Red Deer Minute: Funding Optimism, Landmarks Demolished, and Private Public Art

Red Deer Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Red Deer politics

This Week In Red Deer:

• The Public Art Commission will meet on Wednesday at 5:00 pm. The entire meeting will be held in-camera (in secret) to discuss the Public Art Community Grant.
  
  
• The Nomination Committee will meet on Thursday at 12:30 pm. Much of this meeting will be held in-camera too, in order to discuss the applications received for Council Committees, Commissions, and Boards.
  
  
• There will be some road closures this week, with intermittent traffic disruptions along Taylor Drive, between 32 Street and 43 Street, as well as on 43 Street, west of 50 Avenue. On Tuesday, between 6:30 am and 12:00 pm, 43 Street westbound will be closed just west of 50 Avenue, but the hospital will be accessible through 42 Street.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• Red Deer hosted its inaugural Recovery Summit with the theme of “Embracing Recovery Together”, and welcomed over 300 attendees. The one-day conference focused on addictions and explored the concept of a localized Recovery Oriented System of Care while emphasizing the importance of compassion in addressing addiction. Attendees included service providers, individuals with lived experience in addiction and mental health challenges, Indigenous Peoples, law enforcement, and community leaders. The Province’s Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, Dan Williams, gave a speech at the Summit, applauding the City for taking initiative.
  
  
• The Buffalo Hotel and Club Café were demolished, but clean-up of the sites will continue for a few weeks. The Club Café was opened in 1929 by George Moon, who came to Canada from China and built a restaurant that, at its peak, served 600 meals per day. The Buffalo Hotel was constructed in 1892 and was originally called the Alberta Hotel. Most recently used as low-income housing, the building had fallen into disrepair. The City bought it as part of a three-phase redevelopment plan, the first of which was demolition.
  
  
• Mayor Ken Johnston said he left the ABMunis Conference feeling optimistic about provincial funding for housing, but concerned about the allocation of funds by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, with less than 3% going to Western Canada. Johnston said there should be discussions at the federal level to address the fairness of housing fund distribution across the country. Mayor Johnston plans to meet with local Conservative Party MPs to request more equity in housing support.

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