Weekly Update - Sep 6, 2022

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend! Here’s last week’s recap!

We received some extremely encouraging budget updates! On the operating budget side of things, the City is within 1% of its budget and on track to be under budget. That is in part thanks to Edmonton Transit, which has seen ridership bounce back to 80% of pre-pandemic levels. A lot of hard work has gone into that recovery, and everyone at ETS, as well as partners like the Community Outreach Transit Team deserve a round of applause.

On the capital side of things, 98.6% of projects are on budget, with 82.3% on schedule! With all the supply chain disruptions, this is a very impressive performance and I appreciate all the hard work City staff have done keeping these projects on track.

As summer ends and we start thinking about next year, property maintenance in the City has been a big conversation. The City had experimented with using goats, but the program was dropped during the pandemic. I seconded a motion by Councillor Janz to bring that program back. Goats are an innovative, sustainable solution to keeping Edmonton properties looking beautiful.

I supported two rezoning applications in O-day’min at their Public Hearing. In Queen Mary Park, an RF1 to RF3 will create an opportunity for the construction of row houses. In Prince Rupert a DC2 will allow for a 6 storey mix-used building on 111 Avenue. Both rezonings come with some challenges, especially shade and traffic, and opportunities for their neighbourhoods. Both rezonings will also add more options and bring a greater diversity of people to live in O-day’min, as well as support the City Plan as we grow to 2 million people. It’s always hard to see changes in the neighbourhoods we know and love, but I’m confident in these projects moving forward. Thank you to everyone who spoke, as well as City Administration for their thorough evaluations.

Thanks for joining in. This will be a short but exciting week on Council, so tune in again next week. On September 15th I’ll also be hosting another Community Conversation night, more details to follow, so stay tuned.