The first e-town hall proved to be the star of the budget sessions held last week, drawing the most residents of any of the sessions.
Only 18 residents went to the traditionally-formatted town hall on Nov. 13 and 24 went to the community roundtable Nov. 14. But 35 viewers tuned into the Nov. 15 session online, despite it being Friday evening.
At the Nov. 13 session at Bellerose Composite High School, council sat up front and they, along with staff, fielded questions from the small crowd. Several people took advantage of the time to ask questions that weren't strictly budget-related, with questions ranging from road and sidewalk work to whistle cessation to affordable housing.
Randy Duguay was concerned about vision for the city.
"Over time, don't our values change? Don't we have to think about what's our vision?" Duguay asked.
Coun. Cathy Heron noted the budget numbers are the results of strategic priorities previously set by council and administration. A planning session for the new council is planned for January, she noted, and there's a proposal to get public input into a long-term vision.
Leah Delage asked about whistle cessation projects in the budget, and heard that even once infrastructure is complete and a bylaw passed, it could be years before Transport Canada approves the move to stop the whistles.
"To me that's just not acceptable," Delage said.
Cliff Carter praised the use of the words cost-savings in the documentation provided to the audience, but wanted to know if the city was efficient, to which the mayor responded.
"Are we efficient? I mean, there's always improvements but what we've asked our staff to do is every year take half-a-dozen areas and do a deep probe in those half-a-dozen areas," mayor Nolan Crouse said.
City manager Patrick Draper noted the $2-million in savings, over $700,000 of which were found for the 2014 budget, as well as projects that are addressing some inefficiencies like consolidating the city's multiple websites.
Ted Durham wanted to know when the economic development department would have to show returns on the city's investment.
"Generally governments are in the business of public service and not of greater returns," Crouse said.
"We have a number of metrics that we will be reporting on but it's a long, slow process. If nothing else we have certainly created an environment where investors know to call us," said Guy Boston, the executive director of the economic development department.
Erin Ridge resident Murray Lambert wanted to know if any money had been put aside in the 2014 budget for potential infrastructure upgrades that could be triggered by the area's traffic assessment once that study is received.
Because the study hadn't been received yet and the recommendations unknown, they couldn't be included in the budget, Draper said.
Other topics included affordable housing, sidewalks along St. Albert Trail, worries over wildlife being trapped in any railway fencing that goes up and questions about how certain roads are picked for repair.
Online draws most interest
The Nov. 13 session was also webcast for viewers, while the Nov. 14 session was more informal and did not go online. However, it proved to be the all-online e-town hall Friday night – the first ever for the city – that drew the most people.
Marci Ng, a spokesperson for the city, said 35 viewers tuned in online to watch the session that was moderated by youth from BAM St. Albert.
"We had approximately 30 questions that came in," Ng said, noting questions could be submitted ahead of time but most were asked during the session. Questions were accepted by email, Twitter and Facebook, though Ng said no one took advantage of the Facebook option.
"We did have feedback from residents that they liked it," Ng said, noting there have been some requests to do a similar session with council in the spring.
There was a technical glitch that occurred during the webcast but it was fixed within 30 minutes, Ng said.
