As you may know, my City Council colleagues and I passed the 2023-2026 Budget on Friday. It was a long process but I think we found the right balance of moving forward on strategic initiatives while keeping the tax levy increase below five percent.

As you've likely heard, the four year budget is upon us! Instead of a line-by-line approach of what motions I plan to move or projects I'll support, I wanted to share the five key considerations that will guide my decisions, and provide examples of what this could look like as we move forward in our deliberations.

Last Friday, I passed a three-part motion on the new Police Funding Formula. In addition to introducing a new accountability mechanism and exploring further refinements to the formula, my motion also resulted in an additional $7 million for EPS in 2023.

The Prairie Sky Gondola is an idea that sparked a great deal of passion and conversation in our community. After hearing from dozens of speakers, I ultimately made a motion not to move forward with the land leases for the gondola project at this time. While the decision is clear, there a number of important points that I wanted to take some time to reflect on.

I love the Alberta Aviation Museum. Along with many of you, I also want it to stay where it is, in Hangar 14. It is an absolutely unique opportunity to experience historical aviation artifacts in the space where much of that history was made.  

The Victoria Promenade Bike Lane Pilot project was born out of the mobility lanes that were installed as part of Covid measures to give everyone safe spaces to move around our community. I have to confess that I wasn't initially convinced by the proposed one-way bike lanes.

We are a ward of many transit riders - myself included! Access to fast, convenient, and reliable public transportation is one of the great things about living in O-day'min. But I've heard from many of you over the last few months that lately your transit experience hasn't been what it should be.

Our central communities of downtown and Chinatown have received a significant amount of attention over the few months, and rightfully so. Conditions in the heart of our city have deteriorated significantly, culminating in the heartbreaking loss of two members of the Chinatown community in violent assaults.

The presence of encampments in our community is a sign of failure, representing a lack of affordable and supportive housing options for Edmontonians. Encampments do not meet the needs of those living in them and they have significant impacts on surrounding residents and businesses.

During the campaign, I talked about building our communities stronger. This is about taking decisions that make our city more resilient to the challenges we face now and into the future. There are a number of ways over the past six months that I’ve worked to make O-day’min stronger.

Building smarter means making best use of what we have and looking for opportunities for the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts.

We often hear about growing political polarisation and greater social isolation in our society. The reality I see in O-day'min challenges these notions. One of the greatest honours and joys of my role is having the chance to witness the incredible work volunteers are doing throughout our ward.