2021 Platform

+ Supporting Edmonton's Economic Diversification

City Council can create an economic environment that encourages all types of investment and centers Edmonton as a desirable place to build a life.

Edmonton has a culture of entrepreneurship that is unrivalled. If you have an idea and are looking to start a business, our city offers unique opportunities and supports. With a population nearing 1 million, people are always willing to help bring a project to life. The City of Edmonton has been making ongoing improvements to the licensing and permitting process to ensure that the City is not a barrier to those looking to start or grow their businesses.

Small business owners and the innovation community have called on the City to streamline the licensing and permitting process. The feedback we’ve received is that it is often cumbersome and delays well-timed innovation.

During my time on Council, we’ve worked hard to listen and improve processes. If you want to learn more about the many improvements made to the City’s licensing and permitting process, please visit this link to review the detailed series of reports. At the October 26th, 2020 City Council meeting where these reports were presented, various industry groups expressed their approval for the changes made, stating that they felt the changes made it easier for them to do business in Edmonton.

These changes impact many areas, such as moving to remote video inspections for residential and commercial properties. The City also rolled out an online dashboard to easily track a building permit’s application status and created single points of contact for large-scale industrial and commercial development.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will support the innovation sector by:

• Working with Innovate Edmonton to allow the City of Edmonton to be one of the first customers for start-up businesses. This benefits new businesses and will enable them to test their product while introducing innovative solutions to our city’s different challenges.
• Continuing to improve the licensing and permitting process ensures that the City is not a barrier to those looking to start or grow their businesses.
• Expanding on work that is already underway through Edmonton Global, Edmonton Tourism, Innovate Edmonton and others. They work towards promoting innovation in Edmonton and showcasing what makes Edmonton an attractive place to live.

+ Strengthening Regional Collaboration and Intergovernmental Relations

We need to apply our spirit of collaboration and innovation across the region as we compete with cities worldwide that are already working together effectively. For example, large cities in Europe & Asia often collaborate to make their territories more attractive. To remain globally competitive, we have to develop more formal partnerships with other municipalities and work with the provincial government to attract investment.

The Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board helps us strategically coordinate growth for the greater Edmonton area. Similarly, the Edmonton Global organization has brought together most municipalities in the region to attract new investment. These groups represent a new approach to collaboration that sees municipalities in the region as partners in development instead of competitors.

In the Be Ready or Be Left Behind report from 2018, municipalities in the region were able to better understand that we miss out on more significant opportunities to attract investment when we are too focused on what is happening in our municipality exclusively. The rest of the world will pass us by if we are not working together, and Edmonton Global has shown that we can grow the economic pie when we collaborate.

Track Record: In my role as Vice-President and Director of Cities over 500,000 of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA), I championed the creation of the Economic Resiliency and Recovery Task Force . The task force helps municipalities across the province work together on common economic goals to work through the challenges of the current pandemic and financial crisis. The Task Force’s work will be a permanent part of AUMA’s ongoing work, which is critical to help us set up the city and the province for economic success.

As we work with municipalities through the AUMA, we should explore a partnership with the City of Calgary to attract more businesses to both cities. We each have individual strengths that, when combined, could make us even more attractive to new global investment. For example, no other city in this country has such a diverse range of excellent post-secondary institutions. No matter the talent a company is looking for, our graduates from U of A, MacEwan, NAIT, Norquest, Concordia, The King’s University, Yellowhead Tribal College, etc., can fill the needs of any company looking to grow their business.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will work to establish more formal regional economic development relationships by:

• Exploring a partnership with the City of Calgary and other interested Alberta municipalities beyond the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board.
• Continuing to advance economic development work within the AUMA so that all municipalities across the province can be more globally competitive.

+ Continued Excellence in Financial Stewardship

Cities must balance affordability with excellent services. I have always strived to keep tax rates low, with any increase around the inflation rate, while not sacrificing the maintenance, renewal, or growth needed to provide Edmontonians’ necessary quality of life.

Track Record: During my time on council, I have saved the City of Edmonton approximately $85 million through motions to streamline budgets. In 2019 and 2020, these savings allowed Edmonton City Council to approve the lowest tax increase 23 years (2020).

No other councillor has found more savings via efficiencies since 2013.

Examples of areas I have saved money include:

1. In 2020, I put forward a motion to reduce middle management within the City of Edmonton. This motion resulted in savings of approximately $10.3 million.
2. I suggested not filling City of Edmonton staff positions that have been vacant or redundant for more than six months, resulting in millions of dollars saved.
3. In 2018, I directed our City Administration to find efficiencies which resulted in approximately $65 million of savings over four years. These savings included reducing the amount we set aside for emergent items and several workforce strategies.

To continue these savings, I would like to see the provincial government consider different funding approaches to make it easier for the City to budget long-term. For example, they can redirect the provincial education tax. Currently, this tax goes into the province’s general revenue and is administered to municipalities through grants. These grants are often subject to abrupt administrative changes that can slow their delivery. Allowing cities to collect these funds directly ensures a more efficient and transparent method that reduces bureaucratic costs and gives greater financial autonomy to municipalities.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will: Continue to find savings in the current & future budgets, allowing City Council to address our current and growing needs. Ask the provincial government to reduce red tape by allowing municipalities to collect the provincial education tax directly.

+ Keeping Taxes Low

The economic conditions in our city and province are worse than they have been in decades. We have seen many people lose their jobs, with Edmonton having one of the highest unemployment rates across major Canadian cities. This means that many households are unsure how they will make the necessary payments and that many small businesses are struggling to keep their doors open.

Given this reality, we need to ensure our tax dollars are used as effectively as possible.

In Edmonton, just over 50% of the City’s budget comes from property taxes, with user fees and transit fares covering approximately 18% of the budget. The remainder comes from funding from other levels of government. Before 2021, the last year without a tax increase was 1997.

Taxes form a sizable expense for individuals & small businesses during these challenging times. I will work to ensure taxes remain low.

We can keep our taxes low by reducing middle management and looking for lower-cost solutions to different challenges. We can also create partnerships with community organizations to help provide necessary services and programs while keeping a close watch on our budget.

If re-elected as your Councillor,

• I will work to freeze our City budget in 2022.
• I will work to keep any future property tax increases beyond 2022 to the rate of inflation.

+ Supporting Businesses Impacted by City Construction

Construction is essential for continuing to grow, develop and maintain our city. Unfortunately, this sometimes impacts businesses that may incur costs or face reduced revenues during these projects. Finance assistance for companies in these circumstances can mean the difference between turning a profit or struggling to pay rent.

I first brought an idea to Council in June 2018 to address this problem. Council did not support my motion to explore the pros and cons of creating a program similar to the City of Montréal. I felt it was important to revisit this, so I put forward a motion to complete a review of how the Montréal program was going. After that report came back, I put forward a motion that was approved in a 12-1 vote that directed the City of Edmonton Administration to prepare a draft financial assistance policy based on the City of Montreal’s policy.

I believe the City of Edmonton must have a similar program in place to support our small businesses. For more information on how this program would work, please visit the link above.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will propose creating a financial assistance program for small businesses dealing with long-term construction impacts.

+ Reduce Red Tape

Red tape places a burden on businesses, individuals in our communities, and the city administration itself. While the city needs to ensure the safety and well-being of Edmontonians, it must also be agile and responsive to the needs of our business community. Over the past few years, there has been a transformation within the city administration to change a culture that was far more risk-averse. That previous culture resulted in too many examples of businesses looking to start-up or expand, only to be bogged down by a long and often unnecessary process. Small business owners don’t have the luxury of waiting months to get permits in place.

COVID-19 has shown us that not everything needs to be a long process. Sidewalk patios were a great example of this; instead of a lengthy application process and charge to the business wanting to do it, City staff simply asked for a short, one-page application and then approved it without further costs. This is one small example of the changes that have been taking place and that need to continue in the coming years.

The City will charge a person or business the cost for issuing a permit. However, suppose there are low-risk actions (such as creating sidewalk patios). In these cases, we can save the person/business time and money, which will, in turn, save the City time in reviewing a lengthy application for something that has minimal risk. This way, our City staff can focus their time and efforts on more complex applications, which will help speed up the process and provide more certainty for those larger businesses that are expanding.

The city is at a crossroads, and with a clear vision looking to the future of red tape reduction, we can continue to build on the immense progress we have made to make life easier for businesses and individuals alike.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will reduce red tape by:

• Reviewing best practices from our regional partners and other major Canadian cities.
• Working with Business Improvements Areas (BIA) in Nakota Isga (ex: Stony Plain Road BIA, Northwest Industrial BIA, and Winterburn Business Association) to review existing regulations and determine where unnecessary challenges can be removed.

+ Supporting our Main Streets and Downtown Core

Almost everyone has felt the impacts of the pandemic. Our Main Streets (ex: Stony Plain Road), which play a critical role in our city’s economic health and vibrancy, have also felt the brunt. Like the red tape reduction section, our City Administration has made significant progress in supporting our Business Improvement Areas and Main Streets.

The City will often use liability concerns as a reason to prevent things from happening. Safety is paramount, but beyond a safety concern, the default answer the City of Edmonton should be providing businesses and community groups when they present unique ideas is, “Yes, if” instead of “No.”

Although our downtown core only has 1% of our population, it accounts for approximately 10% of our overall tax base. The City has a critical role to play in helping to ensure there is not a massive tax shift to the businesses in the rest of our city. This shift is what happened in Calgary over the last few years, and we cannot allow that to happen in Edmonton.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will help our main streets thrive by:

• Bringing together the current Business Improvement Area Council to identify common roadblocks to increased activation.
• Making policy changes to ensure opportunities for programming year-round.

In a post-pandemic world, we may not see the same need for office space. That shift does not mean we no longer need a vibrant downtown core; what it means is that how we activate our core will evolve. One of the best ways to help with this shift is to have more people living downtown.

Encouraging residential development in our core will likely involve converting older office towers into mixed-use residential/commercial developments. While some conversions have already been taking place, if they do not occur at a reasonable pace, the City could experience a property tax shift similar to what the City of Calgary has had to deal with over the last few years. This tax shift had a significant negative impact on businesses outside of the core in Calgary, which saw their property taxes increase disproportionately.

Expanding Bill 7 would lock in a tax rate for large developments based on leased space instead of the assumed value.

Bill 7 proposes expanded provisions in Alberta’s Municipal Government Act (MGA) to enable municipalities to offer multi-year property tax exemptions for non-residential properties. The challenge is that it is currently focused on industrial properties. I believe that expanding it to include large residential and mixed-use developments would help spark additional economic development in our core and along our Main Streets.

This is important because when a new development is complete, they are often not fully leased once construction is done. This means that the taxes paid on large developments do not accurately reflect the market conditions. We should consider making this change because these new significant developments bring in new tax dollars that aren’t in our existing budget. Therefore, if we delay when they start paying the full tax rate, this would help create an incentive for development when our economy needs it.

If Bill 7 were amended to make this change, it would not cost us any tax dollars while it would create new jobs and create new property tax revenue that was not previously included in our budget.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will maintain the economic integrity of the downtown core by:

• Working with the provincial government to expand Bill 7 (Property Tax Incentives) to include large residential and mixed-use developments, including office tower conversions.

+ Supporting Industrial Development

Like the Winterburn Industrial Area, there are areas in Edmonton that pay property taxes but do not receive proper City services. These services include roads that can’t handle the weight of larger vehicles, no streetlights, no utility infrastructure.

Businesses that operate out of Winterburn pay into our Neighbourhood Renewal Program but do not receive neighbourhood reconstruction. For more than 30 years, these areas have received a level of service far below what our fully serviced industrial regions receive. This situation is unacceptable.

I led the creation of an Industrial Renewal Program. Since I was first elected, I have been working with the Winterburn Business Association to develop a plan to finally bring services to all unserviced industrial areas. With these businesses paying a comparable level of taxes to fully serviced areas, it is unacceptable to leave them in their current state going forward.

This program is similar to the Neighbourhood Renewal Program and will provide proper services to unserviced industrial areas. The first step of this work began this year by upgrading the roads to an appropriate urban industrial standard. This is the same type of road that we have in the Northwest Business Industrial Area. Investing in good urban services will allow new businesses to locate in this area and enable existing businesses the opportunity to grow. That new growth will bring in new jobs and new tax revenue to the City of Edmonton. While the program was approved, it is currently in the planning phase. Proceeding with this program is critical to the long-term economic viability of Edmonton.

If re-elected as your Councillor, I will ensure that the Industrial Renewal Program is implemented in the next budget cycle (2023-2026).