We need nation building, not nation burning projects.
Last week, in advance of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, I had the honor of joining a special “Elbows Up for Climate Summit”.
Mayors, councillors and local elected leaders from across Canada gathered to urgently call for achievable, job-creating federal climate action, paid for by an excess profits tax on oil and gas companies.
The summit underscored the need for federal investments in projects that cut pollution while protecting communities and strengthening the Canadian economy. I fully support the call for an excess profits tax, and so do Canadians from all regions and all age groups.
What would an excess profits tax on oil and gas companies mean? These companies are collecting extraordinarily enormous profits due to the impacts of the war in Iran. A excess profits tax on those gains could bring in up to $46 Billion.
You can read more and sign on to our joint letter here: https://elbowsupforclimate.ca/
But communities across this country are living a different reality. Climate change is part of our daily reality: toxic air, water shortages, harrowing evacuations and mass displacement. It’s costing us an extra $8.8 billion to rebuild our roads, bridges, wastewater systems and infrastructure each year. Two-thirds of these costs are falling on our municipal budgets, making life even more expensive for our residents, on top of rising energy costs and gas prices.
That’s why we are calling on the federal government to urgently invest in nation-building not nation-burning projects that lower household bills, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and safeguard our communities:
We are asking the federal government to stand with us: to reject fossil fuel projects that divide us, and get to work on practical and popular projects that won’t burn down our country – but build us up, Canada Strong.
New map makes climate disasters impossible to ignore
Our group also launched the 2026 Climate Impacts Map to live-track climate disasters as they unfold over the summer, and revealed that as of the end of May, nearly 7.6 million (or 1 in 5) people in Canada have already experienced extreme weather events this year.
The proposed Edmonton City Budget will be released on Monday (November 2nd, 2026) via edmonton.ca/budget
As City Council heads towards our budget debates later this fall, we get another opportunity to show how serious we are about our economic resilience and our commitment to keeping taxes reasonable while we serve Edmontonians. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I’m happy to share my plan to keep Edmonton on a sound fiscal path.
New data from the City administration highlights that there are almost no shelters and an incredibly limited amount of affordable housing in the region outside of Edmonton. While the capital region has a combined population of close to 1.5 million, the 1.1 million Edmonton taxpayers are covering the region's costs.
I have put in a request to have Nakba Day recognized as a protocol item under Council Recognition this coming May:
Nakba Day is commemorated annually on May 15. It marks the beginning of the destruction of the Palestinian homeland, and the mass displacement in 1948 of the majority of the Palestinian population. Nakba means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic and is the word used by Palestinians and others to refer to this historic moment.