T8N St Albert
By Peter Worden
Year incorporated: 1891 (founded: 1861)
Population: (2010) 60,138
Ages: (% of total pop.) 0–19: 28%; 20–34: 17%; 35–64: 45%; 65+: 10%
Marital status: (ages 15+) Married: 59%; Separated/divorced: 9%; Widowed: 4%; Never married: 28%
Housing: Rent: 12%; Own: 88%
Geography: Sturgeon River valley
Main industry: Business services, retail trade, health and social services
Largest local employers: Public sector (hospital, City, school districts, AGLC)
Local legends: Roman Catholic missionary Albert Lacombe, OMI; Lois Hole, a.k.a. “Queen of Hugs” and the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta; actor Jason Thompson; journalist David Climenhaga; NHL player Jarome Iginla and alumnus Mark Messier
Of life in T8N two things are certain: taxes, and that there’ll be much hullabaloo about ’em. St. Albertans, after all, pay hundreds of dollars more per year in property taxes on average than homeowners almost anywhere else in the province. One reason, simply put, is that St. Albert is pretty. Whereas most neighbouring communities offset their tax base with industry—Morinville, for example, with its malodorous dog-food plant, or any of the five nearby smokestack-skylined municipalities that comprise “Upgrader Alley”—T8N has no non-residential tax base to speak of. The city looks and smells nice, and therein lies the monothematic tax question: “To raise or not to raise?” What’s pretty to one taxpaying citizen is pretty pricey to another, and this dilemma has a way of dominating local political discourse.
Recently, when taxes were raised a modest 2.9 per cent, the St. Albert Gazette asked readers how they felt. Tellingly, half said it was “reasonable,” the other half, “outrageous.” With the spectre of ever-incrementing taxes as inevitable as death and—well, you know—the Gazette’s embittered 50 per cent won’t be easily mollified. Neither will be any of T8N’s special-interest groups, who must ultimately and patiently wait their turn. All told, after emergency and essential services, utilities, local transit and a commendable paving and snow removal system, there isn’t a whole lot of money left in the budget for fun stuff—that is, without raising taxes. To use St. Albert’s library as an analogy, in lieu of a much-needed expansion, it must remove a book from its shelves for every one it adds. Similarly, for every public project the City funds, one has to go.
