Remember the Republican Governors who were putting migrants on trucks or buses and sending them to New York City and Democrat-represented areas??

This Summer, Leduc Mayor Bob Young took a page out of the same, shameful, inhumane playbook and pushed forward a policy that Leduc would close the winter shelter in their community with the express intention of shipping the needy into Edmonton.

You read that correctly. Bob Young, the elected Mayor of Leduc, has fettered his responsibilities under the Municipal Government Act and to the residents of Leduc and is now shoo-shooing them out of town.

Edmonton Journal Keith Gerein wrote a scathing column about his leadership failure here: https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/leduc-edmonton-homeless

“Where the mayor’s position grew much less sympathetic for me is when it revealed both a lack of ownership toward his own city’s issues, along with a detachment on how that choice harms his neighbours.

The mayor’s comments are concerning in several ways.

For one thing, it’s not just Leduc doing this.

It’s Spruce Grove and other smaller communities also sending their homeless residents to the navigation centre. It’s the City of Wetaskiwin interminably dithering over the construction of their new shelter. It’s the council in Red Deer demanding closure of that city’s only overdose prevention site."

Putting aside how careless, heartless, and broken such a move is, it is self-defeating.

Bob Young should have pointed at Premier Smith. Like Edmonton, Leduc problems stem from the the legislature.

The reason there are  people unhoused in Leduc is because of the broken social safety net in Alberta, failing healthcare, and failing to support young people. Had Leduc fought for fairness, they very likely would have received provincial funding (they do have a UCP MLA after all!) 

We know the navigation centre isn’t working anyway with only a few handfuls housed and 80% evicted from encampments refusing to use the navigation centre. https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2024/08/13/new-data-shows-80-of-houseless-evicted-from-encampments-refused-to-use-navigation-centre/ 

We know the encampment sweeps aren’t working and you can see the displacement from downtown everywhere. (https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-edmontons-encampment-evictions-did-more-harm-than-good)

We know that the fabled “Alberta recovery model” exists more in press releases than in practice. (https://drugdatadecoded.ca/has-mainstream-media-finally-had-enough/_)

We know that in our own ward, Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS) has only 16 beds for youth in a city of 1.15 million people, and they are full every single night. We know many youth are struggling, living in poverty, and aging out of government care even sooner due to the UCP lowering the age threshold. (The advocates from "Zine and Heard" interview is a must watch)

https://youtu.be/FOt1XdpWfqo?si=gJqQ818Z2YPKF23T

It is hard to run a functional city in a dysfunctional province, and Smith and the UCP are trying to make it as challenging as possible for our community to thrive.

Edmonton City Council (magnitudes smaller budgets than the Province of Alberta) is doing investing more than ever in social supports and housing.

A huge portion of your taxes are going towards safety. We are taking action to address safety concerns mayorsohi.ca/safety

We are doing our part (and much of the province’s part too).

Meanwhile, there’s little recourse we can do as city council. I'd love to hear your ideas. We can cry foul to Premier Smith. We could set up extra “Bob Young Legacy” traffic lights at the Leduc commuter entrance into Edmonton so at least those Leduc drivers can have a moment to meditate on the leadership failure of Mayor Bob Young. We can hope that the multitude of compassionate and caring people of Leduc who wanted to save the Leduc Hub and serve their neighbours prevail over the icy hearts.

But in all seriousness, the situation we are in is not sustainable. By pressuring Edmonton instead of the premier, Bob Young only exacerbates and fails his community by acting so irresponsibly. Solidarity is a verb, and we need a lot more of it from all communities struggling under this government.