Aug. 13, 2019
Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader
Getting at the trends, in business
Council heard first from Josh Friesen of Community Futures about a survey CF is conducting in Slave Lake. His purpose was to offer the town the results of the survey and to ask for town participation in it.
“We’re not asking for money,” Friesen was quick to point out. “We want to prove the value of this first.”
Community Futures is teaming up with the Slave Lake & District Chamber of Commerce and Alberta Labour on the project. Friesen explained it involves sitting down with willing business owners and going through a survey. It will be quite in-depth, he said, and the goal is to get about 100 of these ‘visits’ done by October of this year.
Friesen said the idea is the information gathered can help municipalities with economic development plans, to understand trends and at the same time inform businesses about programs that are available to them.
Friesen handed out copies of the survey. Among other things, it asks how many people the business employs, what its products/services are, what changes there have been in the past five years, if there are plans to expand and what sort of barriers the business faces. There’s also a question about whether the owner considers the community ‘business-friendly.’
Councillor Darin Busk asked if a question could be added on the impact of crime on the business.
As to the question of town staff participating in the survey, council voted in favour of a Julie Brandle motion to approve it, as capacity allows.
Weed complaints rampant
Acting CAO Garry Roth started off his report to council with the somewhat surprising news that the town has had “a lot of weed complaints lately.”
He didn’t elaborate on what sorts of weeds were being complained about, or who was doing the complaining. But it indicates a certain awareness of noxious and prohibited weeds is afoot in the populace. What the town can and is doing about it is another question. Roth said if the weeds are on private property, it’s up to the town bylaw officers to deal with. If they are on town property, it’s a matter for the town’s parks department.
Demolition not far off
Good news on the derelict motel file – Roth told council a local company has been hired to do an environmental assessment of the two sites. Once those are received, a request for proposals on demolition will be issued.
“We expect the RFP to be posted late August or early September,” said Roth in his written report.
Fire department
Calls have been down in the third quarter of the year, over the same period last year. The majority of calls have been for medical situations. Another was a collision involving an intoxicated driver on the Old Smith Highway. A vehicle fire on Hwy. 2 at the Athabasca River Bridge was another incident responded to.
In other fire department news, Norquest College is wrapping up a firefighting course it was conducting at the Hall #1 facility in Slave Lake.
Parks
Maintenance of the town’s parks and green spaces has been a challenge lately, council heard. Two reasons: shortage of staff and too much rain. A slowpitch tournament had to be postponed due to too much water on the fields.
The Kinettes Park (SE Slave Lake) is due for new sand and borders – work that should be starting soon.
“All the parks in town look fantastic,” said councillor Rebecca King.
Crime reduction unit?
The town is involved in an effort to encourage the provincial government/RCMP to locate one of the special rural crime reduction units in Slave Lake. This idea came up in discussions back in the spring about the rampant thefts from industrial properties in the area. One response to this, provincially, was to establish these special units. In the north, there’s one in Grande Prairie and another in St. Paul. The feeling locally is Slave Lake and area are not well served by this arrangement.
“We’re trying to build a business plan,” said councillor Darin Busk. “We’re on the outer fringes of both GP and St. Paul areas.”
Once the business case is prepared, the idea is to present it to the Solicitor General, “hopefully with our MLA.”
Busk added, “Our residents and businesses are fed up and we have to take the initiative.”
Council approved a Tyler Warman motion to have town administration work with the RCMP “to build a plan to advocate with the Government of Alberta to establish a rural crime reduction task force in our region.”
Internship program
Council voted to go ahead with something called the ‘Municipal Internship Program (MIP).’ It involves engaging a post-secondary student in a role in municipal administration for a year, with the bulk of the cost borne by the MIP.
“The costs are pretty insignificant,” said mayor Warman, making the motion. “I’d get started.”
Doctor on the way
Councillor Brice Ferguson said he and another councillor recently took part in another ‘doctor tour’ of the community. This is standard practice in recent years when a physician is looking for a place to work. Municipalities lay out the red carpet, which in the case of Slave Lake usually involves a helicopter ride with town councillors as tour guides.
“We just got word today he signed on,” said Ferguson.
“Big news!” said the mayor
Mayor’s corner
Mayor Warman shared some encouraging news on the crime prevention front. It involved quick email communication between various parties that resulted in the RCMP getting on the case pronto.
Warman was short on specifics, calling it “an issue identified yesterday,” which was “solved rather quickly.”
Warman said the email exchange was one positive outcome of meetings held earlier this year between business owners, council and the RCMP, seeking solutions to increased property crime. Better communication was one of the proposals, and it seems to be bearing fruit.