Vowing things were about to get “very public,” during Tuesday’s city council meeting, Dionne announced plans for a campaign to pressure the provincial government to grant that plant and others the access to timber they need to operate.
Meanwhile the provincial government says at the moment “virtually all the timber in the Prince Albert area is contractually allocated to existing companies, including Paper Excellence for the potential re-opening of the pulp mill.”
“I did serve our MLA notice this morning that I will be starting a heavy public campaign,” Dionne told council, explaining he’ll be encouraging people to call their MLAs and the premier to ask, “where’s our wood supply.”
After nearly a year of deliberation, Prince Albert city council has decided against introducing a residency requirement for some city positions.
The proposed policy, which was first discussed by council in July of 2020, would have required new hires to senior management positions like city manager, department heads, fire chief and battalion fire chiefs, along with all non-unionized permanent roles, to move within city limits within six months of being hired or face termination. In total, the residency policy would have impacted 63 positions. It also included a clause allowing the mayor or city manager to grant exemptions at their discretion.
The vote on the policy split council 5-4. Those opposed were councillors Terra Lennox-Zepp, Tony Head, Blake Edwards, Dawn Kilmer and Ted Zurakowski. Those in favour were councillors Don Cody, Charlene Miller, Dennis Ogrodnick and Mayor Greg Dionne.
“We can’t raise money until we know what we’re raising,” Mayor Greg Dionne told the meeting.
Coun. Blake Edwards agreed getting an accurate cost for the project was “the smart way to do business.”
“It [the detailed design] is likely going to come back and say ‘hey it’s going to cost the taxpayer a little bit of money to build this rink,’” Edwards said. “But guess what, there’s going to be life in the city… we’re not building this just for the Raiders – if we choose to go ahead with it. It’s about hosting concerts, hosting major events, and that to me is exciting.”
An ambitious plan to reimagine Canada Post has the support of Prince Albert city council.
Brahm Enslin, a campaign coordinator with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, presented the idea called Delivering Community Power to a city council executive committee meeting on April 19.
“Well into the 21
st century, Canada Post could be doing much more than just handling letters and parcels,” Enslin told the council.
The union’s vision sees the post office using its large logistics network to deliver services like broadband internet and postal banking to communities that currently lack access.
“Currently, there are over 1,200 communities that have post offices but no banks or credit unions and only 54 out of 615 Indigenous communities are served by local bank branches,” Enslin said. “The post office could provide postal banking in all corners of the country while combatting the predatory lending practice of the larger financial institutions that have ignored many rural
A request from a Carlton Park family who wanted to lease a small piece of city park space to add to their backyard was decided by a single vote on Monday night. Council denied the ask 5-4, in part over concerns it would lead to deluge of similar requests.
The family wanted to rent the 2,789 sq. ft. parcel beside their property and fence it off to create a play area for their children. Currently, they felt the area was unsafe because of traffic on the nearby street. A rate proposed by the city’s department of planning would have seen them pay $500 annually for a five-year term. Any construction on the parcel – apart from a fence – would have been prohibited.