This Month with Mayor Ken Johnston: April 2022

Your City Council has looked at noise with a degree of frustration and empathy certainly since I became a Councillor back in 2013. The main challenge is the subjective nature of noise. What is considered noisy at night, is not particularly noisy in the morning. On any given day it could be a huge problem and can detract from the quality of life we expect in our great city. Outside noise can disrupt, stress, and aggravate, and I can certainly say that feedback from virtually every neighbourhood in Red Deer tells us that noise is, and has been, a problem.

The Community Standards Bylaw is one of the most foundational public bylaws that we have, in other words, it looks at peace and order. It tries to balance between neighbours, between homeowners and businesses, between walkers, bikers, e-scooters and vehicle traffic and so forth. It is a significant bylaw, and it tends to be amended from time to time depending on changing standards and feedback received from the community. Recently, Council looked at vehicle noise amendments through the Community Standards Bylaw.

Council has heard through several public engagement opportunities, and day to day feedback that vehicle noise is an issue for residents, and in fact data indicates there has been a consistent increase in the total number of complaints received and the charges issued as it relates to noise. From April to October of 2020, RCMP and Municipal Policing Services received over 1,600 calls regarding vehicle noise, in addition to social media posts and emails.

What Council has done is amended our bylaw and tried to take the subjectivity away from noise enforcement, by specifying decibel levels, which was not a part of our bylaw in the past. We quantified what is an uncomfortable, disruptive noise. The bylaw amendment includes a recommended decibel (dBA) level for a vehicle while at idle and while at speed greater than idling, 92 dBA and 96 dBA respectively, with a penalty of $250 for non-compliance. Great advances in technology like sound meters that our Community Peace Officers can use from an enforcement perspective, provide one more tool to reduce vehicle noise.

This provides for more objectivity and provides clarity for vehicle owners and our Community Peace Officers on what is allowed. These dBA levels were based on a review of other Albertan municipalities, as well as information received from the Edmonton Police Service.

Council knows that neighbourhoods can be noisy places at times, and some level of noise is a part of being in an urban environment. At the core of it all is just decency and respect for your neighbours, people in traffic and people on the streets enjoying our community. If residents have a specific complaint, I urge them to use the Police non-emergency line at 403-343-5575 and ensure they have a vehicle description and license plate of the offending vehicle.

2. You recently attended the Red Dress Day event at City Hall Park… what were your takeaways from that on a personal level, and how is the City oo city council doing its utmost to promote reconciliation?

Last Thursday our community marked Red Dress Day, which to me, is a very bittersweet memorial. Bittersweet in the context that these are missing mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and friends; and in the bitterness of their loss and the inability to have closure, there is the sweetness of the memories of those lives and how they have touched us, how they contributed to our upbringing, making us the people that we are today and shaping our future.

When you enter the process of grieving, you are able to have the closure you need and seek. The families and friends indeed of the community of these missing women do not have an outlet in grief. Red Dress Day, to me, also commemorates the loss of closure – that is why the dresses are empty. What moved me at the event this past week was the respected musical representatives of the Indigenous community that played so beautifully, and also encouraged us to dance and to celebrate. There was one song in particular that spoke to me. It was “I Love You Because”, originally by Elvis Presley. The lyrics speak to the fact that you will always be loved, that you matter. Their lives mattered. They loved and were loved. I listened, I danced. It was incredible and frankly, a very emotional experience.

The day reminded me that if we are going to come together as a whole community, a close community – to really embrace each other, it starts with us and the ability to find the humanity in each other.

Council and I have reinvigorated, post Covid, our relationship with the Indigenous community, by way of the protocol that was signed in 2017 and the deliberate, strategic approach to the work of our UAVS committee, which I and two other Councillors sit on. We are very excited about the work ahead and were very encouraged by the attendance of our community at Red Dress Day.

Truth and Reconciliation is a process of healing relationships, sharing truths, listening to the knowledge that is being shared, and doing our part to redress past harms. It is taking the time to build and maintain mutually respectful relationships. That is the goal of Council and I, to listen, to learn to grow and to work together towards a better tomorrow.

We are all in this together, this world is a troubled place at the best of times, but there is always the comfort of companionship, of love, and relationship, and that is what really spoke to me about Red Dress Day. I am inviting all Red Deerians to embrace their humanity and the humanity of others. In that way, we really do have the power to create a better community.

Since being elected, I have strived to learn as much as possible. To meet each and every one of our amazing community members where they are. I am so grateful to the local Indigenous groups and partners for welcoming me to their conversations and providing a space for this growth and reconciliation to flourish. I am looking forward to further enhancing our relationships, opportunities, and learnings.

3. What do you make of Red Deer’s recent unemployment statistics? Numbers have been edging downward for a few months, and are down year-over-year; is this a result of anything the City or council has done or is doing?

City Council and I are absolutely excited and quite cheered that the rate of unemployment is dropping in Red Deer. That means more of our citizens are working, more lives are being sustained, stabilized by the privilege of work, and earning a wage. The Red Deer region’s unadjusted unemployment rate continues its downward trend, dropping to 6.7 per cent last month from 6.9 in March and was at 10.6 per cent in April 2021. What a wonderful trend indeed.

Sectors are turning around post-Covid, with numbers trending in the right direction. The City most certainly has a role to play in job creation, through providing economic incentives, incentives for downtown regeneration and subsidies for utilities, to mention just a few. We also pay great attention to what our municipal tax rates are for small business and non-residential rates, and they are some of the best in the province.

The City has made it a priority to work to reduce red tape for the development committee, to work with our great community partners like Tourism Red Deer, Red Deer Chamber of Commerce, the Westerner and RDP to create a business friendly environment and culture of yes.

Broadly speaking, as your Mayor, your chief ambassador, the face of our city if you will, I have been strategically busy since being elected in visiting major Red Deer employers, sitting down with community partners, community not-for-profit groups, other municipalities, researching new industries and learning about economic development ideas for our city. I have taken on an ambassadorial role for business in our community, for our community. In fact, economic development is the backbone and foundational structure of Council’s new Strategic Plan. We will be doing everything in our power to attract, retain and incent business in Red Deer.

4. Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre has been in the spotlight over the last few weeks for all the wrong reasons (surgery diversion, line of 14 ambulances, negative patient experiences)… this subject is obviously of great concern already, but what goes through your mind when seeing the negativity about the hospital pile up?

Immediately what goes through my mind is what must be the absolute distress of someone seeking medical services in a timely manner in our region, and the stress on their families. I think of the many who are waiting, in pain, or being transferred with the unknowns of when and where they will receive the treatment they need. At the same time, I think of the pressure that our medical teams are under. The stresses that I see our local physicians, nurses, paramedics, support staff face on a day-to-day basis is frightening. The incredible stress and strain that overcrowding has put our people, the burn out in the profession, the absolute desperation of medical people that are working long hours with no relief in inadequate conditions. Both of those are tied to me.

Our senior population, which makes up about 15 per cent of our population are putting more and more stress on the hospital system. Unfortunately, the need to use overcapacity protocols is not new for our regional hospital that has been stretched far beyond its capacity to serve central Alberta for far too long. Not much has changed through the years as the community has sought a much-needed hospital expansion, and the wait continues. The bed capacity is unchanged. The strain on the staff is unchanged. The ability to treat cardiac episodes, completely unchanged. This is incredibly disheartening for me, as your Mayor, but also as a citizen of our great city.

In February, Premier Kenney announced $1.8 billion to redevelop and expand Red Deer hospital after initially pledging $100 million three years ago for the first phase of improvements. Construction was to start in 2021. While this is incredible, and motivating news – it is also frustrating that a plan has not yet been shared, and no plans have been put in place for our hospital yet, after all these years of waiting. We continue and continue to ask for a plan. We were grateful and remain grateful for the funding, but what we need now is to see a plan going forward and know how this is going to help in the medium to long term.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have reached out to several Central Alberta Mayors who share our sense of distress, and we will be putting forward an advocacy call and strategy around moving this project forward, quickly. What Central Alberta needs is a tangible show of commitment and hope. What has been going on behind the scenes, and why?

My heart goes out to all the health care staff who are working under strained conditions, and to our residents who are frustrated and trying to access the care they need. As the fourth busiest hospital in our province, the Red Deer Regional Hospital needs immediate attention, and Council and I will do our best to continue to advocate and push the province for the well being of our citizens, now and in the future.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed above are those of the Mayor and do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or Pattison Media. Column suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com.

by Ken Johnston, Mayor of Red Deer

This Month with Mayor Ken Johnston: April 2022

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