City of Red Deer
Red Deer keeps winning: ParticipACTION grant unveiled
Check out how Red Deer won the 2022 Community Better ParticipACTION Challenge and how you can access some of the $100,000 winnings if you are a Red Deer resident! We encourage everyone that wants to get people active in our City to apply for these mini grants. Deadline to apply is March 15th, 2023.
From We Are Red Deer
What’s the best way to help a community become more active? A team in Canada’s Most Active Community can tell you the secret is to get your neighbours directly involved.
Last July, Red Deer was chosen from more than 1,700 participating communities across Canada to win the $100,000 prize in the third annual ParticipACTION Community Better Challenge.
Denise Fredeen with Alberta Health Services (AHS) took part in the successful bid and, as she explains, the win came from a true community effort. Part of the work began with a ParticipACTION Saputo Signature grant to the AHS program, Move Your Mood, which encourages physical activity to improve everyone’s mental and physical health.
“We created mini-grant opportunities through Addictions and Mental Health for programs that reached the community directly,” says Fredeen. “We asked that participants track their activity for the City of Red Deer.”
While the AHS Move Your Mood program made connections through Addiction and Mental Health, the Red Deer Wellness Alliance — a team made up of The City of Red Deer, the Primary Care Network, Red Deer Public Library, Red Deer Polytechnic, the YMCA and several AHS partners from Public Health and Nutrition Services and the community — helped promote the overall Community Better Challenge to the people of Red Deer.
Supporting and building capacity in local programs proved a winning approach, one that helped find and remove barriers to exercise and got people across Red Deer active in many different ways. In addition to this strategy, the link to how physical activity improves mental health through the Move Your Mood program was cited by ParticipACTION as a factor that distinguished Red Deer’s entry.
The key to winning was also to find health champions in our community to help spread the word, and encourage people to get involved. That has been Fredeen’s mission over the past three years of championing this challenge. One of those key champions for the 2022 challenge was Mayor Ken Johnston. He got involved from the very start encouraging kids and families to get active in our community and join the challenge. Other key champions include both the Red Deer Public and Catholic School health champions, The City of Red Deer, Red Deer Polytechnic fitness staff, local businesses and gyms, community associations, service clubs and local citizens that always step up to encourage physical activity like Val Jensen and Bre Fitzpatrick to name a few of the amazing champions in our community!
“We won this challenge by coming together as a community – and now you can come up with your own amazing ideas and put these winning funds to work right here in our community, shared with the people that made it happen,” said Mayor Ken Johnston.
The Community Better Advisory Committee has created mini grants that individuals and organizations can apply for and use to promote exercise in their community.
“Anyone can apply for a grant, so a community can have a lot of applications — but we succeeded when we found each other and worked together,” added Fredeen.
Applications for these grants are open now, and details can be found on The City’s website here: Community Better ParticipACTION Grant – The City of Red Deer
The ParticipACTION Community Better Challenge is an annual competition and Fredeen encourages all Alberta communities to become involved. See more information on their website.
It’s a telling detail about the person who leads Red Deer City Council. Always putting the city’s needs ahead of his own, Mayor Ken Johnston has announced his intentions within days of the opening of Nominations for October’s municipal elections,
After 12 years on council, Mayor Ken Johnston has decided against running for a second term as Mayor this fall. Johnson shared his decision in front of colleagues and supporters in a touching announcement on Wednesday.
At 71 years old, Johnston remains vibrant, passionate and healthy. He says that’s exactly why he and his wife Carolyn have decided now is the right time to start their next stage of life together.
Mayor Johnston listed a number of highlights and achievements he can look back on, including his help advocating for the redevelopment of Red Deer Regional Hospital, the growth of Red Deer Polytechnic, and positive moves in Economic Development.
All these lead of a feeling of ease about the decision to step away, though affordable housing and a permanent shelter for the homeless remain pressing concerns.
With about 8 months remaining in his term, Mayor Johnston is planning to push hard to move the needle on these housing issues.
“We’re looking forward to some more work and we’ll be going to the community shortly about it. So I still have optimism that maybe before the term is out we can have an announcement.”
This is the second major political announcement in Central Alberta in the last number of days. Earlier this week Red Deer Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen announced he won’t be running in the next federal election.
City of Red Deer
Council ends reduced fine option for early ticket payment, school and playground zones start at 7 AM
City Council approves first reading of updated Traffic Bylaw and General Penalty Bylaw
Red Deer City Council completed first reading of updated Traffic Bylaw (3707/2025) and General Penalties Bylaw (3036/A-2025) that will provide clarity and consistency in application of the bylaws as well as eliminate challenges in enforcement.
Key updates to the bylaws include:
- Ticket Pre-Payment:
- Removing the option to pay a parking ticket early to receive a reduced fee from the General Penalty Bylaw and adding it to the Traffic Bylaw.
- School and Playground Zone Start Times:
- Through investigating requests from schools to have school and playground zones start at 7 a.m., rather than 8 a.m., Administration determined that almost all school and playground zones in the city have students on the street prior to 7:30 a.m. To be consistent across the city, the start time is being moved to 7 a.m. providing an added measure of safety for all students.
- Salt on Sidewalks:
- Removing the provision prohibiting the use of salt on sidewalks as this provision was rarely reported and it is difficult and costly to enforce.
- Permits:
- More structure was added to the bylaw to clearly articulate conditions and requirements of Use of Streets Permits, as well as Excavation Permits and Alignment Permits.
- Lastly, fees for closures impacting on-street and off-street stalls have been adjusted to reflect the actual revenue in each parking zone rather than the flat fee.
- Penalties:
- Penalties have been reviewed and updated.
- During the last bylaw adoption, the penalty associated with vehicles being towed due to snow or street sweeping operations was inadvertently missed. This penalty has been added back in at a slightly higher amount due to an increase in the cost to tow a vehicle through The City’s contractor. This prevents the costs associated with towing vehicles during these operations from being subsidized by the tax base.
“These updates streamline the bylaws to create clarity for residents and administration,” said Erin Stuart, Inspections and Licensing Manager with The City. “They also help to eliminate regulations that are challenging to enforce and bring penalties in line with other City Bylaws.”
Second reading of both bylaws is anticipated for January 27, 2025.
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