St. Albert will not be waiting on the federal government to begin its work on potentially banning single use plastics before looking for solutions closer to home.
City council gave administration the go-ahead in May for a $96,000 study into the state of single use plastics in St. Albert, and planned to have the report in hand by second quarter 2021. Councillors held a discussion Monday about the item.
Last month, the federal government announced it would be banning single-use plastics by 2021. An administrative report for Monday's council meeting noted the government has not released any specific information on their program, and administration is supportive of a single use item reduction strategy work plan, which was originally presented to council on May 27.
City councillors spoke Monday about completing consultations associated with single-use items in conjunction with the federal government, but multiple councillors expressed concern with that.
Council moved to accept the discussion as information, which Mayor Cathy Heron voted against.
“I actually thought we should actually be a little bit more strong in our approach and ban the bag,” she said. “I just don’t know the effectiveness of (a) single use item reduction strategy.”
Technical reports on annexation moving ahead
Negotiations for the annexation of Sturgeon County land will continue throughout the summer with further technical studies.
At the most recent meeting of a subcommittee overseeing annexation negotiations on June 28, ISL Engineering presented information on technical studies for land within the maximum potential annexation area, according to a July 8 City of St. Albert press release.
Further public engagement will be scheduled later this year, which will inform the city’s final annexation application to the Municipal Government Board (MGB).
Since former Sturgeon County Coun. Susan Evans has resigned as councillor, St Albert. Coun. Ray Watkins will serve as chair until the next intermunicipal affairs committee meeting.
Intermunicipal recreation moving ahead
Work on crafting an intermunicipal collaboration framework for recreation between St. Albert and Sturgeon County will begin over the coming weeks.
A city press release said during a June 28 Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) task force meeting, two reports that reviewed intermunicipal partnerships already in place throughout the province and looked at various partnership models were accepted as information.
The task force will meet again at the beginning of August.
