Tag: 2015

Edmonton in 2015

In last year’s recap, I wrote:

“I would like for Edmonton in 2015 to capitalize on the energy and momentum that we all can sense in our city. Maybe it needs a bit of structure, maybe it needs a bit of shepherding, or maybe we simply need to better define what “it” is, but whatever approach we take, we cannot let this opportunity pass us by!”

Looking back, I don’t think we succeeded in that. To me at least, 2015 very much felt like an “under construction” year and our city’s story may even be less clear and coherent than it was. The cranes mostly went up in 2014 or earlier and they’re nearly all still up, busily working to complete a growing list of projects. And while lots of energy was spent on defining what Edmonton is all about (or not about), it doesn’t feel like that work is over (maybe it never will be). I think there’s still a sense of optimism present in Edmonton, but it has certainly diminished compared with the past couple of years.

One Chance
One Chance, photo by Jeff Wallace

I generally dislike when commentators wrap Edmonton’s transformation up with the Oilers, yet I find myself thinking along similar lines. For most, Rogers Place is a proxy for all of the physical change taking place in Edmonton while Connor McDavid represents youth and opportunity for the future. If all goes well, both will be unleashed in 2016. Will Edmonton?

I think 2016 will feel similar to this year, thanks in no small part to the economic downturn. But hopefully at least a few projects get completed successfully and perhaps we’ll even see a shift in our thinking.

For my recap this year I’ve decided to share some brief highlights and photos from 2015. Below that you’ll find a list of year-in-review articles and posts from around the web. I’ll keep adding to the list as I find more. Enjoy!

2015 in Review

Tonight’s fireworks will again be launched from the roof of the Stanley Milner library, so be sure to get to Churchill Square early to get a good view. Remember that ETS is free from 6pm to 3:30am tonight!

Happy New Year 2015!

The year started off with some sad news, as the historic Roxy Theatre was destroyed by fire on January 13. Later in the month, Edmonton took another step forward in embracing winter by hosting the Winter Cities Shake-up Conference and Festival.

Winter Shake Up

In February we dropped out of the running to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022. There’s some speculation that we’ll put in a bid for 2026 instead.

In early March we successful hosted the Red Bull Crashed Ice finals which saw roughly 70,000 people downtown to take in the festivities. It was a big, flashy, confidence-boosting event for our city. Before the month was over though, #girdergate happened resulting in additional delays for the 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road. The project is now expected to be completed in 2016, assuming nothing else goes wrong.

Red Bull Crashed Ice
Photo by Al Girard

Things got worse for the City in April when it announced that the Walterdale Bridge project would also be delayed until late 2016. When we weren’t talking about the provincial election in April, we were talking about Edmonton’s entrance signs. At the end of the month, the “City of Champions” slogan was removed, but a redesign was put off to another day.

Edmonton Entrance Sign

On the sports front in April, the Oilers finally cleaned house with new CEO Bob Nicholson appointing Peter Chiarelli as President & GM. The Oilers also won the first overall pick in the NHL Draft Lottery, the fourth #1 pick in six years.

Of course the big story in May was the NDP victory and Rachel Notley becoming the 17th Premier of Alberta.

SwearingIn23
Rachel Notley being sworn in, photo by Premier of Alberta

On May 23, we had our first What the Truck?! event of the season, and it was bananas! So many people came out to enjoy the fantastic weather and unofficial kick-off to summer!

What the Truck?! at Churchill Square

On June 5, the Edmonton Rush capped off an amazing tenth year in the NLL by winning the Champions Cup. Then in July, the team announced it was moving to Saskatoon. I’m still disappointed they couldn’t find a way to stay in Edmonton.

Edmonton Rush win NLL Champions Cup

Sports fans also celebrated the kickoff to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 in June. Just over 53,000 fans packed Commonwealth Stadium to take in the opening match featuring Canada vs. China. And no surprise here – the Oilers selected Connor McDavid first overall in the NHL Draft at the end of the month.

FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 - Edmonton
Photo by IQRemix

There was sad news in June too. On June 8, Constable Daniel Woodall was shot and killed while executing an arrest warrant in the west end. He was the first EPS officer killed since Constable Ezio Faraone was shot on June 25, 1990.

In July, the Oilers unveiled the name of the area surrounding Rogers Place: Ice District, drop the “the”.

Scott McKeen, Darren Durstling, Bob Nicholson, Glen Scott

They also opened a presentation centre so that fans could get a look at what the inside of Rogers Place will be like when it opens in time for the 2016-2017 NHL season.

Rogers Place

Lots of Edmontonians enjoyed the new Centennial Plaza at the redeveloped Federal Building throughout the summer, thanks in large part to the colorful fountains. It’s just too bad the space isn’t more winter-friendly. Maybe in 2016?

Federal Building Plaza Fountains

We also had some water activities with Slide the City on the weekend of July 18-19. Look what fun can be had when you close down a street!

Slide the City

The Metro Line LRT dominated the discussion in August, and it finally opened on September 6! It still isn’t working completely as planned, but it’s better than not running at all.

NAIT LRT Station

In early September, Mayor Iveson and City Council made the decision to fire City Manager Simon Farbrother. They said it wasn’t because of the bridge and LRT debacles, but that had to be a key factor. Change at the City continued throughout the fall, and there’s more to come in 2016.

Simon Farbrother

We wrapped up our successful year of food truck festivals on September 11 with the final What the Truck?! event of the season. That day was also proclaimed food truck day in Edmonton to celebrate!

What the Truck?! at Churchill Square

Also in September, our city came together to support Spider-Mable, probably the feel-good story of the year.

Justin Trudeau became our new Prime Minister in October, and in early November Amarjeet Sohi was named Minister of Infrastructure & Communities. It was a big loss for Council, but great news for municipal representation in the federal government.

The new 41st Avenue SW interchange will help grow exports and benefit the local economy 185
Photo by Premier of Alberta

At the end of November, the Edmonton Eskimos won their 14th Grey Cup, defeating the Ottawa RedBlacks. Just over a week later, head coach Chris Jones jumped ship for Saskatchewan.

Eskimos win the Grey Cup
Photo by Edmonton Eskimos

Edmonton said goodbye to the current Royal Alberta Museum on December 7. The new building isn’t expected to open until late 2017, though construction seemed to progress swiftly this year.

Goobye, Hello RAM

And just a couple weeks ago, the EndPoverty Edmonton strategy was unanimously approved by City Council. There’s a lot of work still to do, but this is a positive step forward.

Other 2015 Recaps

Here are some other 2015 recaps I’ve found:

Have a link to add? Let me know! You can check out my 2014 recap here.

I’ve been thinking about the year ahead for Edmonton and what it might look like. I’ll have more on that in an upcoming post. For now, let me say Happy New Year and all the best in 2016! Thanks for reading!

Budget 2016-2018 approved, Best Bar None 2015, Edmonton Journal Power 30 for 2015

I’m trying something new, where I share some thoughts on a few topical items in one post. Less than I’d write in a full post on each, but more than I’d include in Edmonton Notes. I’ll organize them here. Have feedback? Let me know!

Budget 2016 approved

City Council unanimously passed Edmonton’s first multi-year Operating Budget today, with a tax increase of 3.4% in each of 2016 and 2017, and 4.8% in 2018. For a “typical home valued at $401,000” that’ll work out to an extra $76 next year, according to the City.

“We made fiscally responsible decisions to control cost increases in certain areas, find reductions, and to reallocate existing funds to civic services that residents told us are their top priorities,” said Mayor Don Iveson. “Edmontonians expected us to show restraint. We delivered, while enhancing the services that are needed for our growing city, such as more police officers, firefighters and traffic safety measures.”

Roughly 2.6% of the increase is to cover population growth and inflation, and 0.8% is for the Valley Line LRT. The 0.1% decrease for 2018 comes from the $1.2 million that was leftover when all of the requests were decided upon. A small gesture, but still.

It’s probably not as much fiscal restraint as some would have liked, but Council did make some important decisions to reduce the increase down from the originally proposed 4.9%. First, they cut the 1.5% for neighbourhood renewal in 2016 and 2017, leaving the decision about 2018 to the next Council. Second, they finally did something about the ballooning police budget, capping increases to population growth and inflation. And third, they stood firm on affordable housing and the low-income transit pass, saying they are important initiatives but need funding from the other orders of government. Whether or not they get any additional funds remains to be seen.

One thing Council is planning to spend money on is the full service review, a process that could take three years and cost up to $3.75 million. They approved the preliminary terms of reference for the project today.

Props to Elise Stolte for all her live budget coverage on Twitter over the last week! Check out her list of budget winners and losers here.

Best Bar None 2015

The 6th annual Best Bar None awards took place last week. The awards recognized 67 bars, clubs, pubs, and lounges “for their commitment to high service and safety standards.” This year’s winners included:

  • Bar/Lounge: OTR Kitchen + Bar
  • Hotel Bar: The Lion’s Head Pub – Radisson Edmonton South
  • Restaurant and Bar: Teddy’s Palace
  • Pub: Hudsons Canadian Tap House (Whyte Avenue)
  • Large Pub: O’Byrne’s Irish Pub
  • Club: The Ranch Roadhouse
  • Campus: The Nest Taphouse Grill
  • Casino: River Cree Resort and Casino

Best Bar None 2015
Photo by Sticks & Stones, courtesy of AGLC

A new category, Event Venue, was introduced this year too so next year there’ll be one more award. I wasn’t able to make it this year, but I did attend last year and enjoyed learning more about the program. In addition to competing for the awards, venues receive accreditation for meeting specific standards related to safe operation and responsible management.

“The value of Best Bar None lies in the fact that those bars that meet stringent standards have demonstrated that they are responsibly managed, and that they are committed to ensuring their patrons can socialize in a clean, safe, well-managed establishment,“ said Brian Simpson, Deputy Chief, Edmonton Police Service.

You can see the full list of accredited venues for Edmonton here. Congrats to all!

Edmonton Journal Power 30

The Edmonton Journal released its Power 30 list for 2015 on Saturday, and so begins the season of lists.

“Sometimes it feels like a game of rock-paper-scissors, playing who ‘tops’ whom. Sometimes it’s very much a reality check, tracking a lack of diversity or gender balance. But most of all, it’s a reflection of this community and a snapshot of the year that was.”

There’s nothing particular surprising about the list. Premier Rachel Notley at number 1 was easily predicted, and Amarjeet Sohi at number 2 is hard to argue with. I’d say my eyebrows went up seeing Daryl Katz at number 3, ahead of Mayor Don Iveson at number 4. I think Mike Nickel at number 8 (the only Councillor on the list) is a great choice – he’s been a pleasant surprise on Council this term. I would have expected to see Police Chief Rod Knecht higher than 25 and Bob Nicholson lower than 11. Great to see Andrew Leach on the list at 15.

Many were quick to criticize the lack of gender and racial diversity, but the list doesn’t show who should be considered powerful, but who actually is.

“We define “power” as this: well-connected, well-known individuals with the means, influence, vision and leadership skills to get things done. They have a little celebrity, certain skills and/or work ethic, and sometimes, just enough luck to land in the community’s spotlight.”

By that definition, it’s not surprising that many of the people on the list are there just because of the positions they hold. Like, um, Connor McDavid. He’s got celebrity and the spotlight, but really? And at number 10?!

Maybe next time Elections Alberta can spend $1 million on something useful

Well there’s $1 million down the drain. Voter turnout for the 2015 provincial election here in Alberta ended up being 53.7%, down from 54.4% in 2012. The flashy ad campaign that Elections Alberta ran probably had very little impact on those numbers, if it had any impact at all. I’d wager than anger against the PCs and enchantment with the NDP’s orange crush did more to impact voter turnout than #ChooseYourAlberta did.

choose your alberta

They could have spent that money on things that would have actually, measurably impacted turnout. Like more voting stations. Or better educational resources on how to vote. Or online voting. Or, as I will argue for in this post, on a better website and on open data. Let’s start with the website.

Is a functional, reliable, up-to-date website too much to ask for in 2015?

The Elections Alberta website is an unmitigated disaster. It’s garish, uses tables for layout, and is horribly unfriendly to use on a mobile device. Worse, there’s not just one website, but many. Here are some of the subdomains I’ve come across:

There are probably others that I haven’t even found yet, too. Each of those sites has a different navigation menu even though they share a similar design, which makes them very disorienting. Worse, they change seemingly on a whim. Links are removed or change, redirects are put in place, and there is no revision history.

I suppose you could argue that we don’t have elections very often so it’s not worth putting a lot of money into the website. But I’m not talking about a fancy, complicated, expensive redesign. I’m talking about a simple, responsible, and trustworthy website that is actually useful.

I think being trustworthy is especially important. Elections Alberta is the authority on elections in Alberta – I would expect to be able to go their website to find accurate, reliable information. But it’s hard to trust a site that is constantly in flux, with information appearing for a few days and then disappearing again, or links that look like they were added almost as an afterthought.

For instance, I downloaded a list of candidates in the 2015 election in Excel format a few weeks before election day, as I was building my results dashboard. It was somewhere on the WTV site. Today that page is gone, and the WTV site redirects to results. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I can see that a completely different site used to be there, with the link to the Excel document I had downloaded. Why remove that?

It seems they have removed nearly all of the previous information and functionality now that the election is over. Searching for your candidates has been replaced with finding your MLA. Which kind of makes sense, except that you’re on the Elections Alberta site, not the Legislative Assembly website. I expect to find election-related information at Elections Alberta, thank you very much!

A small fraction of the $1 million ad campaign budget would have gone a long way toward addressing these issues with the Elections Alberta website.

It’s time to get on board the open data bandwagon

I really like building things for elections. Whether it’s a results dashboard, a where-to-vote tool, a sign management system for a campaign, or something else entirely, I enjoy it all. These projects generally need data. Sometimes you crowdsource the data (where did volunteers drop all of the signs) but often you want official data from the election authority. In the case of the provincial election, I wanted to build a site that was useful before and after the election, with a where-to-vote feature, information on all of the candidates, and a results dashboard. I needed some data from Elections Alberta to make it happen. Here’s a rough overview of what I wanted:

  • A list of all parties (ideally with contact info)
  • A list of all candidates (ideally with contact info, their electoral district, etc.)
  • A list of all electoral districts (ideally with returning officers and other info)
  • A list of all polling stations (ideally with addresses and contact info)
  • The geographical boundary data for each electoral district
  • The geographical boundary data for each polling station
  • Results data for the 2015 election
  • Historical results data

Each of those datasets would allow me to build additional features, especially when combined with my own data. All of them are fairly straightforward in my opinion, and should be things that the authority on elections would have. Once I knew which datasets I needed, I set about finding them.

My first stop was the Alberta Open Data Portal: “The portal makes data the provincial government collects on behalf of citizens publicly available in machine readable formats with an open licence.” Like the City of Edmonton’s data catalogue, the Alberta Open Data Portal should be a one-stop shop for open data. But unfortunately, it contains no election-related data. I of course submitted a dataset request, but knew it wouldn’t be actioned in time. I still haven’t heard anything back about it.

I knew at this point that I’d have to hunt each dataset down individually, likely on the Elections Alberta site. And given what I wrote above about the website, I knew that was likely to be problematic.

As mentioned I found the list of candidates in Excel format. I also managed to find the electoral district boundary information and the polling station boundaries here. I ended up scraping nearly everything else, including the list of electoral districts. Just four days before the election, after repeated requests that went unanswered, they added an Excel document of all the polling stations (which you can see here via the Wayback Machine).

I’m pretty happy with the way the results dashboard turned out, but again it was all scraped. Instead if making a results feed available, or any kind of structured data, Elections Alberta only provides a static HTML page (which of course does not validate correctly making scraping even more difficult). Now that the election is over, I see they have added the resultsnew site, which appears to provide an option to download the results in Excel. Too little, too late.

One quick note on historical data. You can get PDFs here, but that’s pretty useless for anything other than manual lookups. I couldn’t find anything else. The only reason my results dashboard is able to show results data from 2012 is that I had saved copies of the static HTML results files that year.

This situation is untenable. Scraping data, hunting around a constantly changing website, and pleading for more complete datasets is not my idea of an open and accessible government. Open data is not a new concept, and the Province already has an open data catalogue. All Elections Alberta needs to do is make their data available inside of it.

There’s plenty of time to fix this before the next election!

I know that election time is crunch time, and that the folks at Elections Alberta were probably incredibly stressed out and constantly faced an uphill battle. And I know there are smart, dedicated Albertans who work there. Keila Johnston, Director of IT and Geomatics for Elections Alberta, was particularly helpful. But now the election is over, and I’d really like to see some positive change.

It would be an incredible shame if we got to the next election here in Alberta and found ourselves in the same position: with a website that’s out-of-date and unreliable, and a lack of open data to power new tools and experiences for voters. Elections Alberta has the talent and ability to fix both of those issues, if they prioritize it. And the best part? It shouldn’t cost $1 million to do so.

Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton: 2015 Edition!

For the 2016 version, click here!

It looks like summer is here to stay, and that means it’s time for my listing of summer festivals & events, powered by ShareEdmonton. Below you’ll find dozens of events with a website, dates, and links to social media for each. You’ll also find a link to the event at ShareEdmonton and a link to an iCal for the event. I hope you find this listing as useful as I do.

_DSC5020
What the Truck?! by @DaveFeltham

Festivals

Here’s my list of 50+ festivals and events you can look forward to this summer in and around Edmonton!

Event Dates Links
NUOVA Opera & Music Theatre Festival May 22 – July 4 SE     
What the Truck?! May 23 & more! SE    
International Children’s Festival May 26-30 SE    
Edmonton International Cat Festival May 30 SE   
Oliver Community Festival May 30 SE  
eek! Comic & Pop Culture Fest May 30-31 SE   
Bikeology Festival (Bike Month) June 1-30 SE    
NextGen Month June 1-30 SE   
Creative Age Festival June 4-6 SE   
Mercer Summer Super Party June 5 SE 
Edmonton Craft Beer Festival June 5-6 SE    
Nextfest June 5-15 SE  
Edmonton Pride Festival June 5-14 SE   
Edmonton Pride Parade June 6 @ 11am SE   
Bonnie Fest June 6 SE   
Heart of the City Festival June 6-7 SE    
Sprouts New Play Festival for Kids June 6-7 SE 
Improvaganza June 17-27 SE   
Summer Solstice Festival June 18-21 SE    
Beaumont Blues & Roots Festival June 19-21 SE   
Porkapalooza BBQ Festival June 19-21 SE    
Edmonton International Jazz Festival June 19-28 SE   
The Works Art & Design Festival June 19 – July 1 SE  
Highlandia Festival June 20 SE   
Freewill Shakespeare Festival June 23 – July 19 SE    
Street Jam Festival June 25 SE  
Found Festival June 25-28 SE   
Kick It Up in Little Italy! June 27 SE   
Pets in the Park June 28 SE 
BaconFestYEG June 30 SE   
Canada Day July 1 SE 
Feats Festival of Dance July 1-12 SE    
Edmonton International Street Performers Festival July 3-12 SE   
Seven Music Festival July 4 SE   
Historic Festival & Doors Open Edmonton July 5-12 SE   
Taste of Edmonton July 16-25 SE    
K-Days July 17-26 SE     
K-Days Parade July 17 @ 10am SE     
Interstellar Rodeo July 24-26 SE   
Servus Heritage Festival August 1-3 SE   
Rock’n August August 4-8 SE  
Edmonton Folk Music Festival August 6-9 SE    
Animethon August 7-9 SE     
Cariwest August 7-9 SE   
Cariwest Parade August 8 @ 12pm SE   
Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 13-23 SE    
Edmonton Rock Music Festival August 14-15 SE  
Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival August 14-16 SE  
Edmonton Latin Festival August 15-16 SE  
Edmonton Blues Festival August 21-23 SE 
Edmonton Airshow August 22-23 SE     
Symphony Under the Sky August 27-30 SE    
Symphony in the City September 4-5 SE    
SONiC BOOM September 5-6 SE    
Ignite Edmonton Festival September 9-10 SE   
Kaleido Family Arts Festival September 11-13 SE   

You can check out a calendar view of festivals here or you can download the iCal feed for your own apps.

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015

Edmonton is always a great place for summer sports, but this year is special. Edmonton is one of the official host cities for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. We’ll host 11 matches this summer from June 6 through July 5, including the kickoff match between Canada and China. There’s a Team Canada Fan March taking place before the game too, from Borden Park to Commonwealth Stadium. In addition to the group matches, we’re hosting two Round of 16 matches, one quarter-final match, one semi-final match, and the third place match. You can see all of the matches on ShareEdmonton.

The City of Edmonton will be showing some of the games on a huge outdoor screen in Centennial Plaza (behind the Stanley Milner Library downtown). Ticket prices range from $20 to $115 and include bus, LRT, or park & ride service to and from the game. There are a few contests you can enter too. For example, Edmonton Tourism is giving away 60 tickets.

Happy Summer in Edmonton

There are of course many more events listed in the ShareEdmonton calendar, so check it out! Have I missed something that should be included? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Happy summer!

Edmonton is ground zero in the PC campaign of fear

What an interesting week in the Alberta Election, especially here in Edmonton. It started with Mayor Don Iveson’s confident State of the City address, in which he declared that “Edmonton is too important to Alberta’s future to be ignored.” He said he’s confident that Edmontonians “will not stand for any provincial government ever forgetting about Edmonton again.” The mayor contrasted a strong, vibrant Edmonton with an uncertain, shaky Alberta, and said that Edmonton could play a significant role in a provincial turnaround. Edmonton is not just the capital.

With every passing day the NDP have looked stronger and stronger. The polls, whether you trust them or not, have consistently had the NDP either in the lead or close to it, with today’s predicting a minimum victory of 25 seats. Everywhere you look there are signs of the “orange crush” sweeping across the province, but especially here in Edmonton where NDP support is strongest. The prospect of an NDP win has become so realistic in fact, that the PCs have had to take the unusual position of fighting back. And it’s here in Edmonton that they have focused their efforts.

Last week Edmonton-Rutherford PC candidate Chris Labossiere wrote a widely-criticized blog post that said the NDP “have not demonstrated any real passion or partnership with Edmonton as a dynamic and changing global city.” He wrote, “I do not trust that they share or appreciate Edmonton’s story, our energy or our ambition.”

Edmonton-Spruce Grove MP Rona Ambrose said today that an NDP government here in Alberta would be a “risky experiment.” She said that although she understands the anger being directed at the PCs, Albertans “need to think twice about electing an NDP government.”

edmonton business leaders
Photo by Dave Cournoyer

And in a press conference late this morning, five Edmonton businessmen called the NDP’s policies “amateur” and urged Albertans to make sure they’re “thinking straight” when they go to vote on Tuesday (you can read their opinion letter here). The Journal reports that together, the five have given nearly $95,000 to the PCs since 2010. There have been incredible things said every day during this election, but a couple of comments today were just on another level. Here’s what Tim Melton, executive chairman of Melcor Developments said:

“I don’t understand the unhappiness and disenchantment that appears to be out there. We don’t need amateurs running this province through these difficult times … we’ve got to stay with the government that has got us to where we are today.”

Is it really so hard to understand why Albertans are unhappy with a government that has faced scandal after scandal? With a government that has failed, again and again, to get us off the resource revenue roller coaster?

As if that wasn’t enough, NPO Zero CEO Ashif Mawji had this to say at the same news conference:

“If there’s no bottom line, then there’s no money that goes to charities. We won’t make donations to charities,” Mawji said, using the Stollery Children’s Hospital and the University of Alberta as examples of where the losses will be felt.

There’s no question that leaders like Doug Goss have done great things for Edmonton, and I’m sure they will continue to, but to threaten the charities that support Albertans when the government won’t? Disgusting.

Rachel Notley
Photo by Dave Cournoyer

Here’s what NDP leader Rachel Notley said in response today:

“Frankly, if I were them, I’d be more focused on talking with Albertans about what it is they can do to make the lives of regular families better. They’ve chosen to fearmonger about the NDP instead. I guess we’ll see … which approach is more appealing and more convincing to Alberta voters.”

Indeed we will, in just a few days.

“Changing our government is not something Albertans should be afraid of,” is what Dave wrote today. “It is something we should probably do on a regular basis.”

Recap: Mayor Iveson’s 2015 State of the City Address

Nobody fills a room like our mayor, Don Iveson. He delivered his second State of the City Address on Monday in front of an absolutely packed house at the Shaw Conference Centre. Roughly 2,200 people attended the annual event hosted by the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. We’re in the middle of a provincial election of course, so there were plenty of candidates in attendance yesterday and more than a few people wondering what, if anything, Mayor Iveson might say. On the topic of the provincial government, he did not tread lightly.

State of the City Address 2015

“Edmonton is too important to Alberta’s future to be ignored,” he said near the end of his remarks. “That’s why I’m confident that no matter what Albertans decide on May 5, together, you along with our City Council, will not stand for any provincial government ever forgetting about Edmonton again.”

Mayor Iveson spoke for nearly 30 minutes before getting to that point. He spelled out why Edmonton matters, he talked about the opportunities that are before us, and he consistently pointed out that we could do more if only the Province would come to the table as a partner. “I want to be clear about what partnership means to me,” he said. “It means that both parties recognize their mutual interest in achieving something great together.”

Saying that there have been “some important steps” in the city charter talks thus far, Mayor Iveson made it clear that he expects the new government to continue that work. “To abandon or shortchange the charter would be to miss the chance for Edmonton to be a true partner in building this province,” he said. On homelessness, social services, early childhood education, climate change, and infrastructure, Mayor Iveson said that “Edmonton has shown we do deliver results” and challenged the Province to “give us the responsibility and resources necessary to get to the finish line.”

If there was a theme to the mayor’s remarks, it was resiliency. He opened with a compelling story about the great flood of 1915 that left an estimated 2,000 people homeless and which devastated businesses and entire industries. “Other places in similar circumstances might have let all their hope and promise be swept away,” he said. “But not Edmonton.” His message was clear. Just as our 1915 counterparts made smart decisions for the long-term, so must we.

Though the price of oil is down and there are layoffs in Alberta, Edmonton’s economic picture is much rosier he told us. “Edmonton is weathering this downturn,” he said. Citing the “unprecedented” number of cranes in the downtown, Mayor Iveson talked about the continuing confidence here in Edmonton. Last year Edmonton became the fifth largest region in Canada, “a quiet but important milestone.”

If you’re here in Edmonton, you know these things. But others around the country and around the world do not. “It’s never been more important for us to tell a clear and consistent story about Edmonton,” he said. Yes, he mentioned Make Something Edmonton, but I think Mayor Iveson really intended for his remarks on storytelling to be one of those smart decisions for the long-term. He suggested we start talking about “Edmonton Metro” which at 1.3 million people, “will be a force to be reckoned with.” This is an evolution of the “Edmonton Region” term he started using as soon as he was sworn in as mayor. Unlike “region”, the term “metro” is distinctly urban, is cohesive, and highlights the confidence of Edmonton at its core.

State of the City Address 2015

We need more than a great story for Edmonton to continue to prosper, however. “Mass transit has the potential to transform a city in a way that few other infrastructure investments can,” Mayor Iveson said. He highlighted the federal government’s new transit building fund and said it could be great for Edmonton, “but only if our Province steps up and matches this ongoing commitment.”

He also talked about the task force to end poverty and the importance of sharing Edmonton’s prosperity with all Edmontonians. While work is well underway here, the mayor called out the Province for not taking action since unveiling the Social Policy Framework back in 2013. He talked about the Year of Reconciliation and said “we can show the way for a new vision of Canadian city that lives and breathes the treaty spirit.” He spoke about climate change and said our cities “are not prepared to deal with it.” And he said that “Edmonton can play a role in changing a conversation that has, for too long, hurt the way the world sees us.”

Mayor Iveson also had some interesting things to say about cities. “We’re the agents of change in Canada and, today, we matter more than ever,” he said. “Cities are increasingly the places where the work is getting done.” He talked about how cities “are the crossroads where resources and creativity intersect” and said nowhere is that more true than right here in Edmonton.

His core messages of resiliency and working with the Province were his focus though. “If we want to build a strong and resilient Alberta,” he said, “we need a strong and resilient Edmonton.”

State of the City Address 2015

I thought Mayor Iveson carried greater confidence through his remarks this year compared to last. The highlight of his speech last year, when he looked right at Premier Redford and called for provincial funding for the LRT, was not possible this year with the uncertain political future of Alberta so he needed to be strong throughout. He looked and sounded at ease and his delivery was much better.

It’s true that most of the things he said on Monday were similar to things he said last year. The importance of LRT, the opportunity that comes with being an Aboriginal city, the need to end poverty rather than manage it, the baby steps toward a city charter, and even the need to talk about Edmonton as the heart of the region were all things he touched on in 2014’s State of the City address. But it wasn’t the same message. I think there are two key differences. First, while last year was a bit heavy on ideas and what’s coming, this year he talked about accomplishments, like the task force to end poverty which is well underway or the Open City initiative which is already have a positive impact. Second, he focused on Edmonton’s strengths this year rather than its needs. Edmonton is resilient. Edmonton is compassionate. Edmonton gets things done.

Things are uncertain at best in Alberta right now, but Edmonton is well-positioned for now and for tomorrow. I think it was wise to take advantage of the timing, to contrast Edmonton with Alberta, and to make it clear that Edmonton can play a bigger role in helping turn things around for the whole province.

You can see a few more photos from the event here.

17 reasons why City Council deserves the 3.8% raise

City Council will receive a 3.81% salary increase in 2015, which would make the mayor’s salary $176,145 and the councillors’ salary $99,994. That’s an increase over their 2014 salaries of $6,464 and $3,671, respectively. As one third of that is tax exempt, the fully taxable equivalent salary is $213,272 for the mayor and $118,824 for the councillors. At the end of the day, we’re talking about another $50,516 per year to pay for all the increases. It’s not a large amount, and I think it’s fair.

City Council Swearing In 2013-2017

Here are 17 reasons why Council deserves the proposed raise, in no particular order:

  1. Under our current twelve ward system, Councillors represent between 60,000 and 95,000 Edmontonians each. And our city is one of the fastest growing in the country, so that number is only going up!
  2. Council’s compensation is calculated in an open and transparent way using the percentage change in the 12 month average of the Alberta Weekly Earnings values as reported by Statistics Canada.
  3. Just counting Council & Committee meetings and public hearings, Council met 115 times in 2014. Those meetings included a combined 3,825 agenda items. Many of those included multi-page reports. That’s a lot of reading!
  4. Unlike other levels of government, Councillors do not vote on their own pay raises. It’s done automatically through an independent system that was established in 2011 by bylaw 15969.
  5. An increase of 3.8% is nothing compared with historical increases! Before the current system was implemented, aldermen awarded themselves large increases. In 1972 aldermen gave themselves a 26% increase, and in 1977, immediately after the election, aldermen tried to increase their salaries by 60%! In 1989, aldermen approved a 51% increase over three years.
  6. Supported by Council, our mayor stood up in front of a room full of business people and said that while attempting to eliminate poverty is a complex challenge, he is is unafraid to tackle it. This Council believes in the importance of representing and improving the lives of all Edmontonians.
  7. Councillors work long hours, way more than 40 per week in most instances. Just look at the last week – they had a marathon discussion about Uber and taxis that went to nearly 10pm, and they extended the January 26 Public Hearing twice in order to give everything the time it deserved. On top of that they regularly attend community events throughout the week and on weekends. A busy week could easily exceed 60 hours.
  8. Councillor Gibbons estimated back in 2012 that the proposed 5.35% increase that year worked out to an extra $2 per hour based on the number of hours he puts in.
  9. Many members of Council choose to direct portions of their salary or their eligible increases to worthy causes. For instance, in 2011, 2012, and 2013 Councillor Iveson donated $2,505 of his salary to the Donate-a-Ride program. Sometimes members of Council simply decline an increase. For instance, Mayor Mandel froze his salary for three years until his final year in office.
  10. They are working hard to develop a “true partnership” with the Province that will result in the long-term sustainability of our city. They are renewing neighbourhoods now and building up a fund to pay for maintenance in the future. They’re concerned with Edmonton’s future, not just its present.
  11. A study on the perception of Council’s compensation in 2012 (pdf) found that the annual salaries for comparable positions for the mayor and councillors align well with the actual salaries they receive.
  12. One comparison to another leader in our community: outgoing University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera earned a salary of $544,000 last year. Another comparison: more than 3,100 Alberta government employees earned over $100,000 a year in 2012 and 2013.
  13. Unpopular as the idea may sound, research suggests that higher wages attract better quality politicians and improve political performance. This was the argument made in Boston recently too when Councillors there debated giving themselves a 29% raise.
  14. Council is committed to building our city’s infrastructure, and they’re getting results, securing funding for the Valley Line LRT extension as an example.
  15. If rising costs are your concern, there are far more expensive things to be concerned about. Here are 99 stupid things the government spent your money on. At #53: “The City of Edmonton spent $500,000 on licences for software that an auditor said hardly any employees ever use.” Back in 2008, the City spent $92 million on consultants.
  16. After taking into account the difference in tax exemptions, our mayor and councillors make roughly the same amount as their counterparts in Calgary.
  17. Every year, no matter what they do, Councillors have to deal with hundreds if not thousands of complaints about snow removal, potholes, and other hot topics. Not to mention hearing constant NIMBYism and receiving all kinds of criticism as they try to make positive change for now and the future. It really is a thankless job at times.

I’m sure you can think of many other reasons – what are yours?

Yes, improvements could be made. I’d like to see the salaries stated in terms of the fully taxable equivalent for instance, rather than having to explain that 1/3 is tax exempt. Still, I think it’s crazy how upset some citizens get whenever the topic of salary increases for City Council comes up. There’s no shortage of other more important issues to discuss.

Recap: Edmonton’s Economic Impact Luncheon 2015

“Never waste a good crisis,” EEDC President & CEO Brad Ferguson told the hundreds of Edmonton business leaders gathered today at the Shaw Conference Centre for EEDC’s annual Impact luncheon. He channeled local business pioneer Frank Spinelli and said “it’s what you do in the good times that determines how well you perform in the bad times.” He argued that Edmonton and EEDC in particular have done a lot of great things over the last two years when times were good and that means the year ahead won’t be as bad as many anticipate.

A short while later, Premier Jim Prentice took to the stage and disagreed. “It is what we are going to do in the bad times that will determine how successful we’re going to be in the good times,” he said. The Premier talked about the need to change both the income and expense side of the equation, and cautioned that all Albertans will have a role to play in making it through a difficult time.

So which is it? Well, it’s probably a little bit of both. The feeling I was left with after today’s luncheon is that Edmonton has been doing the right things and will weather the coming storm better than the province as a whole.

impact 2015

Mayor Don Iveson brought greetings to start the event and offered his two cents on the economic situation, saying “there’s no reason to panic.” He said the Edmonton economy is becoming more resilient as it becomes more diverse and that “our city’s entrepreneurial spirit has never been stronger.”

The mayor also took the opportunity to call upon the Province to keep Edmonton in mind as it tries to address a shortfall in revenue. “City building, I believe, is Province building,” he said. Later, Premier Jim Prentice referred to the comment and said, “I couldn’t agree more with that.”

Before the keynote began, EEDC showed their Build It Here video, highlighting the fact that it can be customized for businesses to use in their own materials.

Keynote

Brad Ferguson delivered the keynote address today, which you can read online. He began by talking about 2014, calling it “a great year”. There was a lot of euphoria in 2013 and throughout most of last year, so EEDC asked itself a key question:

“What should an economic development authority do when it is not in the job creation business? What should we do in the good times that will help us when the economic cycle turns?”

And with that in mind, the organization focused on ten themes throughout 2014 “that would strengthen our economy over the long term.”

  1. Direct Flights
  2. External Marketing
  3. Downtown Density
  4. Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
  5. Foreign Investment
  6. Event Attraction
  7. Regional Collaboration
  8. Unified Voice
  9. National Positioning
  10. Building the team at EEDC

Brad talked about the way EIA and EEDC are working together so effectively now, which resulted in the KLM flight. He discussed the new approach to tourism and marketing. He mentioned the big announcements that were made recently and said “more than anything else, 2014 will be remembered as the year of downtown.” He talked about the importance of event attraction, saying that big events “create a rhythm and a pulse and an energy that builds excitement and confidence.” He praised the mayor’s leadership in the region and on speaking with a unified voice. And he referenced the many newspaper and magazine articles that have been popping up across the country talking about Edmonton’s transformation.

Brad had a lot of praise for his colleagues. “I am extremely proud of the team we have built at EEDC.” He said the organization has reduced the portion of its operating budget that comes from the City, from 43% when Brad took over to 38% today. Brad said they’re on track to reduce that even further to 33% by 2017.

He then talked about oil prices and what they mean for the economy. If you want to understand the roller coaster, read this passage:

“If we look back over the last 7 years: In 2006-2007 this place was on fire, the world economy was expanding, oil prices were high, and everything was rocking. Until in March 2007 Bear Stearns collapsed and in September of that same year Lehman Brothers collapsed, the biggest financial collapse in recent history. The price of oil went from $140 to $40 (a $100 dollar drop) in six months than then settling around $58 which created a population boom scenario in Alberta and in Edmonton starting in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when the WCS (Western Crude Select) pricing traded at a significant discount, now known as the Bitumen Bubble, followed by 2013-2014 where the price rose again to $95-$100 range while the world started to rebound, and then half way through 2014 the price started to dramatically drop as the global economy started to pick up, which has us moving from a budget crunch which can be addressed into a competitiveness crunch that is more structural and tends to last for quite some time.”

He did not mince words, saying “our revenue model at the provincial level continues to fail us.” Brad said he sympathized with the Premier though, as he inherited this problem. Still, he cautioned that unless we make changes now, we’ll be experiencing the same revenue volatility in the 2020s, 2030s, and 2040s. “It’s time to be humble being from Alberta,” Brad said. “And it is time to have a serious conversation about our financial picture and to make incremental changes to our tax structure.”

Brad predicted that in Edmonton, the year ahead will be better than most people are predicting. He said we’ll outperform Calgary, and while the Province’s budget will capture the headlines, “there are many positives in front of us that cannot be forgotten.”

He urged attendees to do more than hope for a return to $100 oil prices. “We’re planning for a very competitive world and we need to operate with more intention than ever before.”

Q&A with Premier Prentice

After the keynote, Premier Jim Prentice joined Brad on stage for a fireside chat, sans fire. “This is a world class city, with world class leadership,” he said. He disagreed with Brad about the good times/bad times point-of-view, then said that “this year will be about leadership and confidence.” Premier Prentice predicted that 2015 will be a challenging year, but also a transformational one.

The Conference Board of Canada has predicted that Alberta will experience a recession in 2015, but Premier Prentice disagrees. “We are tough, we are resilient, we are entrepreneurial, we have the capacity to get through this, and we will get through this.”

At times the Premier seemed to be doing exactly what Brad cautioned against – hoping for a return to $100 oil. “The best solution for low oil prices is low oil prices, they will come back,” he said at one point. At other times, he was very clear that action was necessary. “People have had enough of the roller coaster,” he said. He has struck a new budget committee and confirmed that “everything is on the table.”

The Premier was also very honest about the challenges faced by the Province. “We have not done a good job with our public finances,” he said. “We have been living beyond our means.” He said that needs to change, and that “we are living on resource revenue that properly belongs to our children and our grandchildren.” He said the amount we spend in Alberta on health care “is not sustainable” and added that “we’re going to have to contain expenditures as we move forward.”

Premier Prentice did not shy away from the topic of taxation, either. Asked if the market is ready for a conversation about it, the Premier replied, “I certainly hope so.” He suggested that most Albertans probably don’t support the idea of a provincial sales tax, but did say that now is the time to discuss it. “We welcome the views of all Albertans on taxation,” he said. “Now is the time to speak up about this.”

Perhaps thinking ahead to the budget, Premier Prentice talked about what to expect. “First and foremost we need a fiscal plan than Albertans can look at and have certainty,” he said. And knowing that the roller coaster cannot continue, “it has to be a ten year plan.” He said that oil “may always be the family business” but said that diversification is important.

Given the opportunity to offer some closing thoughts, Premier Prentice said “you don’t win a bigger lottery than to be an Albertan.” He ended on an optimistic, hopeful note. “This is a remarkable province and we have a remarkable future.”

Extra Notes

EEDC Board Chair Barry Travers brought greetings on behalf of the board of directors, and introduced all of his colleagues. The event was hosted by Grant Ainsley and featured a giant Twitter wall powered by Freeman Audio Visual and SAM that received rave reviews from attendees. Everyone received a copy of “Navigating Your Economic Future in Edmonton: A Guide for Business Leaders”. The entire event was livestreamed by the Edmonton Journal, which you can watch here.

For additional context on this story, check out the following posts:

Get your digital house in order for 2015

Maybe you make new year’s resolutions, maybe you don’t. Either way, a new year always brings the feeling of starting fresh! That thing you’ve been putting off? Now’s the time to wipe the slate clean and tackle it. With that in mind, here are some tech-related things you might consider starting 2015 with.

Backup your stuff

It’s always a good idea to backup your stuff regularly, and now’s as good a time as any to set this up if you’ve been putting it off. Any backup strategy is better than no backup strategy, but ideally you’d have multiple copies of important data, stored locally and in a remote location. Have some really important stuff? Put it on a USB drive and stick it in a safe deposit box. For most data though, a combination of a local drive and the cloud is probably the way to go.

Backblaze 2.0 (fisheye)
Photo by ChrisDag

I have been using Backblaze for a couple of years now. For $5 per month or $50 per year, you get worry-free, unlimited backup. You simply install the software on your computer (Windows or Mac) and Backblaze will send everything up to the cloud automatically. You don’t need to worry about choosing specific folders to backup, and everything is encrypted. If you ever need to restore something, there are three options: you can download a zip file for free, you can pay $99 to get up to 128 GB sent on a USB flash drive, or you can pay $189 to get up to 4 TB sent on a hard drive. If you’ve ever lost something important, I think you’ll agree that Backblaze is totally worth the price.

Store stuff in the cloud

Related to the backup task, now’s a great time to take advantage of cloud storage. If you save stuff to the cloud regularly, I think you can worry about backing it up a little less. Saving data to the cloud is like backing it up immediately! You’ve probably been exposed to Dropbox and that’s a fine service but I’m a big fan of OneDrive.

OneDrive

With Dropbox you only get 2 GB of storage for free, but with OneDrive you get 15 GB and it’s really easy to earn more (and as an Office 365 subscriber I get unlimited storage). OneDrive supports Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Xbox. I use it for everything, especially OneNote as I wrote about last year. I can’t recommend it enough!

Another service to keep in mind is Mover. They’re a local company, and their service can help to migrate your data from one cloud storage provider to another. That might be useful if you plan on testing a few out. You could also use Mover’s backup service for $4 per month. Another great addition to your toolkit!

Get organized

Are you a to-do-list person? Maybe you like sticky notes? Spreadsheets? There are countless ways to organize your tasks and ideas, and I have tried my share of them. But over the past year, I’ve found that Trello works best for me.

Trello

Trello is the right combination of simplicity and power. You can create boards, which contain lists, which contain cards. You can then move cards from list to list. A typical setup will have “To Do”, “Doing”, and “Done” lists. And let me tell you, moving a card into that “Done” list is super satisfying! Trello works across devices and platforms, has a great responsive website, and is free!

A local service that you might use in a similar fashion is Stormboard, which provides a shared, real-time sticky note whiteboard. It’s a great tool, focused mainly on collaborating with others (which Trello can do too). Check out the tour to see all that Stormboard can do.

If more traditional task lists are your thing, then I’d recommend Remember the Milk. The service has been around for 9 years already, which feels like an eternity in the web space, but it’s still here because it is excellent. It too works across devices and services, and has a pretty advanced set of features.

Improve your security

Security was a big topic last year and will continue to be in the headlines this year. It can seem incredibly daunting to try to protect yourself in the post-Snowden world, but here are two really important things you can do.

First, stop using the same password for everything. In the security world people often talk about “attack surface”, and a different password for every website you use really decreases your attack surface. Because if one service is hacked and you use the same password everywhere, then all of your other accounts would be vulnerable too!

If you only use one or two websites, it’s easy to remember a different password for each. But more than likely you use dozens of services. That’s where a tool called a password manager comes in. I use LastPass because it works across devices and uses strong encryption to keep my data safe (I have used Passpack in the past too). When I sign up for a new website or app, I add it to LastPass and use a strong password that it generates for me automatically. If I had to remember every password, I’d be much less likely to use a strong password (random combination of characters), so that’s another benefit of using a service like LastPass (I take it a step further and generate random answers to the very insecure password recovery questions too).

So, what happens if LastPass gets hacked? Good question. Certainly their approach to encryption is one level of protection, but two-factor authentication is another. And that’s my second security tip – enable two-factor authentication wherever possible!

2FA

Two-factor authentication (2FA) makes your accounts more secure by requiring additional information when logging in. Typically this is a code sent to you via text message or generated in a specific app, the idea being that even if someone had your password, they’d also need your phone to login. It takes a few extra seconds when logging into a website or app, but it’s worth it. There’s an excellent list of websites that support 2FA here. For services that support software-based 2FA rather than text messages, you’ll need an app like Google Authenticator on Android or iOS, or Authenticator on Windows Phone.

Maybe you don’t want to enable 2FA on every site, but you should enable it on your email account at minimum (and get a new one if yours doesn’t support 2FA). So much of our identity and security online is tied to our email accounts, so it’s a critical area to focus on. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo all support 2FA. I also use it on key social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Of course I use it on financial services like PayPal wherever possible too.

Backup your data, start using cloud storage, use an online tool to get organized, and take some simple steps to improve your security. All the best in 2015!

Edmonton Police Association’s reaction to the 2015 budget is disappointing

Last week, I wrote about the Edmonton Police Service and its growing budget. Now that City Council has approved the 2015 Budgets and the police have shared their reaction, I thought it was worth a follow-up.

As part of the 2015 budget, EPS had already been approved for 52 new officers. On top of that they asked for 84 more officers and FTEs, citing the new arena district and transit policing, but in the end Council only agreed to fund 35 new positions.

EPS Recruit Graduation 2009
Photo by Aaron

Councillor Loken did make a motion to increase the EPS budget by $5.183 million, but only he, Councillor Gibbons, and Councillor Caterina supported it. A later motion from Councillor Caterina proposing to increase EPS funding by $1.589 million for Transit Policing failed by a 5-8 vote, and a motion to increase funding by $7.810 million for Downtown Revitalization and Transit Policing was withdrawn. Mayor Iveson’s motion to approve the package for 35 FTEs with $2.437 million narrowly passed with a 7-6 vote.

So of the 136 new positions they were hoping for, EPS got 87 funded. Pretty good, you might think, but the police are not happy about it.

The police reaction to the budget outcome was charitably called “disappointing” by Councillor Oshry on Twitter. Tony Simioni, outgoing president of the Edmonton Police Association, made most of the comments. Here’s a sample:

“It has reached a point now where I think it’s critical,” he told the Journal.

“We’ve been very lucky in the City of Edmonton in the last 25 years. It’s just been by the grace of God that we haven’t lost any more members in the line of service,” he told the Edmonton Sun.

“I shudder to see that day coming but, if this trend continues, it’s going to occur,” he told Global Edmonton.

“We’re going have some grave consequences in public safety and in our ability to get to the calls in a timely fashion, where we already are having difficulty.” he told CTV Edmonton. “We’re the only agency that’s open twenty four seven, 365 days. So many agencies have shut down services due to lack of funding or whatever the case may be, and it’s been downloaded on sloughed off on the men and women in the Edmonton Police Service.”

Nevermind that back in 2011 when the police were under heavy scrutiny thanks to a record number of homicides, Simioni was basically saying the opposite thing. “I don’t think Edmonton is a dangerous place to live,” he told the Journal at the time. “The average citizen walking the streets in Edmonton is as safe as the average citizen walking the streets of Calgary.”

Simioni wasn’t the only one “sounding the alarm” on Friday as many in the media put it. Staff Sgt. Bill Clark also shared his comments with the Edmonton Sun:

“We’ve got several councillors out there that just don’t get it,” said the veteran officer, adding some, including Councillors Tony Caterina and Ed Gibbons are the odd ones out who do seem to get it.

“How you can justify $8 million for bike lanes, $3 million for a net on the High Level Bridge when you can look at the Groat Road Bridge and go jump off of that bridge, are you kidding me?” said Clark.

“It is simply ridiculous and we’re tired of it. The buck stops with city council. The provincial government needs to step up but that should have been done years ago.”

In my opinion, these comments are intentionally misleading and sensational, to say the least. If I worked for the police in any capacity, I’d be embarrassed by them. Heck as a taxpaying citizen I can’t believe that was the reaction!

New EPS Cruiser Livery
Photo by Kurt Bauschardt

First of all, these representatives are willfully conflating the Operating and Capital Budgets. Both bike lanes and the High Level Bridge safety rail are funded out of the Capital Budget, whereas police officer salaries are funded out of the Operating Budget. I would suggest that if you’re going to question the decisions made by Council on the record, you should know the difference. It’s not like the police received nothing in the Capital Budget, either. Council funded a new helicopter, a new Emergency Operations Centre, a police investigation and management centre, and a new police division station for Northwest Edmonton, among other things. Many tens of millions of dollars will be spent on police-related projects this cycle.

Second, whenever they don’t get their way, police representatives seem perfectly happy to suggest that crime is on the increase. All published statistics suggest otherwise, and whenever you question their performance rather than their budget, the story is that crime is down and the police are doing an effective job. This has been documented again and again by the local media. I suggest the eight crime indicators that EPS claims to measure daily be made available in the open data catalogue and on the Citizen Dashboard, so that there’s no uncertainty about the crime stats.

Third, I think it’s ridiculous that police representatives are willing to suggest that funding the police service is the only way to improve community safety. Council increased the REACH Edmonton budget by $500,000 to fund Schools as Community Hubs and Out of School Time, for instance. They also approved $107,000 to fund the Green Shack program in 20 high needs communities. On the Capital Budget side, the High Level Bridge safety rail is the most obvious example. There’s a wide range of initiatives and projects that Council supported that will ultimately contribute to the health and safety of our community.

Fourth, let’s be real: many organizations in Edmonton contribute to the safety of the community in a very direct way, and they do it with far smaller budgets than the police service does. Look at the Edmonton Public Library for instance, which recently expanded its outreach program with Boyle Street Community Services to help those in need. I don’t see them “sloughing off” any work to the police.

About the only comment made by the police that is easy to agree with is the assertion that the Province needs to provide more funding to help deal with the pressures of growth and the unique challenges that come along with being a large city. But again, I call on the police to make their case with facts and data, rather than offhand comments in the media. Work with Council to build a solid case.

I think the police in Edmonton do great work in our city, but I’m disappointed with the way they play the game when it comes to budgets. Instead of facts, we get dire warnings. Instead of a can-do attitude, we get negativity and blaming. I think they can do better.