Weekly Update - July 11, 2022

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend.

We had a full Council agenda last week as things wrapped up for the summer recess.

I made a motion on Hanger 14 - home of the Alberta Aviation Museum - that gives City staff two years to find a buyer for the building that would keep the museum in place. I share the desire of many I've heard from to keep the museum where it is and understand my motion has created concern to the opposite. I'm in conversation with museum and City staff to provide greater clarity and will be sharing more of my thoughts in a blog soon.

I was disappointed to learn that there weren't any viable options for small scale managed encampments this summer as the status quo continues to have significant impacts on folks living in encampments as well as surrounding residents and businesses. I did get support on a follow up motion that would have a range of alternative encampment response options ready to go next spring and look forward to seeing those options come back to Council as part of the fall budget.

We discussed possible investment in a Healthy Streets Operation Centre in Chinatown that would house an interdisciplinary team of EPS and City staff. We've asked for more information to come back in August before making our final decision. I'm keen to ensure that any new enforcement resources are matched by commitments to social agencies - as outlined in the report, it's essential that we take holistic approaches to safety in our city and I want to be sure that we build social services into the model from the start.

Public Hearing saw two rezonings in Ward O-day'min - a transformation of the former Dwayne's Home site which I'm incredibly excited for and an RF3 rezoning in Central McDougall that will help welcome more folks to the heart of our city.

Council is on recess until August 8th so you will be hearing much less from me in the coming weeks. I wish you all an enjoyable and restorative summer until then!