The second half of 2009 may be showing signs of a global economic recovery, but the mayor isn’t ready to start celebrating just yet.
Council received an economic overview Monday night that shows Alberta’s economy continues to be affected by the global picture, which in turn is showing signs of recovery.
While the global trend may be a sign of good things to come, Mayor Nolan Crouse is more interested about what this means for St. Albert.
As some Alberta municipalities start implementing wage and hiring freezes for the upcoming year, Crouse is left wondering what strategies St. Albert needs to employ in 2010.
“We still don’t have a big grasp of the future in St. Albert. I think we are probably in this treading-water mode,” said Crouse, who noted 45 per cent of operating costs have to do with staffing, which can be controlled by council.
“I don’t think we have landed very strongly on a local strategy. We haven’t done anything really overt or aggressive, but we also haven’t kept our head in the sand either. We’ve just been watching in part, and hoping it all goes away.”
According to the overview from Bob Treidler, general manager of business and strategic services, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by an annualized rate of 0.4 per cent, marking the end of the economic recession, but full recovery is still ahead.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and price of oil have also seen a slight increase.
Unemployment, however, remains high in the region with a rate of 7.7 per cent in November compared to 3.6 per cent for the same period last year. That number is still lower than the national average of 8.5 per cent.
Although the city has been partly shielded from the effects of the economic recession, it has taken a hit on its investment revenue and the cost of providing services.
The current economic downtown has also been a good thing in that it’s provided some respite from pressures the city faced during a hot economy, such as operating costs and construction capital costs.
Crouse pointed out council hasn’t actively responded to the downturn of economy other than trying to keep municipal property tax increases to a minimum.
Council recently delivered on its commitment of delivering a property tax increase of no more than three per cent. But Crouse noted many proposed capital projects in the budgets would still proceed as planned.
Since there’s been such a significant decline in construction costs, Treidler suggested the city concentrate on more building projects in 2010.
