Red Deer Minute: Issue 277

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

📅 This Week In Red Deer: 📅

• The Special Committee of the Whole will meet tomorrow at 2:00 pm for a session devoted to the City's relationship with the Westerner Exposition Association, which leases its land from the City. Administration will present the history of the City's decisions on the Association, and consultants will lead a discussion with Council. Part of the meeting will be held in closed session. Several decisions are due by March 31st, 2027, when the Relationship Framework Agreement between the City and the Association expires and two existing loan agreements must be renegotiated. In 2021, the City paid out the Association's CIBC loans, with the Association agreeing to repay $10 million over 30 years and a further $9 million as it is able based on its annual earnings. Council approved a $1-million repayable contingency loan for the Association in 2023, and in July directed Administration to analyze options for protecting the City's financial interests by early 2027. Council must also decide before the end of 2026 what key elements the Association's long-term Master Plan must address, which Administration has committed to pass to the Association's board in November.
  
  
• The Red Deer & District Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) Board will meet tomorrow at 5:00 pm. One of the items on the agenda is a follow-up report on a resolution, first proposed by Red Deer City Council, that Alberta Municipalities members approved at their convention from September 23rd to September 25th. The resolution, titled "Investing in Prevention: Strengthening FCSS and Community Well-Being", calls on Alberta Municipalities to advocate to the Government of Alberta for long-term, sustainable, needs-based, net-new funding for community-based early intervention and practical supports that fill gaps between preventative services and crisis or acute services. It says that funding should come without reallocating or reducing existing funding for preventative programs and services, and asks for a coordinated, cross-ministry approach to funding and delivering them. Administration is recommending that the Board receive the approved resolution for information, noting that no Board action is required.
  
  
• The $14.5-million replacement of the Gaetz Avenue bridge over Waskasoo Creek at 43rd Street is expected to be finished by the end of the year. The project began in March and also upgrades water, sewer, and stormwater lines and improves flood control. The provincial government built the original two-lane span in 1912 as part of the highway linking Edmonton and Calgary, and it was widened to four lanes in 1957, making it the second-oldest bridge in the city after the 1909 CPR pedestrian bridge. The new bridge is a free-span girder design with no pier in the middle of the creek. Crews poured the concrete deck on the west side on October 1st, and Parks and Public Works Manager Greg Sikora expects that half of the bridge to reopen to traffic around mid-October before work moves on to the two east lanes. Sikora says the project is about a month behind schedule because of high stream flows in the spring.
  
  
• Speaking of bridges, the City of Red Deer reopened the CPR Pedestrian Bridge on September 28th, after spending $22.3 million to lift, move, and rehabilitate the structure. Half the cost came from the federal government's Active Transportation Fund, which also covered the removal of contaminated soil and new lighting along the bridge. The project added a public gathering space at the north end, where more than 60 new trees and 900 plants are being planted beside a 13-foot illuminated sculpture called Luminous Passage. When Council decided to move forward with the project in 2024, it faced significant pushback from residents who questioned the use of the money. The City argued at the time that the federal funding, combined with the millions it would also have cost to remove the aging bridge, meant preservation made financial sense. At the reopening, Elder Lyle Keewatin Richards of the Saving the Children Society pointed to the many unhoused people who use the bridge every day, noting that people are sleeping in a parking lot nearby. Mayor Cindy Jefferies said the federal grant was designated funds that could not be redirected to homelessness, and that the City continues to work with the federal and provincial governments on housing.
  
  
• The City of Red Deer's 10-Year Capital Plan sets aside $629,000 for detailed design of a new roundabout at 67th Street and Taylor Drive. If Council approves, about $3 million in utilities work could go ahead in 2028 to prepare for $5.5 million in roundabout construction in 2029. Design work is already complete for a second roundabout, at the intersection of Highway 2A and Township Road 391, which could be built for $8.6 million as early as 2028 if Council approves it. City Engineering Services Manager Russ Watts claims the existing roundabouts at 67th Street and Johnstone Drive and at 19th Street and 40th Avenue have reduced congestion and delays, and that collision numbers are starting to improve. Roundabouts where Highway 11A meets Taylor Drive and Gaetz Avenue appear near the end of the 10-year plan but are a long way from any Council decision. Council will begin debating its $80.2-million 2027 capital plan on October 13th.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Do you think the City should continue investing in new roundabouts, or should Council consider other ways to address congestion and traffic delays before approving these projects?

Reply to this email and let us know!

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