Hobbit finale tops box office
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Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, JAN. 5, 2015
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Four record perfect attendance
CROSS COUNTRY SKIING
WONG MAINTAINS COUNCIL ATTENDANCE STREAK BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate staff
Members of the Red Deer Nordic Ski Community bundled up and took to Riverbend’s snowy trails this past weekend. Skiers had a lot of fresh powder to work with in the -19 C weather.
Housing options needed to reduce homelessness While much has been done to reduce homelessness in Red Deer, the effort is being hampered by the lack of low-cost housing, says a local advocate. “With the plan to end homelessness, we’re only successful if we have more housing options,” said Stacey Carmichael, programs director of the Safe Harbour Society. Just as the Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter is having difficulty finding apartments for clients, so is Safe Harbour. Carmichael said she wants to “echo” the need for more lower-cost housing options for Red Deer. “The vacancy rate is so low, it’s a big challenge” to get people into their own apartments. As far as scope of social problems go, this centrally located, mid-sized city has more in common with Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria than Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Yet “we just don’t have enough housing to get these guys in quick enough,” she added. Looking back at 2014, Carmichael has seen the 35 full-time beds at the People’s Place shelter regularly fill up. Sometimes even the 11 additional beds that are made available during the winter months, from Nov. 1 to April 30, have been full. “We’ve had to turn folks away on occasion,” she said — and this also holds true for the 26-spot mat program that Safe Harbour runs for homeless people under the influence of alcohol
WEATHER
or drugs. Those who must be turned away are asked if they can stay with a friend or sleep on a relative’s couch. But sometimes no solution can be found and the person has to walk back out into the cold. “Often when they leave, both the staff and the person are feeling defeated,” added Carmichael. Strides have been made towards finding appropriate housing for homeless people, such as the Housing First suites at the Buffalo in downtown Red Deer, and the one duplex and four shared-living houses operated around the city by the Safe Harbour Society. Carmichael stressed she’s “proud” of local and provincial efforts, saying “Alberta is leaps and bounds ahead of what’s being done in a lot of other provinces.” But Red Deer’s population continues to grow. As some housing is found to get people off the streets, Carmichael is seeing other people become homeless for a variety of reasons: addictions, mental health issues, domestic abuse or relationship breakdowns. “We’d like to see them be homeless for as short a time as possible.” Discussions were held last fall for the City of Red Deer’s housing options framework, but an action plan is yet to come. Local advocates, meanwhile, are calling for a range of new local affordable housing options — from bachelor apartments to one-, two- or three-bedroom suites for families.
Please see HOUSING on Page A2
INDEX
Clearing. High -19. Low -23
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Council tackles operating budget this week RED DEER CITY COUNCIL BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF Number crunching will be the name of the game at Red Deer City Hall over the next two weeks. Starting on Tuesday, council will begin pouring over the details of the administration-recommended operating budget for 2015. The budget covers the day-to-day costs of delivering programs and services in the city. Staff will be on the hotseat as council takes in city department presentations before asking questions about the proposed budget. A press conference outlining the budget details is slated for this morning. All meetings are open to the public and are scheduled to run until Jan. 14. Mayor Tara Veer did not give away any specifics but she indicated that council will be faced with challenges in light of potential provincial cuts to municipal funding. Since the capital budget was approved in November, the city has received strong indication that there will be adjustments to the provincial budget in April. The decline in the price of oil has cut provincial government revenue. Veer said administration was given the budget guidelines earlier this year
to help build the budget at policy level. Chief financial officer Dean Krejci said the city is using a similar process from previous years. He said part of that process is looking at what is happening from the provincial and federal governments and anticipating the impacts. In May, the city hosted one of the largest budget open houses in recent memory. More than 200 residents filed into the doors at Festival Hall to have their say on where they would like to see their tax dollars go in the 2015 budget. Residents polled at the meeting said they wanted the city to reduce taxes, spend more funding on transit and put more dollars into community amenities. In November, council approved the $173.3-million capital budget for 2015 that allocated money to infrastructure and maintenance programs. Big ticket items approved included replacing the Red Deer Arena, for $21 million; relocating two fire halls and building a new one for $14.9 million; and residential development in Timberlands, at $12 million; doing crown paving, for $8.2 million; and creating a new North Red Deer Regional Community Centre, with a $8.8-million pricetag.
Please see BUDGET on Page A2
New York cops turn their backs on Mayor Thousands of city police officers turned their backs on Bill de Blasio as he eulogized an officer shot dead with his partner. Story on PAGE B10
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BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF
Four Red Deer city councillors did not miss a single vote at City Hall in 2014. And one councillor extended his streak of perfect attendance to 10 years. Councillors Ken Johnston, Lawrence Lee, Lynne Mulder and Frank Wong attended the 29 budget, regular and special meetings over the last 12 months. Wong, however, gets the gold star for attending every meeting since he was first elected in 2004. The fourthterm councillor was 15 minutes late for one meeting because he was attending a funeral. The retired city engineer said he does not have a busy social life so he has adequate time to attend to city business. Coun. Paul Harris had the worst record, missing four meetings in total — in April, May, July and August — to attend professional development conferences. It is not unusual for councillors to miss a meeting here and there because of conferences and meetings outside
Red Deer. Harris sits on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities board and Coun. Buck Buchanan is on the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association board of directors. While there is no set attendance requirement within the Municipal Government Act, a councillor could face disqualification if he or she misses all regular council meetings in eight consecutive weeks. Buchanan missed three meetings in March, June and November for personal holidays in Arizona and Ireland. While away, Buchanan and others used to take part in meetings via teleconference. But council decided when “you’re away, you’re away” because of the high cost of the service. He estimated the cost can range between $800 to $1,000 per meeting. Buchanan will miss the Feb. 2 meeting because he will be attending the Super Bowl in Arizona. Councillors Tanya Handley and Dianne Wyntjes missed two meetings apiece. Mayor Tara Veer missed the March 31 meeting. Attendance records are available at www.reddeer.ca. crhyno@reddeeradvocate.com