What a wonderful weekend to be outside door knocking. The weather was so warm which brought everyone outside to rack leaves and put everyone in a friendly and receptive mood.

Saturday morning as my girls sold Girl Guide cookies I meet some of the Forest Lawns community. Most concerns were around what to do with all the leaves. Many residents were unaware of the changes coming next summer with curb side organic waste pick up. Everyone was very excited.

 Saturday afternoon I went around Mission with former councillor Neil Korotash. We ran into quite a few people who will be working the polls on October 18^th. There was a great deal of election excitement in Mission.

Sunday was totally dedicated to Heritage Lakes. My favourite street was Haro Pl. where I picked up a band of kids with training wheels. They followed me from house to house cheering.

The environment was on the minds of people I ran into in this area. I have updated my website to give a much more detailed indication of how I think our City should approach some of our issues.  You can find it under the platform tab in the “Hot Topics” Section

Saturday October 2^nd the St. Albert Gazette published all candidates answers on how they would address the environment if elected. We are limited to 150 words and since I had so much more to say and so many ideas I thought I should post them on my website. You can find my ideas here and in the “Hot Topics” Section under my platform.

We need to be committed to keeping the environment healthy so it can be enjoyed for future generations. I would advocate for the following:

1.    Within our own operations we need to continue with the implementation of an ISO14001 conforming Environmental Master Plan

2.    Institute an urban forestation policy to minimize the City’s carbon footprint

3.    Work with Alberta Environment to resolve existing issues associated with abandoned landfills along Sturgeon River and Carrot Creek. This is essential to facilitate rezoning annexed lands

4.    Water quality of Sturgeon River is a complex problem both from a technical and regulatory perspective. The City should investigate opportunities to improve the recreational value of the river, without significant tax burden or jurisdictional obstacles from Regulators. Water quality should not decline between where the river enters the City and where it exits

5.    Minimize the use of pesticides and herbicides on City parks, boulevards and green spaces.

6.    Encourage the use of reusable shopping bags

7.    Pedestrian and bike friendly transit corridors and build Transit Oriented Developments (TOD).

8.    The City could offer energy efficiency audits to homeowners so they would have a baseline to improve efficiency and reduce heating (and cooling) costs. The City could start with its own buildings!

9.    I would love to set up a website designed to provide expert advice to the residents of St. Albert on issues such as sustainable gardening, minimizing water usage on lawns, information on alternative weed control methods, household energy efficiency. We have experienced City staff with knowledge to provide this information. The website could be sponsored by local greenhouses and could be made available to local businesses to advertise their environmentally friendly products and services.

As a councillor I would be spearhead environmental issues.

The following is a letter written by the Vice Chair of the Community Services Advisory Board:

I have known Cathy Heron for the past 3 years during my appointment to the Community Service Advisory Board. During that period I have had the opportunity to work very closely with her, and I have become very familiar with her as a colleague and a person.  Accordingly, I am writing this letter in recognition because it is my sincere belief that she has provided the board and the citizens of St. Albert with outstanding service.

Cathy Heron has demonstrated time and time again that she is an effective communicator and cares deeply about her role as a member on the board.  She is dedicated, enthusiastic engaged, and knows how to motivate others to strive for excellence when making decisions for the greater good of the community. Cathy is patient and possesses the gift of being able to make complex subjects understandable to everyone. In spite of her obvious gifts she is a humble and approachable person who loves to share her extensive knowledge with the other members of the board.

Cathy has played a major role in ensuring that the needs of the community are met and the stakeholders involved are accountable for the funding they receive through the Community Services Advisory Board.  Further, Cathy has been a strong advocate and voice for the board and has been able to effectively assure that the processes and suggestions of the board are heard.  Through this Cathy has been a quality role model.

Over the last few years it has been a pleasure to serve with someone who brings energy, enthusiasm and laughter to the table.  Attending meetings with Cathy at the head of the table has guaranteed that the tasks that need to be completed will be done in an efficient and logical matter, which outstanding items get, followed up on, and that decisions are sound. Most importantly, however it is always done with joyful effort. As the end of the term for Cathy quickly approaches we all feel that the end of her service on the board will be a real loss.

We all wish her every success for her upcoming endeavours!

Yours truly,

Trina Shipanoff

Vice Chair, CSBA

While reading the Saint City News this morning I stumbled across this amusing story. I would like to thanks Glen Cook for his words. I appreciate that the article said my qualifications should stand on their own. I am young and ready to give my full efforts to the City of St. Albert. I have education, knowledge, experience and a passion for this city.

Yes, all three women running for council were encouraged by our mayor Nolan Crouse to run. I believe strongly that women are under represented in government and this was one of the many many reasons I chose to put my name on the ballot this fall. The encouragement from the mayor only reinforced my decision.

You can click on this link to find the article

http://www.saintcitynews.com/article/20100924/STALBERT0304/309249993/-nolie-s-angels-label-a-disservice-to-democracy

Last week I was fortunate enough to have a personal tour of North Ridge Lodge and the new North Ridge Place. They are both fantastic residential options for seniors to age in St. Albert. North Ridge Place was built last year as a partnership between the Government of Alberta and the Sturgeon Foundation.

Yesterday I was invited to attend an informal coffee session between the seniors and interested candidates. It was a nice opportunity to listen to the residents and hear concerns. An interesting issue arose. One particular resident has been given special permission to have his adult child with a disability live with him. He is very concerned about what will happen after he is gone. Where will his daughter live? We talked about the proposed 42 unit addition to North Ridge for adults with disabilities. Currently they have applied for a provincial grant.  St. Albert city council needs to advocate for this project. This is the reason I entered the race. St. Albert needs to take care of its own with compassion.

It kicked off on Friday night with the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Gala. What a wonderful evening. The highlight for me was the antics on one small child on stage with Nolan Crouse during his speech. Congratulations to all the winners

Saturday was a true community day. The 55 + Winter Games committee hosted a pancake breakfast at Servus to attract volunteers and torch bearers. My Rotary club came out in full force to help with the event.

Saturday afternoon was the annual food bank drive. My kids and I drove around St. Albert picking up bags of donated food off front steps and delivering them to the Food Bank. I could not believe how many people turned out to drive, weigh, and sort the thousands of bags of food that was donated. We truly live in a giving municipality. My time with the Community Services Advisory Board has opened my eyes to the social needs of our city. We are not a land of the rich. We definitely have a growing population of residents living right here in St. Albert that are struggling to pay bills, make mortgage payments, pay our ever increasing taxes and have enough left over to buy groceries. If elected I will be working for these people. I will keep a social conscience in every decision.

I spent Sunday door knocking in Lacombe Park. Big beautiful homes with perfectly maintained lawns make this area a pleasure to walk around in even in the cold and rain. The number one concern was TAXES!

During my time out door knocking I am pleased to see that a majority of home owners in our city take a great deal of pride in the appearance of their homes and lawn. It is truly an enjoyable experience to see the work that some put into making their place of residence welcoming. Unfortunately this is not true for all homes. This weekend I came across a few homes with lawns full of weeds and litter. One front porch had numerous empty beer cans scattered about and I could only empathized with the neighbours. As a matter of fact this issue came up at a couple of homes and so I took it upon myself to investigate the Community Standards Bylaw this morning.

The latest version was passed in March of this year. Previous to that it had not been updated since 1977! After reading through it I felt that it did a good job of covering basic nuisances. My problem comes to the enforcement of the bylaw. Below is s quote right out of the agenda report from March 22, 2010

“However, it should be noted that with any new Bylaw or legislation of this kind being enacted, there is potential for increased public expectations around enforcement. This may turn into increased

public complaints being logged, which can result in increased workload or volume for enforcement staff. Given the current limitations of the Municipal Enforcement Service staff, the implementation of the proposed new Community Standards Bylaw may have to be done on a limited basis focusing on primarily significant violations until such time as we can assess the impact on workload. Depending upon the impact on workload and enforcement expectations, additional enforcement staff may need to be considered in future budget years”

This annoys me. A council should be obliged to enforce its own bylaws. Residents should feel free to call the city if they are experiencing an issue with a neighbour. If elected I will be looking into the number of calls the city receives and also the response. As I continue to campaign I will be inquiring at the door as to personal experiences.

In a perfect world neighbours would be able to resolve issues without involving the city, but if unable to, residents of St. Albert should feel confident in their city to assist them.

It was a beautiful day to be out door knocking with my Dad. We hit Deer Ridge today. I just love meeting all the interesting people in our community. One door was answered by a young boy with a bird on his shoulder. We talked for a while and he told us how much the bird likes to go for bike rides. He then proceeded to get his bike out of the garage and show us. The bird did look happy.

Another house we found boxes and boxes of red berries drying on the front steps. When we asked the home owner she told us it was for a Chinese medicinal tea to help your eyes. She then offered up some for us to take home. St. Albert has such nice people!

Saturday was spent door knocking in Woodlands with a quick time out to go and meet Jerome Iginla.

My husband and I braved a bit of rain and meet with the people of Woodlands in the morning. Most home owners we talked to were very happy with their life in St. Albert. I heard only one complaint about taxes, one about the river, and one about vandalism.

Transit and Riel Park are big issues this election. I was fortunate to have a discussion with a gentleman who is a city of St. Albert transit driver and also with a board member of our BMX club. I love the chance to meet and hear from so many different St. Albertans

At one o’clock the kids and I ran over to meet Jerome. With the sun finally coming out, it was a wonderful event arranged by the City of St. Albert. Hundreds of people lined up to meet him and have various Team Canada paraphernalia signed. Jerome spent a great deal of time talking to all the kids. What a wonderful ambassador to St. Albert!

It was back to Woodlands in the afternoon, but this time my 8 year old daughter joined me. We had so much fun talking and meeting people. One home owner expressed a need for more family oriented candidates so it was great to highlight the fact that yes – I do have small children and will represent those points of view if elected.

What a wonderful evening it was last night for St. Albert and the Arts community! The weather was perfect for a stroll through downtown and stopping into each of the participating venues to chat with residents and business owners. When the conversation turned to issues facing the downtown I heard over and over again that parking is a problem. It appears that city staff is parking in spots reserved for the Perron Street and St. Thomas Street businesses. I have heard this complaint before. We need to investigate solutions such as park and ride or carpooling/ public transit incentives for the staff in order to free up spots for shoppers and clients. We are quite a long ways away from seeing a parkade built downtown.

I was excited to see the progress on Perron Courtyard. What a great addition it will be to the downtown. I think I even saw a spot that would be perfect for a restaurant with an outdoor patio which last night was flooded in sunlight. I can image many hours spent up there enjoying our downtown after 5 o’clock