City council was almost able to keep its promise of no property tax increases for three years, but May 1996 proved its undoing. Despite succeeding the previous two years, council discovered it would have to make some adjustments after the province mandated a general assessment for the 1996 year. As a result, taxes were expected to increase one to 10 per cent for some 16 per cent of homeowners. But the province obviously felt St. Albertans could afford it. Numbers released by Statistics Canada showed that, based on 1993 results, St. Albert had the second highest household income in the province at $64,000, coming in behind only Fort McMurray at $78,100. The city was also proud to open its first French-only school, Ă©cole La Mission, which would be entirely francophone, except for Grade 3 when students would start learning English language arts. On the sports front, the AJHL-champion St. Albert Saints lost game 7 of the Doyle Cup playoffs to the Vernon Vipers after battling their way back from a 3-1 series deficit.
Local Reform Party member of Parliament John Williams showed up in the news a lot. In May 1996 he drew strong criticism for stating he would vote against human rights legislation to protect gays and lesbians, saying it went against traditional Judeo-Christian values and that the majority of his constituents opposed it. By the following May, with Canada headed to the polls, Williams angered teachers at Vincent J. Maloney Catholic Junior High School, as well as his fellow candidates, when he violated a simple staff request not to do any “campaigning” with students during a school debate. A volunteer handed out stickers and pamphlets to the students despite the request. “Maybe the students are Reformers,” Williams later quipped. One year after winning the AJHL championship, Saints coach John Thompson resigned due to job commitments, again marking a long-time tradition of spring coaching changes for the team — he was the 15th coach in the team’s 20-year history. The Protestant school board also decided to make a change and voted to drop the word “Protestant” from its name, instead using the name St. Albert District No. 6 Schools. And Mother Nature decided to change it up a little as well, dumping 26 centimetres of snow on the city, which subsequently snapped more than 3,000 local trees.
May 1998 saw St. Albert still wrestling with what to do with video lottery terminals (VLTs). Ald. Bob Russell wanted a question on the fall election ballot to decide the matter. In total, there were 64 machines in St. Albert at 12 locations that generated $6.55 million annually, of which the city received $550,000 in grant funding from the province. There were other numbers in the news — after leading the Canadian Junior A Hockey League in scoring during the regular season with 60 goals and 78 assists and setting an AJHL playoff record with 24 goals and 48 points, the Saints’ Mike Comrie was named the most valuable player in all of Canadian junior A hockey. It was his final year in the league as Comrie committed to the University of Michigan Wolverines for the following season. The SPCA was called to the Rainmaker Rodeo after a heifer suddenly died. The cow had been brought to help calm her calf used in the roping competition but was later found dead. It was subsequently determined she had died as a result of heat exhaustion and internal bleeding after being bumped by another cow. The SPCA did not file any charges. It wasn’t the only animal death at the Rainmaker as a horse in the chariot races was euthanized after breaking a leg. In education, District No. 6 Schools and the Catholic board agreed to open Storefront school for students who hadn’t finished high school. The new centre would also feature some junior high classes as well as a new cyber-high program.
One year later, the St. Albert Senior Citizens’ Club, which had been closed since February when the roof caved in, finally announced it was open again, even though the reason for the collapse still hadn’t been determined. Emergency crews spent the long weekend cleaning up the Sturgeon River after a pipe on top of the Sturgeon Community Hospital burst, sending toxic algicide into city sewers and into the river. It was announced the bill for the cleanup would be sent to Capital Health. And in what was good news for the city but a black eye for the province, Environment Minister Ty Lund announced Big Lake had received a Special Places 2000 designation. Unfortunately, no one bothered informing the city and subsequently, no one from the city appeared at the lakeside press conference. Lund maintained it was a “provincial announcement,” and there was no need to invite anyone from St. Albert.
The first May of the new millennium was a busy one. Again honouring tradition, the Saints made a coaching change, hiring Gord Thibodeau as general manager and coach after firing Marcel Viveiros the previous month. In other hockey news, St. Albert firefighter Paul Charles was hired by the NHL’s Minnesota Wild as an amateur scout— he had been scouting for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL and had previously worked for the Swift Current Broncos. Thousands of Catholics celebrated the millennium and the church’s 140 years in St. Albert with a Jubilee Liturgy at Seven Hills, a mass performed once every 50 years. Yet it was at city hall where councillors were making news. Russell was at it again, this time calling for Ald. Carol Watamaniuk’s resignation after she voted against a proposed apartment complex in Grandin. It turned out the complex was metres away from a home Watamaniuk had recently purchased, and that her husband had signed a petition on behalf of local residents who were concerned their home values would fall if the apartments were built. Russell argued Watamaniuk was in a conflict of interest. The developer took the dispute to the Court of Queen’s Bench to try and have the 5-2 council vote against the complex quashed. Watamaniuk said she had consulted a lawyer about it and had acted with a clear conscience.
Peter Boer is an editor at the St. Albert Gazette.
