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Published Dec 27, 2023 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 4 minute read
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi speaks to Postmedia in his office during a year-end interview in Edmonton on Dec. 18, 2023. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia
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Edmonton’s mayor thinks city council is doing “a reasonably good job” in the areas the municipality is responsible for, but he would like to see more support from other orders of government in tackling social issues.
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Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, reflecting on 2023 for a year-end interview with Postmedia, said the city’s struggle in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic with an increase in homelessness, the continued drug poisoning and housing crises, and gang violence were top of mind for him this year. City council has limited control over these areas, so the mayor said he’s focused on building the relationship with the provincial and federal governments and advocating for improvements.
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But on the areas squarely within the city’s jurisdiction — he pointed to transit service and safety, police funding, snow removal, and homeless encampment removals as examples — he thinks city council has done good work.
“The message I want to convey to Edmontonians (is this) — the things that we control, I think we’ve got a good handle on,” he said in the interview.
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“We are improving our core services, our road conditions are getting better, we are retaining and hiring more police officers now that we have settled on the funding formula. We are improving bus service that was underfunded, making on-demand (transit) permanent, and adding more resources in the last budget … Safety is improving on the LRT and more will be done in the next year.”
“We have been doing this at the same time trying to keep taxes as affordable as possible.”
He said council has paid to double the number of transit peace officers, increased the number of community outreach transit teams to seven, and increased and reallocated funding that would add about 100,000 bus service hours. While money set aside for snow and ice removal is lower than last year, the mayor said funding is still higher than levels paid for by the past city council and increases are already budgeted for the next few years.
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The city is also cutting red tape to allow more housing to be built and spur economic growth, he said. But Sohi knows social issues remain a challenge in Edmonton.
“That absolutely is top of mind for a lot of Edmontonians. That is where I will continue to do what I can by building stronger relationships with the community and partners, and other orders of government, and continue to advocateand at the same time step up,” he said, adding that the city has increased spending on affordable housing construction and crisis intervention as well.
Tension with police declines
Years-long tensions between the police and council began to lessen this year after the municipality agreed to reinstate a formula that automatically sets police funding based on population growth, among other factors. Edmonton Police Service (EPS) is expected to typically receive annual increases under this system.
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Sohi said his relationship with Chief Dale McFee is “open and constructive” and he hopes to spend more time with the chief next year. He’s also appreciative of some of the EPS’ “innovative” work with HELP and crisis intervention teams.
But he acknowledges the relationship was strained in the past.
“During the first year of my mandate, there was a lot of tension around police funding, and the police funding formula, and the accountability that we expected for the resources that we allocate to EPS, and also the accountability around the conduct of police officers,” the mayor said. “Some of those are still outstanding, but I think that they have committed through the (Edmonton) Police Commission to provide more robust reporting to council.”
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He expects the increased funding from the city and provincial government will mean EPS can hire up to as many as 250 more police officers by the end of next year.
Now that funding is dealt with, he said it’s on the commission to ensure police are producing results and allocating resources to make the community safer by “getting tough on gangs” and gun crime.
Building relationship with premier
The mayor has a “productive” relationship and open lines of communication with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her ministers, he said.
He’s hopeful dialogue between the municipal and provincial governments has been beneficial and that Edmonton will see some favourable results in Alberta’s next budget.
While he appreciates funding for more shelter beds, he wants to see more investment to fill the gaps in the social infrastructure needed to improve crises of houselessness, housing, drug poisoning, and mental health.
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“The investments that are being made, I appreciate those, but they probably need to be quadrupled or more in order to make a real difference,” he said.
He also said Edmonton is owed $330 million, the equivalent of what Alberta committed to Calgary’s arena, which the mayor would like to see spent to improve Commonwealth Stadium, demolish the Coliseum, or help the city build a cricket stadium, or field hockey or soccer facility.
Regional collaboration strained
Edmonton’s relationship with other local municipalities was damaged last year when city council voted to pull out of the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services Commission, effectively killing this plan for the region.
More cracks in the relationship emerged recently as five municipalities voted to withdraw from the regional investment group Edmonton Global — Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, the City of Fort Saskatchewan, the Town of Devon, and Parkland County.
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Sohi said he’s a steadfast supporter of Edmonton Global and the city’s presence on the other regional decision-making body, the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board, is indicative of council’s commitment to regional collaboration.
“When we hunt as a pack for an investment attraction, we’re better off as a region, and that commitment remains,” he said.
Sohi said his vote against the regional transit plan was because of that plan’s spending for management and consultants, and because the city would lose control of funding for Edmonton Transit Service. But he’s optimistic improvements are still in the works for regional transit.
— With files from Keith Gerein
@laurby
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