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By rdnewsNOW Staff

ADDITIONAL $650,000 COST

City council updates Elections Bylaw to accomodate Bill 20 changes

Oct 16, 2024 | 10:43 AM

An updated Elections Bylaw including changes necessitated by Bill 20 has passed first reading in city council and is expected to cost the City an additional $650,000 in the next municipal election.

Bill 20 sets new rules for municipal elections, including a ban on the use of electronic vote counters. As a result, the City of Red Deer is budgeting to hire 200 election workers to hand count ballots in the October 2025 election.

This added cost is expected to raise the total cost of the election to $1.5 million.

Other changes made in the bylaw include:

• Increased number of nomination signatures (50 per councillor candidate and 100 per Mayoral candidate).
• A $100 nomination deposit per candidate.
• The addition of the Permanent Electors Registers. Voters will see staff using laptops to input voters’ data into the register on election day.
• Expanded eligibility of special ballots to any voter.
• Polls to open at 9 a.m. on election day instead of 10 a.m.

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Other business handled in the Oct. 15 regular meeting included the 2024 Adopted Capital Cash Flow Budget, which council approved.

An annual “cash flow” budget is required to be approved by council for the capital related components of the City’s budget. This number gets based off of expenses forecasted by administration for capital projects still in progress in 2024 and appears on the Statement of Net Debt and shows the Budgeted Acquisition of Tangible Capital Assets.

There is no financial impact associated with this adoption, as it is a translation from budget to cash flow for financial statement purposes. The total council approved capital budget for 2024 was $122.945 million. This is different from the cash flow budget, as the cash flow takes an up-to-date view of all the capital projects to which the City has committed. The cash flow budget is $92.477 million.

Finally, council also approved a Zoning Bylaw amendment intended to reduce red tape in implementing the bylaw and help external applicants with immediate development needs. Specifically, the amendment adds primary and secondary financial institutions as a discretionary use to several commercial zones so there are more opportunities for educational institutions.

Council also re-affirmed its commitment to climate initiatives, as outlined in the Environmental Master Plan, and authorized administration to apply for relevant grants to support its implementation.

A public hearing item was also approved; council approved another Zoning Bylaw amendment, meant to provide City staff and the public with a clear interpretation of and better flexibility in implementing the Zoning Bylaw.

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