Weekly Update - April 29th, 2022

This week included:

💰 Some great financial news, including higher than expected returns on our investment funds (fun fact: over the past 10 years, the City’s investment program has contributed $830m to the budget, offsetting what would have otherwise required a 6% tax increase!) and the finalization of the 2022 municipal tax rate at 1.27% for residential and 0.73% for commercial. I'm a bit of a tax nerd and will be posting soon about what these rate changes mean for you.

📃 Another highlight of the week was the approval of a new MOU with Bigstone Cree Nation. This agreement is the first step in the creation of a new urban reserve and I look forward to building a strong relationship with our new partners.

❤️ On Monday we looked over the proposed encampment response. We were lucky to hear a range of speakers, including those working with folks living in encampments and neighbours of encampments too. Given the complexity of the issue, we felt further information and discussion was needed, so this report will be coming back to Council on May 9th - I'll have lots more to share then.

🗣 The week wrapped up with a meeting between Council and Edmonton Police Commission, as well as a representative from Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. It was a productive conversation that highlighted our shared goals of holistically addressing community safety and identified the need for clearer information to help inform our budget discussions moving forward.

✨ Infill compliance, accommodation of walking and rolling to get around during construction, an update on intergovernmental relations, and more rounded out the week - another interesting one at City Hall!