By Shane O'Neill

Voices of Ward 3 residents heard at neighbourhood planning meeting

Jan 20, 2017 | 11:00 AM

The start of a new year brings new discussions on the future of Prince Albert.

On Thursday, residents of Ward 3 had a chance to speak with city staff and voice their opinions on everything from traffic to transit, community services and law enforcement at the city’s third neighbourhood meeting.

Director of planning services for the city, John Guenther, explained the current round of neighbourhood planning meetings are part of a series of meetings related to the community services master plan for Prince Albert. As the city undertakes a new vision for the future, including a 10-year plan for parks and recreation, meetings like Thursday’s are crucial to ensure the vision includes all residents.

“One of the goals is to get neighbourhood groups established in some form, to sustain themselves over time,” Guenther said. He explained this will help residents continue to engage with the city, beyond the more formal resident-councillor, or resident-city hall relationship.

“People are keen to make a difference and you can hear that tonight,” he said.

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To help resident voices are heard, the city set up a new website, letstalkprincealbert.ca. At the site, residents can take both the community services master plan survey and transit surveys, read about initiatives already underway, and share comments on neighbourhood planning meetings.

City staff including director of community services Jody Boulet, traffic and transportation manager Kerri Sapsford, police chief Troy Cooper and bylaw manager Suzanne Stubbs were also in attendance.

In an informal discussion before attendees had a chance to speak with staff directly, several issues were raised. Traffic speeds, sidewalks, police presence and bylaw enforcement were all touched on by some of the roughly 50 residents in attendance.

Ward 3 councillor Evert Botha said he was pleased with the turnout, though he mentioned he hoped to see more of the ward’s younger families participate.

For Botha, many of the issues are familiar after having spent a number of weeks knocking on doors and speaking to residents during the election campaign in September and October.

“The main things that people have been discussing on the doorsteps has been the bylaw enforcement of alleyways, and some of the rental properties that are [in] disrepair,” he said.

Many of those discussions have been positive, he noted, as multiple residents spoke up to commend the work of Prince Albert’s police and bylaw enforcement, particularly in light of the amended bylaw amenities law which took effect over the summer. 

Chief Cooper spoke at length about the work of his staff and how residents can best make use of the non-emergency line for issues such as bylaw complaints and information around illicit activity.

As well, he shared some statistics on the volume of cases his bylaw colleague Const. Stubbs handled in 2016. According to Cooper, bylaw responded to 781 unsightly property complaints, seized 245 vehicles and moved to have 15 derelict houses demolished.

The next ward meeting will be for Ward 4 and will take place on Monday, Jan. 23 at City Hall from 7 to 8 p.m.

Shane O’Neill is paNOW’s city hall reporter and weekend anchor on 900 CKBI. He can be reached at shane.oneill@panow.com or tweet him @stroneill.