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KEEPING HIS BALANCE
RED DEER COUNTY
Council approves ’17 budget guidelines
Plan to chop trees panned
BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF Belt-tightening is ahead for city departments as work begins on the 2017 operating and capital budgets. By a split vote of 5-4, council approved a set of guidelines for administration to use when planning next year’s spending. Council directed administration to achieve an overall 2.5 per cent tax rate increase which includes a one per cent growth and amenities contribution. Basically it’s a one per cent increase to the existing budgets. Administration had recommended a no more than 3.5 per cent tax rate as a starting point but Coun. Dianne Wyntjes successfully argued to bring the number down one per cent or $1.2 million in targeted savings. Councillors Wyntjes, Mayor Tara Veer, Tanya Handley, Buck Buchanan and Frank Wong voted in support of the guidelines. Wyntjes said this gives a message that council is in touch with the community and is disciplined when it comes to the budgets. She said council is well aware of the tough times with job losses and layoffs in the community. “We talk about innovation, creativity, belt-tighten and doing things differently,” said Wyntjes. “This is an opportunity for us to see what our administration can come up with some numbers …. There are a lot of unknowns but the leadership starts with us at the top and we have to give that direction.”
‘IT IS A TRAVESTY,’ SAYS CRITIC BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF HolmeHus Antiques owner Susan Manyluk has fought before to save trees near her Red Deer County home from being chopped down. Now, she’s once again defending the treasured line of old black poplars on Township Road 282 about five km west of Red Deer. The county has informed her it wants to take down the stretch of trees in a road allowance lining the route south of Hwy 11A to improve safety and visibility on the well-used route. “It is a travesty. I don’t know what else you can call it,” said Manyluk, who has lived practically in the trees’ shade for 39 years. “Some of those trees are 100 years old.” She points out these venerable natural inhabitants of the rural landscape gave Poplar Ridge its name. It has been estimated only about 10 per cent of Central Alberta’s original poplar forests remain, heightening the importance of protecting what is left, she said.
Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate staff
Vincent Russell, 5, tries to keep his balance as he crosses a balance beam at the Rotary Park playground Tuesday afternoon. With temperatures reaching 12 C, and many children on spring break, the park was one of the busier places in the city.
Please see TREES on Page A8
Please see BUDGET on Page A8
Trudeau fires back at critics of EI changes during Calgary visit Infrastructure minister visits Central Alberta Page A2
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed back at critics who say changes made to employment insurance to help the struggling energy sector don’t go far enough. Trudeau said in an interview with Global Calgary that people in Edmonton and Saskatchewan who complain
of being left out of changes to the program should feel fortunate their areas have not been harder hit by the downturn in energy prices. “I think that both people in Edmonton and Saskatchewan should be pleased that they are not hit as hard as RED DEER WEATHER
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other parts of the country and indeed the province have been,” Trudeau said in the interview. “We’re of course going to keep monitoring to make sure we’re doing everything we can for the places that need it.” Last week’s federal budget boosted employment insurance benefits in some parts of the country, but left some areas of the oilpatch out. The government said it picked 12
regions that needed the most help with extra weeks of benefits for jobless workers. Those include Newfoundland and Labrador, parts of northern and southern Alberta, northern British Columbia, northern Manitoba, northern Ontario, northern Saskatchewan, Whitehorse and Nunavut. Please see TRUDEAU on Page A8
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