Forum Findings

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force Forum. Your responses to the questions helped guide discussions on how the Task Force can assist the City of St. Albert community in achieving recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic:

What we heard:

Within the scope of the Task Force's mandate, we heard that the community would like to see shopping local promoted in order to support businesses within St. Albert. As well, there was support for more outdoor "pop-up" events, similar to the use of firepits we saw around the end of October. The community would like to see more events which promote community connectedness and allow people to gather outdoors, while staying warm during the winter. Finally, a key theme which we saw in comments were more supports to local businesses who are trying to navigate new COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines.

There were also comments which were not within the scope of the Task Force. This included ideas such as lowering or freezing taxes, changing current bylaws and increasing policing of non-compliance.

What's Next?

The Task Force has presented an Interim Report which is available on the City Website. The Task Force will be planning for 2021 in February 2021, at which time we will have more information on further engagement opportunities. Given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Task Force will continue their bi-weekly meetings in order to bring forward a finalized report.