Having opened a daycare in our ward, I understand the challenge of ensuring access to high-quality childcare support. We need to change zoning and parking regulations to ensure all families have access to the childcare spaces they need in their communities, and we need to fast-track new spaces for affordable, high-quality childcare services.

A daycare is a community hub, so I will advocate for more joint use of city spaces and community infrastructure to support a thoughtful, family-centred approach to planning and growth. I will work with both families and childcare centre owner/ operators on policy decisions to make sure we are growing our childcare spaces to accommodate our booming family neighbourhoods.

Community Leagues are strong voices for their communities; they deserve stable and predictable funding so they can serve their memberships and the citizens of their neighbourhoods. Given their important role in working with citizens, Community Leagues should be formally engaged for their input and expertise on city policies.  

The City also needs to ensure all Community Leagues have spaces in which to organize and connect. They should play a strong role in advising on infrastructure and services for their neighbourhoods — such as playgrounds and ice rinks — and their advice should be followed with city resourcing.

Working both with newcomers to the ward, and in affiliation with the Director of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta, I’ve spent a great deal of time doing advocacy work with diverse communities. As a Councillor, I would take the stories and lessons learned through this work to start more complex and nuanced discussions about our marginalized communities. Race, ability, socio-economic status, religion, and other factors can add further complications to this discussion. I am committed to elevating the voices and addressing the concerns of under-represented groups, but within our youth and within our greater communities.

We also need to recognize that Ward 12 exists on Papaschase territory. Ward 12 has a unique duty to be active members of the ongoing work toward reconciliation begun through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We need to listen to Indigenous voices and build respectful relationships.

With the economic downturn, we need to take advantage of the low cost of building infrastructure. Using counter-cyclical funding, we can invest now in services for families — from playgrounds and ice rinks to community centres and libraries — that will make a real difference in the lives of families. Our services need to keep up with the growth of Ward 12.  This is also an excellent time to invest in public transit, including the Valley LRT line and express buses.  

We also need to ensure that city projects are on time and on budget by focusing on the right work at the right time for the right reasons. With the Metro LRT, the Walterdale Bridge, and the Groat Road bridge, we’ve seen that the city needs to be contracting out our construction projects very intentionally to avoid financial waste and service delays.

I have concerns that the vote on the Vehicle for Hire Bylaw went forward without a voice from Ward 12. I am also quite concerned that City Council did not discuss how provincial child car seat regulation will interact with Uber and similar companies. Transportation needs to be fair, accessible, and safe and the current bylaw does not meet those standards. For my full position on this issue please see my blog post: http://votenav.ca/on-taxis-uber-and-the-democratic-process-a-call-for-city-council-to-delay-bylaw-17400

For long-term crime prevention, we need to invest in addressing the root causes of crime such as poverty and mental health. This means supporting home-grown, community based solutions such as the Mill Woods Community Crime Council. Community policing ensures that the officers have the opportunity to know the communities in which they work, and that the people living in our communities get to know the police officers. If elected as Councillor, I will push for police funding to be an investment in our neighbourhoods. I support EPS’ decision to consult communities this spring to determine their funding priorities given the budget shortfall, and will advocate on behalf of the residents of Ward 12 during this process. I also support Council’s decision to implement a sustainable funding model for policing, and their decision to go to the province for Edmonton’s fair share of police funding, rather than increasing the budget beyond what is manageable for the city.

One in 6 children live in poverty in Edmonton; this is much higher than the 1 in 10 kids that live in poverty in Alberta as a whole. Poverty needs to be addressed at its root causes: systemic marginalization, systemic violence, systemic trauma, and disenfranchisement. The City’s End Poverty Strategy must be implemented effectively with strong support from the provincial and federal government. As a councillor, I would advocate to the provincial and federal government for the funding to invest in this effort as, over the long term, band-aid solutions cost more than addressing the root causes of poverty.

I would also support a Living Wage Ordinance for Edmonton. The evidence on this initiative speaks for itself; we know that a living wage causes a significant increase in the quality of life of low-income earners with minimal to no ill effects on their employment or taxes, and we know that living wages boost economies. We deserve to live in a fair city, and this means that all people living in the city and working for organizations that serve the city should be able to make a living by putting in an honest day’s work.

There is a significant lack of affordable housing throughout the city of Edmonton with approximately 1 in 4 households living in unaffordable housing (meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing). Affordable housing needs to be in every part of the city, especially given the current economic downturn. We know that many of our neighbours have lost their jobs recently, and without suitable housing inventory for all Edmontonians, they may experience significant hardship. Mixed units are important, and having affordable spaces in new developments helps de-stigmatize affordable housing. The provincial and federal governments both play a significant role in the funding of affordable housing projects, and as a councillor, I would advocate to other orders of governments to ensure more funding for affordable housing projects, in order to meet the City’s goal of ending poverty in a generation. This goal cannot be realized without a concerted effort from all orders of government.

There is only one supported living facility for seniors in the Ward, and no facilities that are equipped to support seniors living with dementia. This is unacceptable. Seniors are healthier and more connected to resources and communities when they have the opportunity to age in place, and this is currently very limited in our Ward. With the number of seniors over the age of 80 increasing by 266% over the next 30 years, and with the number of people aged 55-64 doubling over the same time period, we need to be focused on this priority immediately. Small policy changes can make a big difference in the lives in seniors: for example, as Councillor, I would advocate for a reversal of the policy that people using Disabled Adult Transit Service can no longer be accompanied on the bus. This policy makes it so that a spouse may not be able to accompany their partner to a doctor’s appointment or an adult child may not be able to take their parent to the grocery store on the bus. We need to make smart policy choices to support our aging citizens to ensure an ongoing high quality of life.

We need to ensure that all families in Ward 12 have easy access to the services they need, from ice rinks and playgrounds to wrap around services in schools. Parents should be able to access child care, social workers, therapists, and community resources through their schools; and older residents should be able to age in place by having access to senior centres and nursing homes in the ward. We need to collaborate with the provincial government and school boards to ensure infrastructure for these services is in place, and that services are high quality and fully funded.

Women in Edmonton face many issues, including patriarchal societal structures and pressures, and are disproportionately victimized by domestic violence and poverty. As Councillor for Ward 12, I would champion Council strategies addressing domestic violence and poverty, while encouraging my Council colleagues to address the roots of these problems. I would push for an achievable implementation plan for the End Poverty Strategy to ensure our City ends poverty in a generation. Additionally, we should be investing in infrastructure and services for Ward 12 families.

Currently only one of twelve Councillors is a woman, and no Councillors are people of colour. I believe that our concerns as women aren’t effectively being raised and that lack of representation will discourage young girls from getting involved. As a woman of colour, I would do my best to represent this diversity of viewpoints at City Council.

One of the first issues I would address as the Ward 12 Councillor would be setting up a better mechanism for community consultation. The City has been doing a fine job with the Open City work, but we need to see better processes from day one for the sake of gathering input from constituents. When thinking about engagement and including citizens in the decision making processes that affect our lives, we need to think about the systemic barriers that limit people’s engagement in the first place. As a community organizer who has lived in Ward 12 all my life, I have a detailed understanding of the population that calls the ward home, how it has been changing over the last several decades, and why this matters for good two-way communications.

With the Council Initiative on Public Engagement, City Council has been actively working to include voices that have not always been at the table. It is important to me that the City is taking this intentionally inclusive approach to civic engagement.

As the new Councillor for Ward 12, I would start the political engagement process by inviting my constituents to participate in roundtable discussions to determine the priorities for the Ward. This would involve developing new mechanisms for consultation and developing meaningful relationships with those I would be representing from day one.

The city needs to continue to fund the arts. Art and artists are what make great cities better. Public art helps to create an identity for a city, and allows us to show residents and visitors alike this identity. As a festival city, our local artists should be celebrated and showcased in every venue possible, and public art is simply one means to do so. Given my work with community organizing, I know how crucial arts, cultural, and recreation programs are, especially for youth who are falling through the cracks.  We need to support the great work in arts and culture that’s already happening in Ward 12 through Community Leagues, cultural and religious organization, non-profits, and local businesses. Our community’s strength is in its diversity, and we need to celebrate and nurture that strength.

Edmonton, and Ward 12 in particular, need smart urban planning. As councillor, I would look at zoning regulations and consult with communities and families to identify areas that can be re-zone to suit higher density development.

Surplus schools sites should be used for what is most needed in the community, which in some cases is affordable housing and in other cases is park grounds, as determined through conversation with community members and strong relationships with community leagues and other community leaders. As someone who has grown up in Ward 12 and as a current resident of the ward, I know that unique communities have unique needs, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to surplus school sites. One of the major issue with the use of surplus school sites for development is that developers are not always up front with home buyers about the intended purpose of the land. Once a surplus school site has been earmarked for development, City Council must ensure that the developers are being transparent about planning with the people who are planning on moving into these neighbourhoods.

Ward 12 needs more and better public transportation and public transportation infrastructure. This must include both LRT and express buses (BRT) as complementary options to support different geographical regions of the ward. Although the LRT requires substantial initial investment, over time it costs the city six times less per rider that a bus does; an expanded LRT that serves the needs of Ward 12 is essential as both an improved service and as a cost-savings mechanism.  

Ward 12 needs transportation options that cater to different needs, be it walking to the corner store, biking to a park, taking the LRT to work or bus to a friend, or driving children to school. To meet the needs of this growing community, we need to be concurrently investing in both BRT and the LRT, as well as bike and foot-path infrastructure.

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of public transit infrastructure is strong project management. City Council must make sure that the systems are connected in thoughtful and well-managed ways, in concert with existing transportation infrastructure; and that projects are completed to their tendered standards in terms of cost, timeline, and safety.  

See also my blog post at  http://votenav.ca/on-public-transit-system-and-ward-12

It’s important to reform the current regressive property tax system; it isn’t working well for the people who live here. Because we serve other smaller municipalities and towns, we need to ensure that the Big City Charter reflects our role as a service provider and community hub by giving Edmonton and Calgary new ways to generate income. A reasonable civic tax rate needs to balance the needs of the community with an understanding of and respect for how the economic climate is affecting families in their day-to-day lives.