WEEKLY UPDATE - NOV 11

Welcome back to the belated Weekly Wrap Up! Last week was an interesting mix of discussions.

At Public Hearing we had several important items for O-day’min and the city as a whole. A big decision was approving the last of the recent surplus school sites. While it will mean change for those neighbourhoods, these developments will go a long way to meeting our affordable housing needs. I really appreciated all the passion and perspectives that residents brought to these conversations. I look forward to these strong communities welcoming in their new neighbours.

In O-day’min, we approved a mixed use site in Westmount and a rezoning in McCauley to allow the Italian Centre to expand their warehouse. Both of these support the City Plan and expand our ability to provide amenities close to home.

At Utility Committee, we had some very good news from the Waste Services department. We are able to reduce the fees for waste collection! Edmontonians will see about a $5 a month drop in their bills moving forward. This is thanks to the new Provincial regulations coming into effect for Extended Producer Responsibility. EPR requires manufacturers, rather than municipalities, to pay for the disposal of goods. This helps decrease costs for waste disposal and encourages less packaging.

At Council Services, I moved to impose a cap on per night hotel costs and require Councillors to fly economy when travelling on City business. In person meetings are an important part of our work and advocacy, but we need to ensure this is done cost effectively.

That’s all for last week, have a great weekend!