City Budget Notes

Capital questions The city needs a "real" 10-year capital plan, the city manager said during a question and answer session on Thursday night with city council.

The future of St. Albert Transit – especially park and rides – received a lot of attention during Thursday night’s budget deliberations.

Capital questions

The city needs a "real" 10-year capital plan, the city manager said during a question and answer session on Thursday night with city council.

As part of its ongoing budget deliberations, council was able to lob questions at staff about the capital budget. The current proposed 10-year capital growth plan, which deals with new and improved infrastructure needs to accommodate St. Albert's growth is worth about $339-million.

City manager Patrick Draper said council will receive a "facility matrix model" in January which they can use to start building a more council-driven 10-year plan, instead of one that's created by various departments.

"We do need to do a much better job of having a much more realistic 10-year capital plan," Draper said, noting there is a lot of focus on one year at a time for city budgets.

Planes, trains and buses

The fate of St. Albert's trainer T-Bird jet was on council's mind during its Tuesday budget deliberations.

As part of the 2015 budget it was offered a variety of options, including re-installing the plane at its home in front of the Legion or budgeting to eventually move it.

Transit questions also came up during the same session, with staff recommending against setting aside funds for an interim park and ride and focusing on the future Campbell Park facility instead.

Transit director Bob McDonald also noted they want to revise local routes.

Council's also going to be considering paying $450,000 for railroad safety upgrades in pursuit of train whistle cessation, something Coun. Wes Brodhead wanted to make sure was in the budget.