Members of the public were present to dispute one of the rezoning bylaws. (Photo by: Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

City Council Meeting

City putting proposal together for complex needs centre, approves casino expansion

Aug 19, 2024 | 6:55 PM

The Monday, Aug. 19 Prince Albert city council meeting was a longer one than usual with topics ranging from rezoning of properties to an expansion of the casino in the city to a proposal to the province for a new facility in Prince Albert.

One of the main topics of conversation came near the end of the agenda when Councillor Blake Edwards put out a notice of motion for the next meeting. Edwards would like the city to put together a proposal for the provincial government to build a complex needs centre in Prince Albert.

The idea behind the centre is to have a facility in Prince Albert that is dedicated to those struggling with addictions, homelessness, or any other issues that have people spending nights in the emergency room of the hospital taking away a bed from someone that could use it. Councillor Edwards believes that such a centre would help the hospitals and police focus on what their jobs are, and help give homeless people in the area a place to stay.

Edwards outlined some of the major areas he’d like to see in a complex needs centre.

“Addictions and mental health need to be present. We need social services present at all points. We need to work with people that need housing, whether they’re there all the time I’m not sure, but the model of addictions and mental health is absolutely critical. We need them on site on a regular basis.”

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Edwards continued, “I know that there’s regulations that you can only keep people for 24 hours, I believe that that can be worked on as well, but 24 hours is better than nothing right now. Keeping people off the street that are heavily intoxicated and causing harm to our community and to themselves, this is an important facility for that reason. It’s going to help our city drastically.”

Council will discuss their proposal to the province during their next meeting.

Another long discussion point during the council meeting was the shortfall on Rotary Adventure Park out in Little Red. The funding that was proposed came in $70,000 short of what the park end up costing.

“The project was in partnership with Malcolm Jenkins and the Rotary Club and the funding that was proposed was inadequate. Unfortunately, there was a shortfall. So it’s just something that occurs unfortunately on certain projects and the City needs to step up and manage those shortfalls.”

The City plans to use money from the Community Services Fund to cover the shortfall. The Community Services Fund was not used at all during 2023 but was used multiple times in 2022.

Council also unanimously approved the requested expansion of the Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert. When asked about the expansion and why it was such an easy decision for all members of council, Edwards said that there is a great economic impact from the casino for the city.

“Certainly it brings in extra revenue for the city and we have an agreement with the casino and other in-city-First Nations, there’s a local agreement that they pay equivalent to property tax. It’s not called property tax, but it’s certainly an agreement in place, so it has added funding to our city, and the casino does give back to the community. Lots of organizations benefit from the casino, they provide money to sporting events. They provide lots of different funds through the Northern Lights Community Development Corporation.”

Also on the agenda were the second and third readings of three separate rezoning bylaws, all of which were approved. The first sees property in the Future Urban Development area rezoned to R4, allowing for street townhouses to be built. The second rezoning saw 302 Riverside Drive rezoned from CMU (Commercial Mixed Use) to R2 (Small Lot Residential). Both were approved unanimously without much discussion.

The final rezoning bylaw discussion was surrounding rezoning 15th Avenue East from R2 designation to R3 which would allow small apartment buildings. Members of the public were present to share their disapproval of the motion, and after some discussion from the rest of the council the motion was turned down.

Other notes from the City Council meeting saw the City agree to spending $60,000 in partnership with the on lifeguard training in the city, and the city agreed to close down the Agnew Street Walkway.

Councillors Dennis Ogrodnick and Charlene Miller both announced that they will not be running for re-election in the upcoming municipal election.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com