Red Deer Minute: Permanent Shelter, Election Forum, and Rezoning Application Denied

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

This Week In Red Deer:

• On Tuesday, there will be a City Council Special Meeting at 1:30 pm. The entire meeting will be closed to the public while they discuss the singular agenda item - the location of the permanent shelter.
  
  
• On Wednesday, the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce will host a provincial election forum. The forum will take place from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at Red Deer Polytechnics Arts Centre’s Main Stage. Candidates from all political parties running in Red Deer-South and Red Deer-North have been invited.
  
  
• On Saturday, Touch-A-Truck returns. During this family event, kids of all ages get a chance to see and touch emergency vehicles, tractors, and construction equipment. The event is a fundraiser for the Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre and is taking place at Westerner Park parking lot. Family admission is $20 for up to six people.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• Administration brought forward recommendations for developing housing assets within the city. Many of these recommendations came from the work of the Housing and Homelessness Integration Committee and included identifying surplus land that could be used for affordable housing, financial incentives, property tax exemptions, waiving municipal fees, and more. Council voted unanimously to accept the recommendations.
  
  
• Speaking of housing, ironically Council voted unanimously to deny an application to build a seniors’ housing complex in the Waskasoo neighbourhood after over 120 residents spoke out against it at the 8-hour public hearing. The proposal involved a 60-unit, two-building, four-storey, independent living accommodation for seniors aged 55 and over. Residents were concerned about traffic increasing in the neighbourhood and losing the privately owned land they are currently using as a green space, believing it to be a public park.
  
  
• A new Growth Catalyst program was announced. Red Deer Polytechnic and the Red Deer Chamber are partnering with Mount Royal University to bring the program to Central Alberta. The program is a 7-month scale-up business accelerator program designed for companies with $2 million to $100 million in sales.

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