Red Deer Minute: Overcapacity Protocols, Shopping Carts, and Hotel Conversion Approved

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

This Week In Red Deer:

• On Tuesday, the Red Deer & District Family & Community Support Services Board will meet at 5:00 pm. At this meeting, the Board will receive reports from the FCSS Program Specialist. They will also discuss how to allocate the carry-over of a $71,373 surplus from 2021.
  
  
• Also on Tuesday, Mayor Ken Johnston is set to tour Enhance Energy’s carbon capture plant and battery trunk line in Clive. The Mayor is convinced green energy should be part of the discussion when it comes to the city’s economic recovery and has expressed interest in being a player at the table. The Mayor noted Red Deer’s specific geology featuring underground caverns as ideal for storing captured carbon that can later be used as a clean-burning fuel source.
  
  
• On Wednesday, there will be a meeting of the Housing Asset Development Sub-Committee. No agenda or time for the meeting has been announced yet.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• Red Deer Hospital activated its overcapacity protocols due to a combination of staff absence and a surge in demand for hospital beds from seriously ill patients. The matter was further complicated by the fact that two inpatient units had already been closed to admissions on account of recent COVID-19 outbreaks. On Monday, more than 14 ambulances were spotted outside the hospital.
  
  
• Council gave the initial thumbs up for plans that would see the Quality Inn on the city’s north side convert its hotel rooms into residential apartments. The owners haven’t specified whether or not they plan to convert part or all of the hotel. The announcement was not warmly received by all Red Deer residents, with some expressing concern about increased traffic and noise in the area.
  
  
• Shopping carts were a hot topic of discussion at the most recent Council meeting. Nine (!) new points were added to the Community Standards Bylaw to deal with abandoned shopping carts. It’s good to see City Council set priorities on behalf of the Red Deerian taxpayer. What better way to employ our resources than to tackle one of the most pressing issues -  shopping carts. Well, all you Red Deerians out there guilty of shopping cart abandonment better be on the lookout for the shopping cart police, because next time you abandon one you could be facing a $250 fine. We’re kidding of course - about the shopping cart police, but not the fine.

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