Medicine Hat Alderman Blogging

While posting my note about Calgary Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart's blog and I noticed another muniblog that I found a while ago.

Medicine Hat Alderman Ty Schneider is also running a blog. Ty's blog is called: My View From Council. It looks like although he's fairly new to blogging he's posting pretty regular updates. Ty focuses a lot on the price of Natural Gas - which isn't surprising considering the City of Medicine Hat owns it's own natural gas company. (I hear that there a was a time "back in the day" where GP could have set up the same thing but the council of the day decided against it - too bad.)

Anyhow, in my continuing search for local government politicians on the web I'll be adding his blog to the Worthwhile Blogs section on the right side of the page.

Check out Ty's blog to see what's happening in municipal politics in Medicine Hat.

Enjoy!

Calgary Alderman Blogging

Following along with some Alberta municipal mentions on Twitter I found the blog site of Calgary Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart. Calgary is split up into wards and Diane represents the Glenmore area.

It looks like Diane has only recently started blogging, with 2 posts in July and 2 in August.

So, in my continuing search for local government politicians on the web I'll be adding her blog to the Worthwhile Blogs section on the right side of the page.

Check out Diane's blog to see what's happening in municipal politics from down south, in Calgary Glenmore.

Enjoy!

First FlowRider Experience

When I left for a quick west coast vacation a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I might have time to squeeze in a little activity that what "somewhat" council related. Well, here are the pics...

On the way back to GP we stopped off in Kelowna to visit the brand new H2O Activity & Fitness Centre. Of course with our new aquatics centre under construction it's worth while to visit any new facility for ideas but this one is special; it has Canada's first FlowRider... Grande Prairie will have Canada's second.

I lobbied hard to have the Flowrider included in the facility because I felt that it would add a unique, active, element to the building. I thought that it would be just the thing to attract the "15 - 20 yr old skateboard/snowboard kids" who I feel are kind of missed by the other pool elements we had in the design. On top of all that I think it has a good opportunity to be a revenue generator for the facility.

After trying it and seeing who was using it - I'm pretty confident that it will tick off all those points above.

Here's some pics of my first time on a FlowRider:

The use of the FlowRider was included in my drop in fee of $9.50 (non-member price) but since we were just making a quick detour and I wanted to get a lot of rides in a short period I also bought another band that allowed me to go approximately once for every four or five normal riders. That was an additional charge of $10. Here's body-boarding. To get on you enter from the top of the wave.

After body-boarding a couple times next up was surfing. The lifeguard had a rope for me to hang onto as I got started, from the bottom of the wave this time...

... confident enough to let go of the rope and managing pretty well!

.... but it all comes to a finish as I wipe out (the kid sitting down on the right obviously liked it)

A few quick things I noticed:

• There were always about 20 people lined up to ride
• Users ranged from boys and girls of about 8 or 10 up to guys that had to be 40+
• Two other boys had the "skip the line" wristband I paid $10 for & they could do lots of tricks
• The attendants (one at the top and one at the bottom) would control how long each person's ride was
• There was always a big crowd watching the action from the dry area of the pool

All in all it was a VERY fun time and I think the FlowRider is going to be great in GP!

GGS Committee Agenda for July 13th

This is my first post after being out of the city for a while on a short summer vacation. I did manage to squeeze in the "council related activity" I mentioned and I'll be posting pictures soon.

Today is a "Council Monday" so we will have our full regular meeting tonight at 7pm. I was going to post the agenda for that but it doesn't seem to be online this morning. So, in it's place I'm getting a little head start on the week and posting the Agenda for the General Government Services committee meeting that will happen on Wednesday.

The names you see below the agenda items are the staff members who are presenting the report on that item. My quick comments are in italics.

1. Refund of Property Tax
S. Smith, Assessor
It doesn't happen very often but occasionally the city's tax assessment department does make mistakes. In this instance there was an error in the square footage calculation of a property that resulted in the owner being over billed. Since 2004 they've been paying more in taxes they they should have. City staff are recommending that we refund the total amount of the over billing, $10,542.15

2. Bill 202 Municipal Government Act
J. Ferguson, Legislative Services Manager
This bill from the province calls for the creation of a Municipal Auditor. Not a bad idea but 1) it has the potential to create a lot of additional work for municipalities and 2) the Minister of Municipal Affairs already had the power to order municipalities to under go an audit.

Along with Bill 203 I think it's an example of a private member's bill that addresses a perceived problem rather than an actual one. Both pieces of legislation have their good points but I think they went ahead without a lot of research being done. For example I don't think either AUMA or AAMD&C (the organizations representing Alberta municipalities) were consulted in the creation of these. Janette is bringing this bill to council's attention (I first heard of it this spring on Twitter) and I imagine that the committee will ask for a report on how this will impact the city. We may also take a position forward to AUMA asking them to lobby the province for changes. Looking on Twitter I just noticed that the Province is asking for public input on the Bill, I imagine we'll as staff to prepare a submission.

On a somewhat related note; I think it's odd the province wants to create more auditor positions when they don't even fund the one they already have.

3. Customer Satisfaction Survey
D. Olinger, Marketing Communications Manager
This report formalizes the process of doing Customer Satisfaction survey's in the city every 2 years. The next one would be in March of 2011. Having it then will allow the new council (elected in October of 2010) to use the input from residents as they build their strategic plan in the spring of that year and the 3 year budget in the fall. It's a great feedback loop that will ensure that the views of residents are reflected in the city's business planning process.

4. Correspondence
4.1. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, re: Government of Alberta Response to FISC Recommendations on Forest Industry Competitiveness

4.2. R. Danyluk, Minister, Alberta Municipal Affairs re: Unconditional Municipal Grant
This is an annual grant, and it's one of the few that comes without strings attached, like saying it has to be used by a certain time, or for a certain type of project or service. The total amount of the grant this year is $592,188 or approximately 0.00422 % of our yearly budget.

4.3. Town of Grande Cache, re: Invitation to Grande Cache’s 40th Anniversary
Congratulations Grande Cache!
In this letter they are inviting the Mayor to attend to help celebrate at their Opening Ceremonies on Friday September 4th. The weekend of the 4th to the 7th the Town will be hosing a Homecoming celebration for everyone who ever lived in Grande Cache - mark it on your calendar!

5. Other Business

Minister Blackett in GP to Make Funding Announcements

Back in 2007 I mentioned that a new funding program, the Major Community Facilities Program (MCFP), was launched by the provincial government at the Coca-Cola Centre in Grande Prairie. I was hopeful that the time that having the launch at the CKC would be a good omen for the city receiving some support from this program for the construction of the aquatics centre.

The program was originally supposed to provide up to $280 million in grants to communities across the province. Since it's launch the department responsible has a new minister in charge (Lindsay Blackett, MLA for Calgary North-West has take over for Hector Goudreau, MLA for Dunvegan-Central Peace) and the program has given out 131 grants adding up to $203 million.

See the list of grants given out here:
Grants in 2007/08 (pdf)
Grants in 2008/09 (pdf)

So far Grande Prairie hasn't received any money from this program towards the aquatics centre. The only grant the city has received at this point is $500,000 towards the Centre for Creative Arts renovations. Even when you add in the $350,000 the county of GP received for renos to the Clairmont arena I can't help but feel the Grande Prairie area is being left out compared to other Alberta communities

Check out these examples:

Brooks, $3.38 Million (Multiplex)
Camrose, $3.5 Million (Performing Arts Centre)
Cold Lake, $3.0 Million (Multiplex)
Leduc, $2.0 Million (Multiplex)
Lethbridge (U of L), $2.0 Million (Sports Centre)
Lethbridge, $3.68 Million (Multiplex Renewal)
Penhold, $2.0 Million (Multiplex)
Red Deer, $3.7 Million (Community Centre Renos)

Of course that's leaving out Edmonton & Calgary who have seen multiple grants. In some situations multiplex projects in the two major centres have been given grants of $10 million in one shot.

So, I'm hopeful that this afternoon we'll have some good news from Minster Blackett.

Update:
The city received $1M towards the multiplex construction. Of course we are grateful for any support but that's about 1% of the cost of the project so although it's helpful it's only so great. The minister did hand out just over $4M in grants during his visit. The Daily Herald has all the details here

Alberta at the IMCL Conference

As the IMCL conference as wound on it's been interesting to note some of the attendees here from Alberta and western Canada.

Some of the elected officials I've seen at the conference are; Red Deer Mayor, Morris Flewwelling, Strathcona County Councillors Linda Osinchuk & Vic Bidzinski and Medicine Hat Councillor, John Hammill, Kelowna Councillor Andre Blanleil.

There are also quite a few Canadian planners, parks department staff and other administrators coming from Victoria to Regina to Hamilton.

In Portland for the 47th Annual IMCL Conference

First off; Happy Mothers Day! Unfortunately I'm not in Grande Prairie to take my mom out for brunch, I'm starting off this Mother's Day in Portland, Oregon - sitting in Peet's Coffee. So, Mom, the best I can say is that I'm thinking of you and I hope the phone call will suffice - thanks for being you!

I'm in Portland for the 47th Annual Making Cities Liveable Conference (IMCL). I hadn't heard of the event until last fall when all of council was emailed an invitation to come. The invite immediately piqued my interest because Portland has a very good reputation for great neighbourhood planning, redevelopment and public transportation. Added to the fact that the host city has a great reputation the conference has a great program - that really strikes home.

In fact, the sessions really seem to speak to a lot of the themes that are coming out in the public consultation process of our Municipal Development Plan review. Here are a few sessions that caught my eye:

• Cities for health & well-being
Urban planning for physical & social health. Active living & the walkable, bikeable city. Planning for
commuting by foot and bike. Land Use principles for the healthy city. Health effects of sprawl. Sprawl, lack of community & social pathology. Dangers of social isolation for the young & the elderly. Psychological effects of the built environment. Making streets work to improve social & physical health.

• Integrating transit and land-use
Make towns - instead of traffic planning & housing development. Evaluating TODs: case studies. Including transit in development review. Environmental justice in transportation planning. Innovative new TOD projects.
(GP's Transit Master Plan is due to be released shortly)

• Regional planning for healthy cities
Sustainable regional transportation & land-use planning. Promoting regional identity. Curbing sprawl. Focusing development in town centers. Achievements in limiting big box retail.

• Nature in the urban environment
Importance of contact with nature for health & well-being. Natural urban places for exercise, adventure, relaxation & stimulation. Natural beauty & well-being. Designing & restoring parks, community gardens, wild areas. Restoring biodiversity.
(GP has a Urban Park Master Plan being developed right now)

So with all those great sessions (and many others) it looks to be a worthwhile week and I'm happy that I chose to come here and forego the FCM conference that happens at the end of the month in Whistler. During the week I'll be posting from the conference, covering the highlights of the sessions. Registration is today at 1pm and I'm looking forward to getting started!

City of Brooks Recognizes GPs Greatness

The Grande Prairie Storm had a great season, wining the AJHL and going on to the Doyle Cup.

The win in the AJHL finals was over the Brooks Bandits and it was enough to open the eyes of the Mayor Shields of Brooks to how "Great" Grande Prairie is. He's a good sport.

(click to enlarge)

Do Signal Lights Really Matter? (Take the Poll!)

The blue marker shows the intersection where the lights are down

What would happen if we took out all the signal lights in Grande Prairie and instead relied on drivers to work with each other through 4-way stops?

As per the release below, the traffic signals at the intersection of 99th Avenue and Resources Road (the Royal Bank intersection) have been down for a few days now. It's a change for sure and I know that it will take some time for people to get used to - but is it really a bad thing? I haven't found it too difficult to navigate and it seems like traffic is moving pretty efficiently. (let me know what you think by taking the poll on the right side of the blog)

A few years ago a friend pulled me aside to say that he thought that GP had waaaaay to many traffic lights. He implored me to think about finding ways to build safe streets without putting up more lights. At the time I wasn't sure what the alternative was but now looking at how the traffic is behaving with that set of lights down I can see that moving away from standard traffic signals might be possible.

In fact this idea is getting a lot of a attention across the pond in Europe. There they are taking the concept even further, calling it "Shared Space" and taking away all traffic control signs, lights and markings from entire towns and villages! The early results show that accidents have decreased - people are suggesting that drivers pay more attention and drive slower. From Der Spiegel:

"Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously."

Read this Entire Article for more and view the basics behind Shared Space here on YouTube.

So, is GP ready to jump on to the Shared Space bandwagon? I'm not so sure about that. But I do think drivers can be more careful, take more responsibility and that we can draw on some of the lessons from Europe as we build our community.

City Media Release on Downed Lights:

Major Intersection Lights Under Repair
Friday, March 13, 2009 2:46:00 PM

Motorists are advised it could take up to two weeks to repair traffic lights at 98 Street and 99 Avenue and the City’s Transportation Services Department urges caution at this busy intersection.

Extensive damage occurred to the signals as a result of a motor vehicle accident on Thursday evening. One of the main poles supporting the lights was completely destroyed and its base needs repair.

The control cabinet was also demolished in the mishap.

“Repairs could take up to two weeks,” says Transportation Field Supervisor Brian Veitch. “A new cabinet and pole will have to be installed. We ask motorists to be patient at this intersection.”

An all-way stop has been established at the intersection.

Ice and Snow

Well, it's -35C this morning so what better time to sit down with a coffee and do a little electronic (web) surfing.

Clicking through my Regular Reading (which can be found on the right hand side of the blog, down near the bottom) I popped in to Leslie Ayer-Jaschke's blog to see if she's resumed posting after the holidays, turns out she has and her first post back is on sidewalk snow removal in Peace River.

Of course with winter comes snow and ice all across the north so the kinds of problems Leslie describes are pretty common. For quite some time in Grande Prairie we've had a bylaw (You'll find the relevant section under Part 4, about mid way down the page) in place requiring residents and businesses to clear any sidewalks that bound their property, or risk facing a $100 fine or the possibility of the city cleaning it and then sending a bill to the property owner. That would only happen in some pretty extreme circumstances but many people aren't aware of it so this year we decided to to a little promotion of the bylaw and the fact that enforcement services is looking for people to comply.

Wouldn't you know it though, just a few weeks after this hit the media I had an email from a resident with a complaint. They live on a fairly major route through the city and they work hard to keep the sidewalk in front of their house clear. The problem is that some of our city trucks are equipped with "belly-blades" so they can also throw snow off the streets as they drive around doing regular loads. Seems like a good idea right? Might as well have every city vehicle that is on the roads working to help clear the streets right?

Well, these guys move faster and have less control of where the snow goes in comparison to a grader. (it just gets sent to the outside of the road) so what happens? They throw snow on to the sidewalk this poor resident just cleared. I've raised the issue with the public works director but isn't it funny how one good idea can sometimes have unintended side effects?

Anti-Idling Bylaws; Surprise, Surprise... GP Already Has One.

Sometimes things get missed.

This article from Monday's edition of the Daily Herald Tribune looking at the possibility of an anti-idling bylaw seems to be spurred on by news from Edmonton. The Mayor ways quoted;

Discussions over an anti-idling bylaw in Edmonton last week stimulated debate in Grande Prairie on whether such a bylaw could apply to this northern city.

Edmonton is considering a bylaw that would give a $250 fine to drivers who idle their vehicles for more than three minutes within a 30-minute period – it would not apply under temperatures -11 and below.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” said Mayor Dwight Logan about the bylaw. “I’m reluctant to support something that infringes on people’s right to do things that may not negatively impact other people.

“On the other hand, arguments can be made that the idling does impact other people.”

A bylaw addressing idling has not reached city council in the last few years, said the mayor, but they will look closely to Edmonton’s decision on the matter. ...

So, the story gained a little momentum and generated this editorial in today's paper;

The idea of a bylaw limiting how long people can keep their vehicles running, at first might seem laughable, but it’s no idle threat.

Anti-idling bylaws, as they’re commonly called, are just one of many environmentally-driven ideas that have become all the rage in communities across Canada. While many of these bylaws, and the people supporting them, have their hearts in the right place, we urge caution and not blind obedience. Edmonton is the latest city in Alberta to examine the idea. Jasper has had a bylaw since 2007.

It might not come up in Grande Prairie, but if it does, it’s not a clear-cut issue. ...

The thing is that Grande Prairie does actually have an anti-idling provision in one of it's bylaws, and has had since 2003! You can read the full bylaw here but I've coped the important part below;

Bylaw C-1103
A Bylaw of the City of Grande Prairie, to prohibit certain nuisances, disturbances and activities creating noise; and to abate the incidence of noise and to restrict when certain sounds may be made
(As Amended by Bylaw C-1103A and C-1103B)

...

MOTOR VEHICLES
17. No person shall use or engage in the use of engine retarder brakes within the City.
18. No person shall allow a motor vehicle engine to remain running in a residential district or within 500 feet of a residential district for longer than 20 minutes while the motor vehicle is not in motion.
19. The failure of a person to comply with the provisions of the Traffic Safety Act or any regulations thereunder regarding:
(a) the prohibition against the use of signalling devices on motor vehicles so as to make more noise than is reasonably necessary;
(b) the restrictions in the type or use of mufflers and similar equipment;
(c) the prohibition against creating or causing the emission of any loud and unnecessary noise from a motor vehicle; or
(d) the operation of a vehicle on a highway in a residential district between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in a manner that unduly disturbs the residents of that area;
....
(my bolding)

From reading the bylaw you can see why the issue came up; noise - not environmental impact. I remember discussing the issue and hearing from quite a few residents who were upset with neighbours who would leave large diesel trucks running in the driveway over night. It was only after quite a bit of debate that we decided to include part 18.

So, turns out that GP has had anti-idling provisions in it's bylaws for quite a while. Its not as specific as Edmonton is considering but it is there. Sometimes these things get missed.

Spice Things Up For The Holidays

With the holidays upon us I thought I'd do a quick post this afternoon to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2009!

2008 has been a very busy year for the City of Grande Prairie and I think we'll see the same in 2009. Of course we're aware of the concerns out there about the economy but over all I believe that our region will enter '09 in at least as strong a position as any other city in the province, or country for that matter.

Exciting things are happening in our city; construction has started (finally) on the swimming pool / multiplex, the new Library/Art Gallery will open this spring and this winter our roads are benefiting from the extra $1.3m in snow removal budget passed last year.

I'm going to try to do a year end wrap up over the break so check back for that as the new year approaches.

In the mean time I had to share this little bit of municipal news from south of the border:

"ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Slush has never smelled so spicy.

City crews in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny are using garlic salt to melt snow and ice on streets from Tuesday's storm. The salt was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a top spice producer headquartered in Ankeny.

Public Works Administrator Al Olson said the company donated 18,000 pounds of garlic salt to use on its 400 miles of roads.
Olson doesn't have details, but he said the salt would have ended up in the landfill, so the company donated it. A telephone call Wednesday to Tone Brothers wasn't immediately returned.

Olson said the city mixed the garlic salt with regular road salt and it works fine. He said some road workers say it makes them hungry, but Olson doesn't recommend it to spice up lunch or dinner."

That town is going to smell great come spring - I see an upswing in business coming for the local Italian restaurants!

Merry Christmas!

Mobile Blogging (or Lack Thereof)

Last week I was in Edmonton for the annual AUMA conference. I went down a day early so I could be there at 9am for a full day pre-convention workshop on "Green Building". During the session I was taking notes and then during the break I typed up a little synopsis on my blackberry that I emailed in to Blogger (the system that runs this website) so that it would come up as a new post for your to check out.

I did the same thing the next couple of days as I attended education session and the rest of the conference. During a little downtime in the hotel room I thought I'd just check in on the site to make sure that the posts looked ok as the formatting doesn't always translate well from the blackberry to the website.

Imagine my surprise when none of the posts I had emailed in where up on the site! Not a single one had made it up there - I don't know if the problem was with blogger or with my email or with the blackberry.

Luckily I still have my notes, so over the next few days I'll take some time an put together a post to cover the conference. There was a lot of good information and I'd really like to pass it on.

In the mean time, you can check out this overview from Peace River Councillor Leslie Ayre-Jaschke. Leslie and I have emailed back and forth a few times since she's started her blog but this AUMA conference was only the second time we've met in person (the other time was when she represented PR council in GP for the 50th Anniversary Home Coming Weekend).

Ecolobus - Electric Transit Bus

The first day I was in Quebec City I saw the Ecolobus. It wasn't until the second last day of the conference that I was able to actually track one down for a ride!

Quebec City transit has recently started running these little guys around the downtown core. How recently? - the one I was in only had 648km on it! According to the city transit website ( french / english translation) they can run approximately 100km per charge so mine had only been in service for about a week.

The driver figured they cost the city about $400 000 by the time they were shipped to Canada and had heaters installed. I spoke to a Quebec City council member on Sunday and he confirmed that the price was about that. They have tested them in the winter and didn't see any problems.

After a little sleuthing on the web I found the Italian manufacturer's website . They suggest that the bus can handle up to 31 passengers at a time (some standing and some sitting).

During a conference break I had a chance to sit down with Jeremy and Ted from Medicine Hat. They were pretty interested in the ecolobus too so maybe there's an opportunity for GP and Med Hat (and others in the province) to get together and make a bulk purchase. I would like to see our transit department contact the other mid-sized cities in Alberta and see if we can get something going.

The smaller size even makes good sense for growing communities like GP. One of the challenges we face with Transit is that we have new neighbourhoods where the road network isn't fully built, making it tough to find a good route for a big bus. We also have areas where there isn't quite the density to demand a large bus, yet. Smaller buses (no matter what they run on) might be the answer.

So, what do you think; should GP invest in some, money saving, clean running buses?

FCM 2008, Day One - Making Transit Work in Smaller Communities

I think Lorne Radbourne and I were the only ones from GP to sit in on this session. Other GP delegates may have taken in another one on a different topic but considering the City is working on a Transit Master Plan review I thought this was pretty timely.

From the conference program:

Making Transit Work in Smaller Communities
Room: 200 A

Moderator: Councillor Louise Poirier, City of Gatineau, Que., board and executive member of Canadian Urban Transit Association

Speakers: Huguette Dallaire, Director General, Société de transport de Sherbrooke; Dennis Fletcher, Director,Transit Solutions, ENTRA Consultants; Steve New, Senior Vice President, BC Transit.

FCM’s National Transit Strategy, released in March 2007, called on all three orders of government to develop a coordinated
approach to funding and supporting public transit. Part of this strategy called on provinces and territories, working with municipalities and supported by the federal government, to develop separate and appropriately designed and targeted policies
and programs to fund and support transit systems in smaller communities.What are the unique challenges facing transit in smaller communities?What is required from planners, transit operators, funding providers, and residents and businesses? This seminar will explore these questions, guided by municipal practitioners and public transit experts.



Huguette Dallaire the Director General of Society de Transport de Sherbrooke (STS) presented on the Sherbrooke experience.

Sherbrooke has a population of 150 000 residents, 25 000 of whom are students! (wow, that's a lot but in terms of transit that's a plum user group to target) The STS has a $26M budget per year with a mixed fleet including 79 buses and 10 adapted mini buses. The city is relatively low density, there is lots of parking and public had a low perception of transit, and high car useage.

When they conducted a survey looking at transit they found that bus routes were too long, schedules didn't seem to bare any relation to people's work or school schedules and so it was no surprise that there was a 11% decrease in ridership between 1991 and 2003.

Since then Sherbrooke STS worked to become an "Urban Mobility Manager". They have an integrated school transportation system. (We are just now working with the school boards to do the same thing in Grande Prairie) STS identified that it's service must be; Accessible, Speedy, Reliable, Frequent and Comfortable.

They then looked to develop specific "target client groups" using both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) approaches and then focusing their efforts on the largest target groups with in those sectors. (Hmmmm, maybe those 25, 000 students?)

Speaking of students, the University of Sherbrooke stepped up and committed to paying the full transit costs for it's 14 000 students at a cost of $1.2m yearly. This led to a 125% increase in ridership for that target group in a single year. The local colleges also came on board but there the students paid for transit directly through registration fees at a cost of $50/term.

As for major employers, the STS worked with the hospital which now pays 40% of the transit costs for their 4000 employees.

And finally STS developed "Communal Bus" lines specifically targeted at seniors. The communal lines are served by mini-buses focused on stops that have special interest to seniors and provide shorter walking distance to stops (100m vs 400m).

For their efforts between 2003 to 2007 Sherbrooke saw a 16% increase in ridership.


Dennis Fletcher from Transit Solutions, provided some great examples of ideas that are working in smaller communities...

Rimouski, Quebéc has a "Taxibus" service which is a demand/response or zone bus systems that operates on a fixed schedule but not fixed route. It's operated through a partnership with local taxi companies. You call the number and a dispatcher arranges your ride which you share may share with other people who can be picked up and dropped off during your ride. in 2004 the municipal contribution to this service was $180 000.

PEI, is developing a Commuter Connector system that acts as a trunk line between municipalities with Community Connectors in small municipalities that operate off the trunk system.

Halifax has instituted a rural express service and developed a Community Planning guide for small communities within the regional municipality. The guide enables the smaller communities to plan their development to integrate with the larger system.

Dennis suggests that the keys to effective transit systems are; Imaginative Ideas, a Local Champion, Community Support and finally Stamina.

FCM 2008, Day One - GMF & Sustainability Session

The first session I attended was on FCM's Green Municipal Fund and Sustainable Community Plans. This is obviously a hot topic as it was a packed room!



Other GP delegates attending the session were; Gladys Blackmore, Elroy Diemert, Dan Wong, Yad Minhas, Lorne Radbourne and Greg Scerbak (Director of Community Development)

Some of the key points I was able to catch from the presentations:

Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is a $500 million pot of funds provided by the Federal Government and administered through FCM.

GMF Grants are available for financing up to 50% (up to a maximum of $350 000!) of the cost of a project like developing a municipal Sustainability Plan. Some other examples of how municipalities have use the GMF grants:

• Sherbrook used a grant to help optimize their transit system.
• Laval, received $40 000 to develop an inventory of their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

Mayor, Alan DeSousa from Saint-Laurent Borough, Montréal
spoke on the experience of developing a MSP of the island of Monteal....

"Many plans have been developed over the past 10 years but there have been little action." Key is to actually implement the plan. Doing a MSP is like building a house, you must; "Build a foundation before you can put the walls and the roof over."Community engagement was key in the development of the plan.

In first phase of the plan (2005 - 06) there were 24 specific actions that were identified in the plan and then in the second phase (2007 - 09) they have an additional 36 actions.

Asked community partners to publicly endorse the plan and commit to implementing at least 5 of the actions identified in the plan.

They first started with 49 community partners and are now up to 120 who have endorsed the plan and committed to meeting at least 5 of the 24 or 36 actions identified in the plan.


Councillor, Karen Leibovici, City of Edmonton

Edmonton council developed a City Vision looking forward 30 Years and then the work was in "back-casting" the actions that would lead to the realization of the vision.

Emdonton, like Grande Prairie, has a variety of "Master Plans" that govern how specific service are delivered or how the municipality develops. One of the outcomes of their work and visioning is that Plans like Transit Master Plan and Municipal Development Plan are being done in unison to ensure that they are integrated and both leading towards the vision.

In addition to the traditional Master Plans Edmonton also has a "Enviomental Strategic Plan" which I think is a great way to ensure that environmental initiates have a home and are approached in a coordinated manner.

First off the City of Edmonton committed to leading the way through their municipal operations. For example they; demanded a LEEDs Silver standard for all new municipal buildings, are testing 6 new hybrid buses, have converted 900+ traffic signal lights to LEDs, are working on a Sustainable Fleet Strategy and have funded a$30 million Energy Management Revolving Fund. ( ? - I'll need to do a little research on exactly what that is... )

They also developed what they call the " CO2RE Team" with community partners. Once again; "Partnerships were developed at the front end of the process."

The CO2RE team developed GHG reduction targets of 6% by 2010 and 20% 2020. Karen acknowledged that the recent growth in Edmonton is forcing them to review these targets to see how they can still be met.

A couple other initiates that have come from the CO2RE team;
• Home$avers how-to booklets, that are available in hard copy and on the web
• Home Depot partnership to promoting sales of energy efficient items
• Epcor $50 rebate on 6L low-flow toilets

Something Is Going On In Crowsnest Pass

A little while ago that I noticed Councillor Gary Taje from Crowsnest Pass was blogging - well something must be up in the Alberta Rockies because I've just been contacted by another councillor from "the Pass" who is blogging.

Dean Ward sent me a note last week introducing himself and his blog. Dean is into his second term on council down there and while he doesn't have a lot of postings so far the ones he has are pretty neat. (I might copy his Affordable Housing post, substituting GP numbers of course)

So, as I like to do when I find Alberta municipal politicians blogs .... I'll be adding Dean's blog Crowsnest Pass Home to the Worthwhile Blogs section on the right side of the page.

After you've visited Dean and Gary in Crowsnest Pass, don't forget to visit Leslie in Peace River.

Enjoy!

Yellowknife AWG - Day One

It's the end of what has been a full day. I'm about to crash in to bed but I thought I'd upload some pictures from Day One of the trip to the 2008 Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife.


After the flight from GP to Calgary to Yellowknife we (Mayor Logan, his wife Carol, Kirsten Maher and myself) checked in to the Explorer Inn. The first order of business was to get registered and catch up with members of the 2010 host society who have already been in town learning for a few days. (As an aside, I noticed in the Games newspaper that to this point team Alberta had only managed two medals.)


During a sightseeing tour out on the lake where some events are being held we stopped to take in an ice castle! The white on white contrast in most of the pics doesn't show up well but you can see the detail in the windows behind Kirsten and Lee.


Our first event stop was outdoors joining the crowd of competitors here at the "Snowsnake" competition.


The snowsnake replicates throwing a spear over the ice, as would have been done when hunting seals. For the competition they measure distance that the spear travels.


One of the Alaskan team demonstrated the proper snowsnake form. If you are good at it you can get up to 500 ft in a toss!


Another athlete displays great form as they fire away down the snowsnake course.


I display a snowsnake form that looks a lot more like bowling. My first try the "spear" went about a foot before lodging itself in the snow. On my second try I probably got it about fifteen feet (maybe).


By supper time our little group was getting pretty hungry so we headed to a Yellowknife institution called "Bullocks" (.... hmmmm spelling may be different) Caribou Steaks and Arctic Char fish n' chips were on the menu.



The last competition that Kirsten and I made it to on our first day was the one I was looking forward to the most; the two foot high kick. Unfortunately we couldn't get close to the action and I had to take this pic from behind the arena glass. You can barely make out the "seal" (the little blotch in front of the girl's face) At this point it's probably about 6 feet off the ground.


The reason Kirsten and I couldn't get close was because of the huge crowd! I think people were really excited to see this unique sport. I was blown away too; the jr men's division was won with a kick at SEVEN FEET! The guy might have been 5'9" and he did an extra one making it all the way to 7'2"!!!!

After all this activity there was still one event to go to - the Team Alberta reception. I was really surprised at how many people there that I knew were volunteering as coaches, officials or mission staff. It's great to see so many people involved in making sure kids have an opportunity to participate. The word around the room was the the Alberta athletes had had a great day setting personal bests, Games records and picking up medals in quite a few different sports. Looks like the newspaper will have some more encouraging Alberta results to report tomorrow!

Oh, if you are looking to keep track of the medal count you can go to the Yellowknife Games website here.

So, it's now 12:21 am and I'm off to bed to get ready for Day 2!

Off To Yellowknife - Arctic Winter Games

Tuesday morning I'll be heading off to Yellowknife as an observer for the Arctic Winter Games. Grande Prairie has been awarded the 2010 games so a number of locals are heading up to watch the games in operation. It's going to be invaluable learning for the volunteers in all the different sport and administration areas. I get to go because I am the city's representative on the games executive committee - also travelling from the City of GP will be Mayor Logan, his wife and Kirsten Maher (the City's Community Recreation Coordinator and point person for the games.)

If you're not familiar with the Arctic Winter Games check out the official website of the AWG International Committee. Aside from familiar sports like basketball, volleyball, curling, gymnastics and hockey the AWG also have some very unique competitions. Events like Dog Mushing and the Dene Games are the ones I'm really looking forward to seeing - after all who wouldn't want to check out events with names like "The Finger Pull" or "Snowsnake".

Keep an eye on the Yellowknife Games website to track the progress of our Team Alberta North athletes and as you get ready for 2010 you can join the Grande Prairie Arctic Winter Games facebook group.

I'll post pictures of the action in Yellowknife so check back through the week for updates, or sign up to receive a free email every time the site is updated.

Crowsnest Pass Councillor Blogging

It's interesting what you notice when scanning who visits your page. I keep stats of how many people visit here (just over 10,000 since I started last year!) and where they came from. I noticed someone come in a couple times from a blog by Gary Taje so I thought I'd check out his site.

Turns out that Gary is a council member in Crowsnest Pass and it looks like he's been blogging for a while but has really kicked it into another gear for 2008.

So, in my continuing search for local government politicians on the web I'll be adding his blog to the Worthwhile Blogs section on the right side of the page.

Check out Gary's blog to see what's happening in Crowsnest Pass - I hear they are freedom-loving mountain people down there.

Enjoy!