WEEKLY UPDATE - SEP 9

Welcome back to the Weekly Wrap Up! The main meeting last week was Utility Committee, which had a few highlights.

A big topic was the next steps for Edmonton’s compost facilities. I was disappointed to hear that the anaerobic digester approved back in 2013 hasn’t lived up to its promise. But I was encouraged that our current team has charted a course that gets us back to basics. I’m pleased that moving forward, we’ll be relying on tried and true technologies for composting our organic waste. We’ll also have a good balance of in-house capacity and external contracts handling our compost, ensuring we’re not putting all our egg(shells) in one basket.

Continuing to divert organic waste is critical. When they get trapped in landfill, organics release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Keeping them out of landfill is a very high impact way we can work towards our climate goals.

Committee also had a chance to discuss EPCOR’s performance based regulations (PBR) Progress Report. PBR is a way of setting expectations for how we want our utilities to be provided. We saw a lot of success in performance during this reporting period. EPCOR will be submitting a new rate filing in the coming months. This is a great opportunity for Edmontonians to weigh in on what matters most to them. I encourage you to learn more about this process with this handy primer.

Making sure we have a resilient water distribution and wastewater management system is top of mind for me given Calgary’s recent experience. I was encouraged to hear the robust program that EPCOR has in place to keep our infrastructure in good shape.

That’s all for last week! We’ve got a busy week at Council ahead - I look forward to sharing highlights next Monday. Have a great rest of the week!