Edmonton Chamber of Commerce eyes municipal future
The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce (ECC) departed from convention at its latest State of Our City event to have a more 'frank, solutions-focused conversation' about the city's future, which notably excluded the mayor.
'We're not here to beat anyone up, but we are determined that we're not going to settle for the status quo anymore, and we're going to drive this city forward,' said chamber CEO Doug Griffiths in his opening remarks to the audience.
A crowd of more than 700 packed into the Edmonton Convention Centre on Thursday for the event. However, with an upcoming municipal election in the fall and after losing his bid for a federal seat, the chamber opted not to speak with Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and instead spoke with city manager Eddie Robar, Explore Edmonton's Traci Bednard, Oilers Entertainment Group's Tim Shipton, BILD Edmonton Metro's Kalen Anderson and Griffiths about the future of the city.
A leading topic for the afternoon panel was understanding what gets in the way of more investment in the city, whether it's for big projects, business, or infrastructure. Robar pointed to Edmonton recently earning the top prize from the Canadian Home Builders' Association award for facilitating home building.
'Relative to the rest of the country, we're the best,' Anderson said, clarifying later that being the best still isn't good enough.
'We're the best city in the slowest country,' she said later.
While she applauded efforts at the municipal and provincial governments to reduce red tape, Anderson says there's still more work to be done.
Panellists were also asked about the effects of the city's ever-growing population, estimated at more than 50,000 newcomers every year. Though it may be heartening to see people take an interest in the city, Griffiths said, 'population growth, no matter what they do, is going to be challenging because they don't bring their infrastructure with them.'
'It's probably our biggest challenge, but also our biggest opportunity. When people come, businesses want to come, too. We're growing really heavily on that people side, but we're on that tipping point of when the people come, the business come as well,' said Robar.
Anderson suggested that ensuring the city is more nimble to adapt to increasing demands on infrastructure will help with increased load. That means a need for better planning, she said.
Although property taxes have risen for Edmontonian, Explore Edmonton CEO Traci Bednard said the visitor economy in the city can alleviate some of that economic pressure. Unlike new residents in the city, visitors don't burden the city's schools or houses, Bednard said, and we have the hotel capacity to accommodate them.
'We're all going to be cheering on the Oilers tonight, (but) the Explore Edmonton team will be at the Expo Centre. We have volleyball supernationals. We have 35,000 participants who will come from across Canada and spend like a week in Edmonton. And that will be an economic impact of $53 million,' said Bednard.
Panellists concluded by being asked what they would like to see in the next municipal government, prompting answers highlighting the need for continued policy refinement in housing, investment in the downtown core, among others. Shipton suggested after the success of the recent Village at Ice District project MOU, that further partnerships between different levels of government for more big projects would be an opportunity.
Griffiths just wants to see a municipal government more amenable to the business community.
'Some people from the city will deny it, but Edmonton does not have a pro-business brand out there. I would like to see an attitudinal shift,' said Griffiths.
'We're not a group to be dealt with. We're important partners to grow the economy. And so approaching us with a positive mindset that says, 'How can we help you?' is the Number 1 thing I would ask for in the next election.'
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