WEEKLY UPDATE - MAY 8

Welcome back to the Weekly Wrap Up! Last week was an exciting week on #yegcc

At Community and Public Services, we had an important conversation about safety and well-being. We were joined by Edmonton Police Service on a range of elements for creating a safe city for all. I’ll be sharing some blogs soon with more on this important topic.

We also reviewed the Winter Shelter strategy for those experiencing homelessness. There were important lessons learned in the 2022/2023 season that will enable a more effective response this coming winter. I’m grateful that we’re preparing well in advance for the upcoming season as funding uncertainties during the past two winters have led to gaps in services. I look forward to confirming resources for a number of key initiatives at Council next week.

At Urban Planning, we talked trees! The great news is that we’re on track to plant 2 million trees by 2030, mostly through our naturalisation programs. We’re continuing the conversation at Council this week as we consider if we should introduce a private tree protection bylaw.

We also had an update on Hawrelak Park renovations and the plans for tree removal and preservation. A number of people expressed their strong desire to see preservation of all trees on the site. We’ll be talking about it further at our next Committee meeting.

Executive Committee included some very exciting news on the housing front. Thanks to the efforts of City of Edmonton staff, Edmonton secured a $19.6mln grant from the National Housing Co-Investment Fund! The City is matching this with a $14mln contribution from our housing budget. These combined sources will retrofit and repair nearly 2000 units of critically needed affordable housing. This incredible investment will help keep thousands of Edmontonians housed for decades to come.

We also heard the annual report on Edmonton’s investment funds and endowments. Thanks to prudent management of these resources by our Investment Committee, all portfolios are meeting their benchmarks and we saw a historic dividend from the EdTel endowment fund! Well done!

See you again next week for another Weekly Wrapup!