By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Highlights from Monday’s City Council meeting

May 18, 2021 | 5:30 AM

Highlights from Monday’s Grande Prairie City Council meeting.

Property tax deadline extended

Council has pushed back the property tax deadline to August 31.

A new bylaw has been passed that set that as the new deadline and says that September 1 would be the date when penalties for current taxes and taxes in arrears would be applied.

The penalty is six per cent.

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Guidance to budget building

Council passed a motion meant to give city staff some guidance when it comes to putting together the city’s budget for 2022.

It has given administration the direction of holding any potential tax increase to between 1.4 and 2.4 per cent.

Administration asked for this outline based on the current Consumer Price Index of 1.9 per cent.

Council decided against working on a range of 0 to 2.4 per cent at this time partly because of the volatility of the CPI and a desire to have council, rather than administration, come up with areas where cuts could be made.

Procedure Bylaw amendments put off

Council put off third and final reading on changes to the Procedure Bylaw after a long discussion.

The concern was a section on remote meeting attendance. There was some worry that allowing this post-pandemic would lead to abuses of the privilege.

Council did pass an amendment to limiting remote access attendance post-pandemic to six committee meetings and six council meetings per calendar year.

Council also approved having administration look at possible amendments to the Council Code of Conduct that would encourage in-person meeting attendance.

GPRHF funding request put to budget talks

A $500,000 funding request from the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital Foundation has been referred to fall budget talks.

The money would go to the Foundation’s Key to Care campaign, which focuses on buying equipment for the new hospital. A letter from the Foundation to Council says having money to buy equipment is one way to recruit specialists.

The city had previously given the Key to Care campaign $500,000.

Downtown Association request pushed to committee

A request from the Downtown Association to have the city pay the Business Improvement Area levies on behalf of 400 businesses located downtown has been referred to the committee level for more discussion.

The Association says downtown businesses have been overwhelmed with pressures this year and last, and that they had debt, overhead, and rent back payments to deal with.

Edmonton and Calgary have already made similar moves. Administration says granting this request would cost City Hall $350,000.

Councillor Dylan Bressey says he would prefer to see such relief targeted at businesses most impacted by COVID restrictions and the construction currently underway on 100 Avenue.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice requested by Mayor

Council has endorsed a letter from Mayor Jackie Clayton to Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu, asking for a Court of Queen’s bench judge for the city that actually lives in Grande Prairie.

The letter says there has not been one in 20 years. Currently, Queen’s Bench judges are brought in from Edmonton.

The letter says reduced costs, mentoring opportunities for local lawyers, and more continuity in court matters would be some of the benefits of having a Queen’s Bench judge who lives here.