Goodbye Grandin, hello The Gardens: City of St. Albert scraps controversial name – Edmonton

Grandin is a prominent name on buildings, businesses, community centres, a neighbourhood, parks, and street signs in St. Albert — but soon, that name will change to The Gardens.

It comes after St. Albert city council in favour of the change on Tuesday night.

Changing the street signs, the Grandin clubhouse, and land titles will cost the city directly north of Edmonton about $18,600.

“This area, we just know it as Grandin,” said Maureen Carew, resident on Grandin Road. The city areas and landmarks are named after Bishop Vital Grandin, the first Roman Catholic Bishop for the city of St. Albert.

Grandin has a now-controversial past, as he’s considered a key architect for of the Canadian Indian residential school system. The government-sponsored religious schools led to thousands of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children separated from their families and culture.

St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said Grandin’s past was brought to light “ever since 2015 since the TRC report came out, and he was named predominately in that report.”

1:54
Edmonton’s mayor calls for Grandin LRT station name change in light of residential school tragedy

His residential school connection sparked Edmonton city council to vote unanimously in 2021 to change the name of Grandin LRT station to Government Centre.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Later, Edmonton Catholic Schools did the same to Grandin School, renaming it Holy Child Catholic Elementary.

1:58
Edmonton Catholic school gets new name

In July 2024, St. Albert received an application to remove the name Grandin from all municipal assets. On Tuesday, council voted 5-2 in favour of removing the name.

“The longer this debate drags on, the more harm we’re doing to the indigenous community,” Heron said.

Last month, the city of St. Albert asked the public what they thought the new name should be, and collected feedback for if it should happen.

The city said 335 people responded to a survey and 44 per cent of those were Grandin residents.

Some residents are disappointed with the public consultation process — Andriy Cherwick said he never received a notice it was happening.

“We’re going through a time where historical figures, who we might find something wrong with their past, but they’ve also done good things with their past,” said Cherwick.

“We focus on the negative instead of the positive, remove all the positive legacy.”

“Just because his name isn’t on the neighbourhood, doesn’t mean we are not going to continue to talk about him or what he did to contribute to St. Albert; good or bad,” Mayor Heron said.

Businesses with “Grandin” in their name have the choice to remove it.

Heron said historical data, and public historic plaques along the founders walk and the healing garden with Bishop Grandin’s name on it, will still be out.

Some residents say the change will be hard to grasp.

“It’s really engrained in you if you’ve lived here a long time, I think I’ve lived here like 30 years,” said Maureen Carew. “I bet you we’ll say the old name and the old area because that’s what’s going to be the first thing to come to my mind.”

On the city’s website, the community has already been renamed to The Gardens. The mayor said it represents the trees and green spaces the city is known for.

As of September 1st, all city infrastructure and signage will be changed to The Gardens.