With all of the uncertainty and bullying coming from the United States, more and more folks are talking about “staycations”, not only staying in Alberta but right here in our own city. This is a timely opportunity for us to revisit our pre-pandemic haunts and rekindle our romance with the city!
With 250,000 new residents moving to Edmonton in the last 5 years, what are your favourite local tourist destinations that you would want to share with someone visiting Edmonton?
1. Defending the public interest (next steps towards halting the Katz group handout)
2. Fighting for Renters (Bad news from the Hazeldean townhomes)
3. More Public Transit Service Hours
4. New projects underway: walking, biking, and rolling
Finally, a special shout out to the workers of CUPE Local 30 who are out there filling the potholes and fixing our streets in these extreme weather fluctuations. I spent time this week visiting various crews around the city and delivering donuts with their union President, Eric Lewis. Thank you to all the frontline workers keeping our city moving!
Amidst the madness of the USA offering free reign over their government and spending to a billionaire, you might have missed our own dose of local corporate welfare. Every Albertan should be offended.
I’m not talking about the orphan oil wells bailout or the growing scandal around healthcare contracts, or even Dynalife. I’m talking about a new agreement pulled together between the Provincial Government and Daryl Katz’s OEG Sports & Entertainment (OEGSE). Katz is listed in Maclean's magazine as the 29th wealthiest Canadian.
With the big swings in temperature these last few weeks, our roadways are being hit hard. And those potholes have big impacts on our city budget. As a city, we have a lot of roads. In fact, roads are our largest asset and liability.
The good news is that we are completing pothole and roadway repairs more quickly and efficiently than previous years. The bad news, is that unless we curb urban sprawl, we're only going to be adding more roads and making our pothole problems worse.
Sometimes I get asked about why city councillors spend so much energy advocating towards the province. You can’t operate a healthy city in an unhealthy province: Edmonton depends on the provincial government.
A new memo (February 2025) from the assessment and taxation department at the City of Edmonton highlights just how enormous the financial impact of building inwards and upwards is to building a financially resilient and sustainable city.
Inside….
All of us, especially our youngest, deserve to be safe from dangerous driving in our neighbourhoods.
I want to share a little bit about 1) steps we can take as a community for safe streets and 2) more information about upcoming neighbourhood renewal process.
Local democracy is stronger when we all have trust in one another, when democracy is decided by the best ideas, not the most money and decisions are made for the good of the many not the few.
To kick-off 2025 and in advance of our upcoming federal election, I wanted to share with you a quick video I can’t stop thinking about. We badly need fair prices, consumer protection, and public competition.
With a little imagination and organizing we can rebuild our public services, the proven check and balance for democracy.
