On March 15, 1978, after the use of an incorrect cure created problems with ice bonding to the cement underneath, Akinsdale Arena officially opened to the public with free skating, pop and doughnuts. With one major project complete, the city started contemplating another and gave limited approval to construction of a west bypass that would start at 137th Avenue and finish at Villeneuve Road.
But by the following March, St. Albert was focused on maintaining its own independence as Edmonton city council voted to pursue its Horizon 21 plan, which included the annexations of St. Albert and Sherwood Park. Mayor Ronald Harvey immediately responded by opposing the bid, pushing for St. Albert’s continued autonomy.
By March of 1980, residents were again focused on the west bypass as hundreds turned out to a public meeting to express support for the idea. The city also got some help in the form of an $11-million grant to help the Sturgeon General Hospital upgrade and expand. On a humorous note, the Gazette quizzed students at Wild Rose Elementary School about what they thought the world would like in the year 2025. Among the dozens of answers: postulations that St. Albert will have atomic energy, will be as big as Edmonton and Vancouver put together and the voting age will be 12. Tennis nets will be replaced by force fields, people on TV will be able to talk to viewers and cars will either have rockets, will be able to drive themselves or won’t exist at all as the world will have run out of gas and we will all be riding horses.
Keep in mind there are still 14 years left for these predictions to come true.
Annexation was again top of mind in 1981 as council pursued a court injunction to stop a series of Edmonton ads that touted the benefits of one super city. The city followed up with a defamation lawsuit, in which Mayor Richard Fowler said Edmonton accused St. Albert council of keeping its citizens in the dark, of approving irresponsible development and not paying its fair share. The city hoped filing its statement of claim would be enough to stop the ads. Surprisingly, they continued to run. St. Albert did get some support from the ruling Tory party as delegates to its 1981 convention voted 90 per cent against a resolution calling for support of the annexation. Though not part of the annexation ads, Wayne Gretzky appeared at Bertha Kennedy School with then-girlfriend Vicki Moss to hand out fitness awards, speak, answer questions and sign autographs. It wasn’t the only hockey bonus that year — the St. Albert Saints defeated the Sherwood Park Crusaders in six games in the north final and advanced to the AJHL championship series.
The Saints repeated as north division champs in March 1982. But all those games were getting expensive as the price of gas hit the unheard of price of 71.5 cents per litre. The following year, the city decided to pony up $3.8 million to redevelop the lagoon on Riel Drive and upgrade the rodeo grounds, add RV camping and build rugby and soccer pitches. The RCMP trotted out a “public relations campaign” of their own, investigating local video stores and seizing two “soft-porn” tapes from Chauncey’s Video Shop. Possession of the tapes violated Customs Canada’s Tariff Act, which prohibited importing certain films.
St. Albert was growing in 1984 as the old city hall was slated to become a new $4.7-million provincial building with construction scheduled to wrap up late in 1985. As the city grew, so did transit, to the point the city considered making its buses independent of Edmonton. City engineer Don Corrigan even told council that, by using double-decker buses as early as 1985, it could become a tourist attraction as well as save the city money.
But 1985 saw no double-decker buses. Instead, the Saints were back in the news, not for winning in the playoffs but protesting a decision to increase ice fees to $80 per hour from $56. Council had already included a caveat for the Saints, which saw their fees increase only $4 per hour. Saints management protested anyway, drawing the ire of city council.
As if spurred by the Saints, in 1986 the city started drawing up plans for an enormous downtown facility that would house two hockey rinks, a figure skating rink, a curling rink, meeting rooms, a lounge and field houses for soccer, tennis, lacrosse, track and weightlifting. Unfortunately the proposed facility would not accommodate high school football, which had finally come to St. Albert after both school districts agreed to fund one team made up of students from Paul Kane and St. Albert high schools. Up until then, students who wanted to play high school football had been going to school in Edmonton. Anyone in the market for a computer in 1985 could get one at St. Albert’s Computer Alternatives, which advertised an IBM-compatible system with 256 kb of RAM, a 360 floppy drive, detached keyboard and 12-inch green monitor for $1,288.
The Saints again advanced to the league final in March 1987, but the team’s success was overshadowed by a larger recreation scandal. St. Albert was to host the 1987 Grand North American Old-Time Fiddlers Championship, but the event moved to the Red Barn in Bon Accord because the local chamber of commerce refused to concede to the demands of the Alberta Old-Tyme Fiddlers Association, which wanted either $2,000 in guaranteed profits or 50 cents per ticket sold. The fiddling championships never returned to St. Albert.
Peter Boer is an editor at the Gazette.
