Red Deer Minute: Veer Split, Skyrocketing Permits, and a New Dream Centre

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

This Week In Red Deer:

• Council has another quiet week ahead, with only one meeting scheduled at City Hall.
  
  
• That meeting is a City Council Meeting on Tuesday at 1:30 pm. The meeting will open In Camera (in secret) to discuss how to encourage investments using City land and how to allocate an additional federal grant to address homelessness. It's not clear why that discussion needs to be in secret. Council will also receive a request from the 2021 Canadian Finals Rodeo & 2023 Men's AAA National Championship.
  
  
• Ribfest returns to Red Deer this Friday at Westerner Park. This year will feature 4 award-winning rib teams that have travelled all over North America and are finally in Red Deer to serve you up some of that authentic smokey rib goodness. With summer winding down, Ribfest could be one of the last opportunities to get out and enjoy the BBQ season with friends and family.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• The City is hoping that federal funding will help make the proposed Red Deer Dream Centre a reality. The proposed 40-bed treatment facility is expected to be completed by the end of the year with operations set to begin in the Spring of 2022. Unexplained is why this "advice from officials" can appear in the news two weeks ago and yet still provide the basis for a secret meeting on the following Tuesday.
  
  
• New building permits revenue continued to rise for the City over the summer, with an increase of $4.1 million raised in July 2021 compared with July 2020. Interestingly though, this extra revenue came despite a reduction in the number of permits being applied for. In other words, it's just becoming increasingly more expensive to build in Red Deer.
  
  
• Finally, Mayor Tara Veer has announced she will not be seeking a third term as Mayor and a sixth term serving Red Deer overall. She was first elected to Council in 2004, when she was only 26 and says she wants to focus on her "next professional endeavour." Four Mayoral candidates were already registered, but this announcement will likely mean that list will now grow.

-----

Donate:

Common Sense Red Deer doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please email this post to your friends, share it on Facebook or Twitter, and help make sure every Red Deerian knows what's really going on at City Hall.