The first year of the new millennium proved that St. Albert was, in fact, growing, so much so the city entered into talks with Sturgeon County about the future of 6,000 acres of farmland to St. Albert’s north and west. The St. Albert Badminton Club took the word ‘big’ literally by installing a 14-foot-tall badminton racquet outside its facility on Boudreau Road, what they believed was the biggest in the world. They hoped to register it with the Guinness Book of World Records. But the biggest news of February 2000 was the official induction of former school trustee and St. Albert luminary Lois Hole as Alberta’s 15th lieutenant governor.
By the next February, the province was in the throes of an election, pitting incumbent Mary O’Neill (PC) against former MLA Len Bracko (Liberal). It was O’Neill who had unseated Bracko in the previous provincial election. Locally, the city, after three months of debate, passed a controversial budget that slashed property taxes by three per cent but hiked user and franchise fees to make up the difference. In another decision, council opted that the west regional road would be named after former alderman and mayor Ray Gibbon, who died in 1999.
Teachers were up in arms in February 2002, in search of salary increases and better classroom conditions. While the Protestant board reached a one-year agreement with its teachers for a 10.9 per cent raise, the Alberta Teachers Association criteria committee voided it because the teachers would not see the money in the current school year. While the Protestant teachers said they wouldn’t strike, the rest of the educators in the province did. The teachers were ordered back to work by the legislature two weeks later.
While the teachers marched the picket lines, the first soldiers from Edmonton Garrison were deployed to Afghanistan. Walmart officially opened its 129,000-sq.-ft. store on Villeneuve Road and city council, in a 4-3 vote, decided to keep the title of alderman for members of council, over Ald. Lynda Moffat’s objections. The city was also shocked to discover that a young boy, who claimed that three teenagers had killed his dog at a local playground, had concocted the whole story. The dog had actually died after it became entangled in some equipment. Local man Lloyd Carr was selected as AADAC’s head of tobacco reduction, but the biggest news was that Canada won men’s hockey gold at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and St. Albert son Jarome Iginla — a late invite to the team — was a major part of the win.
February 2003 saw a monster computer error when new resident Donna Kjarsgaard received a city utility bill for $3 million. The actual total should have been $97.80. The city launched a bid to host the 2007 Western Canada Summer Games. Hole was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and pursued aggressive treatment.
By 2004, the regional idea of a multi-purpose leisure centre was officially dead as the last partner — Morinville — pulled out. Council subsequently decided to build the facility in Campbell Park. Some local soldiers took part in an effort at the garrison to set the record for the world’s longest hockey game, but were forced to call it quits 87 hours and 20 minutes into the game after 10 C temperatures turned the outdoor rink into slush. Sadly, An Quoc Tran, a janitor at Paul Kane High School, was found murdered at an apartment in Edmonton. Thieu Kham Tran (no relation) was charged with second-degree murder.
While there was little of note going on in February 2005, there was another murder in February 2006, this one in St. Albert as the body of realtor William Edward Maloney was discovered in his home. Within days, the RCMP charged Lisa McKay, at the time 25, with second-degree murder. In Edmonton, Thieu Kham Tran was found guilty of manslaughter for stabbing An Quoc Tran to death, not second-degree murder. The judge ruled Kham Tran was likely incensed at finding Quoc Tran in bed with Kham Tran’s estranged wife, which led to the manslaughter conviction.
With the Oilers retiring Mark Messier’s jersey in February 2007, St. Albert invited the former St. Albert Saint to pay a visit, which he did to much fanfare. The section of St. Albert Trail from 137 Avenue to St. Albert’s southern boundary was renamed Mark Messier Way by Edmonton. Meanwhile, Lloyd Carr, who only five years earlier had been named head of tobacco reduction for AADAC, was sued for the $624,500 he allegedly purloined through phoney contracts with the Alberta Lung Association. He had already been charged criminally. This was also the month when the annexation of Sturgeon County lands by St. Albert was finalized by the Municipal Government Board, with the city required to pay the county $800,000 in revenue over 10 years and a share of tax revenue from those lands until 2011. The county had sought 37 per cent of all commercial revenues along Highway 2.
February of 2008 saw more outrage in St. Albert after Servus Credit Union Place netted a $2.2-million deficit, which a task force was created to remedy. The following year saw another provincial election, but also the conviction of Anton Paul Rapati, 85, for sexually assaulting a local 12-year-old boy in the 1970s. Rapati had fled Canada for Holland and was arrested while trying to return. He received a jail sentence of 25 months.
St. Albert had a big stake in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 as local athletes Jarome Iginla, Meaghan Mikkelson, Marc Kennedy and Tamara Oudenaarden competed, with Iginla, Mikkelson and Kennedy doing the city proud and bringing home gold medals. More importantly for the city, it unveiled its new brand — Cultivate Life.
