Edmonton Minute: Affordable Housing, Trustee Byelections, and Spring Budget Increases

Edmonton Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Edmonton politics

This Week In Edmonton:

• This morning, at 9:30 am, there will be a City Council Public Hearing. On the agenda are several zoning amendments, including an extension of a construction deadline for a property in Queen Alexandra, and allowing low-rise multi-unit housing builds in Belgravia, Grovenor, and Ellerslie. 
  
  
• On Tuesday, at 8:30 am, there will be an Agenda Review Committee meeting. Ironically, no agenda is available for this meeting yet. Also on Tuesday, at 9:30 am, there will be a City Council meeting. On the agenda is the Spring 2023 Supplemental Capital Budget Adjustment. Rather than taking our suggestion and removing the $100 million in bike lane funding from the budget, Administration is proposing adding $25.7 million to an already excessive budget. Highlights include an additional $2 million for the Scona Pool demolition project, $375,000 for garbage cans, benches, upgraded CCTV cameras, and procuring/installing Indigenous art at the Telus Transit Station, and $8.7 million for the Imagine Jasper Avenue project. If the meeting does not wrap up on time, additional time has been allotted at 9:30 am on Wednesday.
  
  
• Soundtrack Music festival is happening Friday and Saturday at Kinsmen Park. The lineup includes Nelly, Third Eye Blind, Ashanti, Everclear, and others. Proceeds from the festival go to the Kinsmen Club of Edmonton and support various local Edmonton charities. One-day general admission tickets start at $129.50.

Last Week In Edmonton:

• The federal government announced a $94 million investment into new affordable housing in southwest Edmonton. After providing $24 million last year, 102 affordable housing units were built in Phase One of Heritage Flats. All are now fully occupied, and $14 million will be provided to build an additional 169 homes for Phase Two. The homes are primarily intended for women and their children, as well as Enoch Cree Nation members. The other $80 million will go towards building 334 new homes in Edgemont Flats, with 209 of the units being affordable. The City has expedited the process for occupancy and development permits.
  
  
• The iconic Union Bank Building was purchased and will be turned into a corporate headquarters for Grow Lending Group and the Union Financial Corporation. The buyers also plan to secure a restaurant tenant to operate the main floor retail space where Madison’s Grill was previously located, and the Union Bank Inn will re-open as a 26-room boutique hotel. Renovations will take about a year.
  
  
• Nathan Ip, an Edmonton Public School Board Trustee was elected as an MLA in the provincial election. Now, EPSB is recommending not holding a byelection to fill the vacancy on account of the cost. School Boards leaving parents without representation for lengthy periods seems to be a pattern in the province, and our friends at the Alberta Parents’ Union started a petition calling on the Province to make these elections mandatory. Click here to sign the petition if you agree that parents should have representation.

-----

Donate:

Common Sense Edmonton doesn't accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you're in a position to contribute financially, you can make a donation here.

-----

Share:

If you're not in a position to donate, we understand, but if you appreciate our work, you can help by spreading our message. Please email this post to your friends, share it on Facebook or Twitter, and help make sure every Edmontonian knows what's really going on at City Hall.