Now that Copenhagen is over and not much has changed, I feel that it is even more important for municipalities to lead on environmental initiatives. Municipalities are a large portion of the environmental problem and can play a great role in the solution.

Godo Stoyke, a friend from Edmonton, has written a book The Carbon Charter that outlines bylaws and steps that have been taken by municipalities around the world to deal with environmental issues. I was honored to write the Preface for The Carbon Charter and The City of Leduc's Genuine Wealth Project is one of the initiatives that is featured in Godo's book. Our City should be proud to have a place in a book that is promoting such a nobel thing. My hope is that our City will adopt other environmental projects that Godo has discovered are taking place around the world.

On December 14th Leduc City Council approved the 2010 budget, in principle. The budget comes along with a 3.17% tax increase. Some of the the highlights include:

- The establishment of a Public Transit Reserve and a Safe Communities Initiatives Reserve. Yes, the introduction of photo radar has increased revenues, for the time being. The additional revenue has gone into The Safe Communities Reserve and will be used to make the City of Leduc safer. I think it's wise that the City does not put this money in general revenues, as I hope the fund decreases over time.

-  Health Life Initiatives. A partnership has been established with Black Gold School Division and the University of Alberta under the name of Healthy Hearts. The purpose of this program is to provide health assessments, advice specific to improving health, and a subsidies to low income families to access recreational opportunities.

-Environmental Initiatives. The City will be recruiting a Municipal Sustainability Coordinator. This position will assist in making sure that sustainability is incorporated in our MDP (Municipal Development Plan) as well as our Downtown Plan. Furthermore, this position will develop a Municipal Sustainability Plan.

These are just a few of the highlights in the budget. You can checkout the City's website for more information.

The Alberta Provincial Government has reallocated the $10 million that it had in this years budget for Green Trip. The Green Trip Fund (mostly for public transit) was announced in the summer of 2008 as a $2 billion fund at the same time as the $2 billion for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

This news is disappointing as the inter-municipal transit plan that included the City of Leduc, County of Leduc, and City of Edmonton was determined as the priority project to recieve Green Trip money by the Capital Region Board (CRB).

On Monday afternoon, members of the CRB including: The City of Leduc, Leduc County, Edmonton, and Strathcona County met with Minister of Transportation Oullette and received confirmation that the $10 million would not be available this year.

I hope to see Green Trip money move early after the next Provincial budget. Building a Public Transit system that will meet the needs of the Capital Region citizens will require funds from other levels of government.

The City of Leduc has proposed an Operations Building to start construction 2010. Currently the City has 3 different sights that Public Works operates out of. This building would create efficiencies in how Public Works conducts business.

The Building that Public Works is currently working out of was built for a community of less than 12,000. Now that Leduc has exceeded 22,000, the need for a larger building is becoming evident. This will extend the life cycle of public equipment keeping them out of the elements.

This project will go ahead if the Public Budget Committee approves it on Saturday November 28.

The Leduc Recreation Centre (LRC) is officially open!! It was an honour to participate in the opening of the LRC this past weekend. Members of Council, past and present, as well with many great citizens dedicated to bringing the dream of the LRC to fruition were on hand to officially recognize the centre's opening.

It is was great to have so many people participate in the weekend's Grand Opening activities. Citizens were welcome to experience the facility. As well as, see some featured events such as the figure skating showcases and a hockey game that had the Leduc Midget AAA's play the Olympic Women's Team Canada.

I hope that members of the community will enjoy this centre for years to come!

On Friday and Saturday the annual Alberta Recreation and Parks Association conference was held in Lake Louise. The conference highlighted some important issues for communities. One particular issue that was of importance to me was the ongoing fight to make communities more active. Childhood obesity has received lots of attention in the past few years. Because of this, there has been a push to get kids more active. There is no silver bullet to this problem but there are a few things that I think need to be considered to address this issue.

Welcome to the relaunch of dominicmishio.ca!!

The website has undergone some changes to make it a more interactive way of communicating with citizens. Come checkout Blog Postings on what is happening in our City and in politics in general. Please feel free to let me know what you think by posting comments. I would love for the site to be a forum for positive dialogue!!