Red Deer Minute: Six Cats, Market Location, and Tax Increases Finalized

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

This Week In Red Deer:

• This will be a quiet week at City Hall with just a single meeting scheduled. The Housing and Homelessness Integration Committee will meet on Tuesday at 5:00 pm. On the agenda is a Housing and Homelessness Data Update report, as well as a closed session to discuss the Outreach & Support Services Initiative Service Delivery Plan.
  
  
• This will be the first full week in which non-emergency ambulatory transfer vehicles will be operational in Red Deer. As a way to reduce the non-emergency workload from emergency services personnel, new vehicles will be used to transport patients, freeing up fully equipped ambulances to respond to emergencies. There should be 10 such vehicles operational by July - some will look like regular ambulances and others will be customized vans.
  
  
• From April 28th to 30th, the Horse Expo will be taking place at Westerner Park. This is the largest equine trade show in Canada with over 200 exhibitors, a fashion show, an art show, and Trainers Showdown competition.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• City Council finalized this year’s tax increase for the year, and the increase came in lower than expected at 2.46% - but, no thanks to the City. As always, your tax bill is a combination of municipal and provincial taxes and this year, while municipal taxes went up a lot, provincial taxes actually went down. So, while the overall increase looks smaller than what the City initially proposed, don't write your Councillor any thank you cards - they had nothing to do with it! 
  
  
• The Red Deer Farmers’ Market announced their new home. The Market will be located at Red Deer Polytechnic for the foreseeable future after being kicked out of downtown earlier this year. The Market will be near the library, in parking lots C, Public East, F West, and D. It will open on May 20th, and will run every Saturday, from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, until October 7th.
  
  
• Council spent time discussing pets and a new Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw may be coming later in the year. They settled on endorsing four principles for the future bylaw that include a maximum of six cats, three dogs, four chickens, and no bee hives. This would also include removing the limit on the number of permits for chickens allowed. First reading of a new bylaw will likely take place in Fall 2023. It sure seems like there could be more important things that Council could be discussing.

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