Gondola Vote Results

On August 15th, 2022, City Council did not approve the land lease with Prairie Sky Gondola. I agreed with council's direction and did not support approving the land lease.

This is a different position from my previous blog post. In that post, I stated that I was comfortable approving a conditional lease but that the conditions related to the Environmental Impact Assessment and the burial grounds needed to come before council before we would allow the gondola to be built.

What changed for me was a clear message that many Indigenous people rightfully raised concerns around who should lead the engagement process for the burial grounds and Rossdale in general. While I believe that Prairie Sky would have worked hard to complete thorough engagement, when we are dealing with something as sensitive as burial grounds, having an independent, Indigenous-led process on the future of Rossdale is the right first step to take.

One thing I mentioned at the council meeting today is I do not want the decision to stop work on this project to discourage any individual, community group, or business from bringing forward creative and interesting ideas to make Edmonton an even better city than it is now.

Improving our city is something we all need to continuously work on. People need to know that they can advance innovate ideas and that City Council and City staff will be there to support them along the way.

I remember the first time I heard about the gondola and I thought it was an absurd idea. But as time went on and I saw more and more people get involved, I started to see the potential in this idea. While this specific idea will not be advancing, we must continue to encourage creativity as we have the potential to solve challenging problems, diversify our economy, and improve the lives of Edmontonians.

I hope to see new ideas come forward in the future and I would encourage everyone to keep an open mind to new ideas because you never know what people will come up with.