WEEKLY UPDATE - AUG 28

Welcome back to the Weekly Wrap Up! Last week had some big items to open up the new Council session as City Council returned from recess.

There were no rezonings for O-day’min at public hearing, but Council did pass the borrowing bylaws that will support a range of investments in the heart of our city, including projects in the Quarters and Downtown, and sidewalk reconstruction in McCauley.

At Council, we heard a report on downtown and transit safety. There were encouraging numbers, like a sharp decrease in crime severity on transit between Q1 and Q2 of 2023. Improving real and perceived safety in the heart of our city continues to be a priority for Council. We are also seeing positive impacts from the ongoing collaborations between the City of Edmonton, Fire Rescue, Police, AHS, and a range of community partners. Making sure the right resources are responding to the right calls ensures everyone can do their best work. In our upcoming fall deliberations, I'll be looking to increase the resources needed to ensure effective responses to safety in our community. I look forward to hearing about further progress on downtown and transit safety at our next update in October.

Another big item was the funding formula for the Edmonton Police Service. While I didn’t support the formula as presented, I appreciated the productive conversation we had. I’ll be sharing a longer blog post about the formula later this week so be sure to stay tuned!

Council approved moving ahead with the planning stage of a potential National Urban Park in our river valley. I look forward to taking the next steps to see if this program is the right fit for Edmonton and how we can leverage federal funds to make the river valley even better.

A highlight of last week was Council’s approval of a Letter of Intent with the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations to jointly advocate for Indigenous-led housing in our community. I’m hopeful that by continuing to work together, we can make great progress on this vital issue.