed in Grande Prairie. Nevertheless, there are other issues and concerns that were raised in the editorial which I’ll try to address:

Responses from Residents
The City of Grande Prairie conducted a poll last year looking for public response for building the facility which was estimated between $70 to $100 million. Of the 667 respondents, 96.5% were in favor of building the facility immediately. This is consistent with the dozens of people that I have been talking with personally on the issue. The number one comment that I get about the facility is that we need to proceed with it. The public wants this facility to be built without scaling back on features.

The $100 Million Price Tag
Admittedly, the cost of the Aquatics Multiplex is higher than expected. One resident in twenty has told me that they are concerned that the cost is out of line. I believe the public is unaware of the ever-increasing cost of commercial construction. The price of steel and concrete has been rising at an incredible rate. In addition, labour costs for commercial buildings are remaining at high levels due to the demand for commercial construction in Alberta. Commercial construction has not seen the same slow down as residential construction.

The province of Alberta is catching up on an infrastructure deficit that will last for several years, consuming resources all around us. If you just look at the projects in Grande Prairie, you will note some very large commercial buildings in the works: Futureshop, Best Buy, Walmart, schools, hotels, City Service Centre, Wapiti Dorm, the hospital ($600+ million), 3rd Firehall, and of course, the Multiplex. These are the major projects, but there are still many more in the city that will be built in the next year. In any case, the City will be focusing efforts on any additional grants that can help offset the costs and lessen the burden on Grande Prairie. Since the tender announcement, we have spoken to members of the Provincial Government who have indicated that they will consider our request when they look at their upcoming budgets.

The Tender
It is really unfortunate that we only received one tender on a project of this size. The dilemma that council faced was not only an $800,000 penalty for not awarding the tender within 30 days, but that we have very few options with only one tender. If council chose not to award the tender, it would be unlawful for us to re-submit the request without substantially changing the design. A change of design would mean more delays and possibly higher costs or a loss of features. For this project alone, every delay has cost the taxpayers of the city millions of dollars. A form of this project was originally planned to be in construction by 2005 costing the city less than $50 million, which would have put us in line with other multiplex projects in western Canada. A 2007 start would have cost about 20% less than our current costs and/or included a third field house. It is uncertain what another delay would cause, but we definitely wouldn’t have seen the same project constructed.

The only bright side to having a single company providing a tender is that city administration was able to go back to the construction company and negotiate a savings of $6 million below the original tender.

The City’s Debt
Construction of the multiplex is costing the city approximately $60 million in debt which puts our City over $100 million in borrowings. According to the city Treasurer, our debt is still manageable at that level. When the city decides to borrow for capital projects, the debt is typically amortized over a 10 year period. In 2011, the city’s ability to borrow will be tighter, but as past debentures are paid off by 2012, more room will be available if the need to borrow arises. There are some who are concerned that if the economy goes into recession, we won’t be able to service this debt. My approach is to look at the worst case scenario. In the worst case, where our taxes are unable to manage the debt, we can be thankful of the Municipal Sustainability Initiative from the provincial government which has promised us about $14 per year for the next 10 years. That money has been granted to our city to be spent on any infrastructure projects that we choose. If the worst case were to become a reality, the city would seriously have to consider halting future projects and using this money to repay the debt.

Roads, Social Services and Other Infrastructure
There is a misconception that the city can either fund roads or social services or facilities. We need to get away from believing that by funding one area, that another service area will get cut. One of the major challenges on council is to balance the needs of the city as it grows. These needs are constantly changing and it is up to council to listen to its residents and respond accordingly. A city with beautiful roads and is able to fulfill all of the demands on its social service infrastructure (crime, fire, health care, violence, homeless, etc.), wouldn’t necessarily be an ideal place to live if it didn’t included recreational facilities to keep us all healthy and happy. Our ability to attract quality professionals into the city is also affected by what our city is able to offer them over other communities in Canada.

The fact is that our city taxes are being distributed in an attempt to provide the best balance possible for the residents of Grande Prairie. We can definitely use more tax dollars to keep up with the needs of the city. Grande Prairie is unique in that the cost of living, factoring in inflation, is higher than most communities in Alberta. After reviewing the budgets, it is my understanding that residents would be looking at a 5-6% increase annually with no increases in service levels. This works out to approximately $150 per year tax increase, keeping everything the same. The problem is that we need more amenities as the city grows. To keep up with growth, we need taxes to be increased about 8% per year until we can obtain taxes from other sources. Faced with the choice of $150 more per year for nothing, or $200 more per year to add services, as a taxpayer, I would choose to get something more for my money.

In terms of long term planning, council is looking at strategies to increase our commercial and industrial tax base in order to ease the burden on residents. This doesn’t mean that business taxes are going up. It means that we need to attract more industrial businesses to the city until we have a healthy proportion to help share the load. Residents of Grande Prairie can take a little comfort knowing that their taxes aren’t the highest in Alberta and fall within the provincial average. We can also take comfort in knowing that Canada faces a $100 billion road and other infrastructure deficit and that Grande Prairie has been relatively good at keeping the city’s needs below the national average.

If you have opinions on this topic, please feel free to comment. I'll try to reply to responses if necessary.

First Blog Ever

2008-11-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to start a blog for quite some time now. There is so much going on around me these days that time seems to be warping by at an incredible speed. I'm hoping that a blog will help me make sense of the things happening from one day to the next.

I have to be honest, I'm not good at keeping these things up to date. My Facebook friends probably wonder if I even use the site. This is supposed to be easier and more convenient, so we'll see if this works for me or if it slowly dies by natural causes.