The Fall 2023 Community Gatherings were held from October 2023-November 2023. MLA David Coon hosted a community gathering with Councillor Cassandra LeBlanc on November 9 at Stepping Stone Senior’s Centre. They each started with a report from the Legislature and then the City before opening the floor to questions and comments. The notes from the meeting are below.
David Coon’s Report:
– Ten bills are in front of the Legislature right now
– Greens will bring in a bill for a right to a clean environment
– Hospital: Hybrid suite has become an issue, the government is halting it for the new surgical suites
– 24 hour Out of the Cold Drop-in Centre opening soon at Victoria Health Centre
Cassandra LeBlanc’s Report:
– Budget
– Sunday Transit will begin mid-year
– More transit changes coming
– Rideshare has been introduced to the city
– Housing
– $500,000 earmarked for purchasing land for affordable housing
– Permissive Zoning for more density
– Affordable housing hire: Janet Flowers
– Housing Accelerator Fund
– Public Safety
– 6 new police officers
– 2 new school constables
– 2 at St. Mary’s
– CSSU established, no longer a pilot
– Environment
– Pilot composting program
– Pilot recycling program
– New Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Recycling program will make multi-unit recycling available, but it is opt-in.
– South Core Secondary Plan: Town Plat Plan consultations to come
– Traffic Calming process
– Online system
– Submit request for a traffic study
– Requests will be ranked according to a point-based system
David:
– Craig’s Automotive is finally going to be sold and cleaned up. Many years’ of work to get this done, at both municipal and provincial levels.
– Senior’s Advocate’s study on Long Term Care coming out soon with recommendations.
Open Floor Q&A
Resident: For pedestrians, there is lots of slush and water on corners. Need better walkable sidewalks and streets, especially in the winter.
Cassandra: Downtown core has the highest level of priority for salting and clearing in the winter. King & Queen streets, the business district.
Resident: Aberdeen has a huge waterflow backup problem.
Jason LeJeune: There is an infrastructure problem, storm drains are no longer adequate for today’s climate. Upgrades being made. Also additional money for concrete around trees and resetting bricks.
David: Princess Margaret Bridge was not done properly. It will be redone next season.
Resident: Need better protection for Town Plat and more consistency in development with the Secondary Plan as it is laid out. Resident had believed the plan would protect them when they bought their home, but then Colpitt’s development was approved for the neighbouring lot for three 10 story apartment buildings. Would rather see more communal seniors’ complexes.
Cassandra: Colpitts’ development may not come through, but it will be a density development. Would like to see something more innovative than 10 story apartment blocks, though.
Resident: Feel like the Colpitts’ development was sneaked in. Doesn’t go with the existing plan.
Cassandra: I support density, but we need to have things to support that density. Need to avoid building out. The time for single family homes is done. Would like to require developers to hold community meetings to get community input, would like to expand the notification area beyond 100 meters.
David: Shouldn’t there be a plan that reflects the values of the community?
Cassandra: Yes, that’s the Secondary Plan, but we are in-between plans, and will need to develop a new Secondary Plan for the Plat.
Resident: Are there any shopping places that are getting decrepit? We should encourage tearing these down and putting in sensible buildings (in-fill development?).
Jason: We are looking at putting affordable housing in some of the outlying business areas. The West end of Prospect is starting to decline, the old Gleaner building.
Resident: There’s been a 30 year hiatus in investing in public housing.
Housing crisis. Councillors have addressed the issue of delayed development. There is a 5 year limit for development approval, after 5 years if there is no development the approval is revoked. Looking at reducing that time.
Jason: Development is at record levels, but it’s still not enough to meet the need.
Resident: When the city does not stick with the Secondary Plans, residents feel distrust for the city and feel disempowered. Why don’t we stick with the plans more, city planners are professionals who can design careful and good development.
Cassandra: Currently there is a lack of city planners in the city, there is generally a shortage of city planners. So they aren’t able to do the careful planning that professional planners can do.
Jason: College Hill area needs better and more student housing. It will get a new plan. The universities don’t consider housing a mandate. They want to increase enrollment, but aren’t addressing lack of housing.
Cassandra: There are international students at the homeless shelters right now.
David: UNB and STU should work with the new Housing Corporation CEO.
Resident: Transit is very difficult or impossible to understand. Heard two separate stories from newcomers and international students who couldn’t understand transit, even with the app. Good that we are getting Sunday service, but the fare shouldn’t go up
Cassandra: The app is so bad and hard to understand, don’t use it. Just use Google Maps. And 100% agree that the fare should not go up, if anything it should go down. Transit service should be a public service and should not try to recuperate costs. Transit Study Survey was done recently and the results will be presented to the Mobility Committee soon.