Speaking Municipally

The City of Edmonton has announced funding for parts of the Downtown Action Plan. Plus, we discuss changes to the upcoming construction season, a motion about event legacies, and we take a trip to Gibbons, a town on the verge of financial collapse.

Here are the relevant links for this episode:

Audience survey
Extreme weather response
Downtown Action Plan Fund
Construction season
Trouble in Gibbons
Sports legacy motion
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Creators and Guests

Host
Mack Male
Co-Founder and CEO of Taproot Publishing Inc.
Host
Stephanie Swensrude
Stephanie is a curator and reporter at Taproot Edmonton. She attended NAIT's radio and television program and has worked at CBC, CFJC in Kamloops, and 630 CHED.

What is Speaking Municipally?

Taproot Edmonton presents a weekly discussion on key stories in municipal politics. We pay attention to City Council so you don't have to! Join us as we delve into conversations about the context surrounding decisions made at City Hall.

Mack Male:
Lights, camera, Downtown Action Plan. This week, the city announced funding for parts of the Downtown Action Plan.

Stephanie Swensrude:
Plus, we take a trip to Giffins, a town on the verge of financial collapse.

Mack:
Hi, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're…

Both:
Speaking Municipally.

Mack:
Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, episode 345. It's the post-Olympics episode.

Stephanie:
(sighs)

Mack:
Very sad that Canadian men's hockey team and the women, as we talked about, did not win their gold medals.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
But silver's still pretty good, Stephanie.

Stephanie:
And I'd rather be a Canadian with a silver than, the other option, in this case, so.

Mack:
Yes. Wholeheartedly agree with that. The Canadian men's curling won gold. We got a bunch of other medals toward the end, so maybe not the best Winter Olympics for Canada, but not bad. You're a big fan. Did you enjoy the Olympics?

Stephanie:
I did. I love them so much. It's just such a fun, a fun, way to spend your time, just watching these random sports that I don't typically watch. Obviously, I watch hockey throughout the year.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
And, figure skating is great. My cats love watching figure skating. They'll…

Mack:
Really?

Stephanie:
Like calmly sit and watch the television with me.

Mack:
Well, now it's on to the Paralympics in about a week. So some more opportunity to watch some sports if you're into Canadian people winning medals. And it's winter, and we've had a bit of an up and down winter, but it looks like it's about to be cold again. I got all kinds of notifications today as we're recording this that some sort of winter squall or major winds are Something…

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Is happening, Stephanie.

Stephanie:
Yeah, it feels, it feels like we had a few days out of the city's extreme weather response, and now we're right back in. So that, the city does that when it's expected that temperatures are gonna go below, I think like it's -20, -25 for several days in a row, and they just kind of up their response to getting people into warm places, and they also encourage Edmontonians all the time, but especially when it's gonna be super cold like this, to watch out for your fellow neighbors. So I'll say this every time we have an extreme weather response, you If you see someone in serious distress, you gotta call 911, get them some help. If you see someone, maybe they're not dressed appropriately for the weather, they don't have appropriate shelter, you can call 211 and press three for a non-emergency response, hopefully get them somewhere safe.

Mack:
Absolutely. Okay, well, thanks for that reminder. We've got a lot to get into this week. We're gonna talk about the Downtown Action Plan. We're gonna talk about construction, all kinds of longtime favorite Speaking Municipally topics, but before we do that, we've got an ad to read.

Stephanie:
This episode is brought to you by Park Power, your friendly local utilities provider and the title sponsor of Taproot's Regional Roundup. If winter bills are leaving you cold, bundle up with Park Power. Your friendly local utilities provider makes it easy to sign up for electricity, natural gas, and internet, and bundling two or three of those together saves you money. It's easy to switch to Park Power, and there are no exit fees if you leave. Learn how much you could save at parkpower.ca. That's parkpower.ca.

Mack:
Okay, our first topic this week is the Downtown Action Plan. We've talked about this on the show before. This is a big strategy to invest in the downtown, try to revitalize the downtown, build on the things that are good about our downtown, and make some improvements that will hopefully bring long-term benefit to it. And the news this week is not that we're doing a ton of those things, but that we have The city has launched a fund to offer some grants for things to happen. So Stephanie, I know you went down to learn all about the new fund today. Give us the overview. What is the Downtown Action Plan Fund all about?

Stephanie:
So Edmonton is going to invest up to $3 million in basically community-led projects that enhance downtown vibrancy. The fund addresses two of the eight action items from the Downtown Action Plan, and this fund is going to prioritize projects that activate downtown parks and transit stations, as well as the entertainment districts on Bryce Howard Way and 104th Street. So there are three streams that, people can apply for, and applications are open now if you're interested. The first funding stream offers up to $100,000 for projects on public space or publicly accessible private property. So that would be, you know, something like City Center, which is publicly accessible but it is technically private property. And obviously, the public space would be something like, Churchill Square. And the first funding stream is for activation and programming, which are words that basically just mean things to do. They encourage programming such as sports programs, fitness classes, block parties, live music, other artistic performances, and, what I thought was interesting about this fund is that preference will be given to free programming, as well as things that happen as part of a series more than just once a year. So they're kind of looking for more longer term activations or, you know, I imagine something like the Saturday entertainment district kind of parties that went on, this summer, this past summer, on Bryce Hardway, that sort of thing. Now, the second stream is for recreational amenities, and the examples they gave were sport courts, playgrounds, climbing walls, and skate parks. The project must be installed for at least six months, and preference will, again, be given to applications that are for longer. I remember there was that downtown skate park kind of on the outskirts of downtown over more close towards Chinatown, but it was just kind of a prefabricated skate park that was over on that side, and it was pretty well used. And so I imagine, you know, something like that using some of the empty spaces for, you know, something fun to do, something fun to hang out in downtown for. And the last stream is for placemaking and beautification. Up to $100,000 per project is available for stuff like decorative lighting, interactive art, and unique street furniture.

Mack:
Okay, so these are pretty large amounts actually, depending on what you're doing. So I have many thoughts about this, Stephanie. There's three streams you've just outlined for us very helpfully. I'm on board with the second one you talked about, that recreational amenities. I think that makes sense. If we can build hopefully permanent-… places. Like, if we can add some of those amenities, some of those facilities that are not just here for a few months, that would be ideal. But even if they're just around for a while, you know, that can make a great addition to the downtown neighborhood that people can enjoy. So, I'm on board with that one. $250,000 probably sounds sensible for some of those things. They might be quite labor-intensive or, you know, have quite expensive materials in order to get those things together, so that makes sense. The third one, the beautification policymaking one, I can see that. I think decorative lighting can be a positive thing. I am a little wary of the feeling that too many people have that we can just put up some paint or lights and it makes the space welcoming 'cause that's not really true. And I just think about how much money we have spent over the years on Michael Phair Park, just down the street from where I am here on 104th Street, and it is much better today than it was 10 or 15 years ago when Michael Phair and the community got together to try to do something with that space. But a $100,000 grant wasn't gonna cut it. And it really took the whole renovation of Beaver Hills House Park and the, you know, opening up of the alley, the removal of the wall that separated those two things to really make it feel welcoming and accessible. I'm not sure the paint on the wall did a great deal, although color is a good thing, so maybe that's okay. Where I struggle with this, Stephanie, is that first one, $100,000 for programs and activations. $100,000 is a lot of money For a block party. It's a lot of money for a series of block parties. You don't need that much money to have a block party To do something that can be fun. I guess this is a way for the Downtown Business Association to fund Downtown Spark again, which they had previously funded with past grant funding that I think came from the province that eventually dried up, they couldn't do it anymore. Maybe they'll be able to apply and do something for this. But number one, these things, to me, shouldn't be so expensive. Like, that is a huge amount of money, so I hope they spread that around and we don't end up with, you know, just a small handful of events that cost $100,000 each. And then secondly, I just am concerned about the return on this investment, right? So, we have a downtown block party, it's fun for an afternoon, and then what? And then we go back to downtown being exactly the same as it always is. I would much rather see the funding go into things that are gonna have a longer term impact on our downtown. You know, I said this I think in the last episode or in a recent episode, let's not get distracted. Let's focus on what we know is gonna make a difference for downtown, which is getting more people living downtown. Maybe this three million dollars should have gone into some sort of housing incentive rather than $100,000 project grants for block parties. I love a good block party, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure that's the most important thing facing downtown in 2026.

Stephanie:
I definitely take your point. Something I was thinking about while this was going, while I was at the press conference was, it feels like this is You know, three million dollars in the whole scheme of the, of the city's budget is relatively small, and I think that this really It's a bit of, like, spreading little seeds everywhere to make the little bits of difference, you know, here and there, just building up little bit by little bit, the vibrancy and the beautification of downtown. And I think that just If you can take three million bucks and kind of, you know, imbue it into the neighborhood, I think that it has the potential to have a lot of good impact. And I totally see your point about, you know, the one block party or the series of block parties. Something I was talking about with some of the folks from DBA just after just chitchatting, now, incoming Mexico City mention, when I was in Mexico City, you know, you'd be walking along and you'd just see, like, salsa classes going on in a park randomly. And just, I actually floated that idea, like, "What if, like, EAC did, at lunch hour, salsa classes in Churchill Square for some, for, a couple weeks?" And I maybe that would just overall contribute to the vibrancy of downtown, because maybe you'd have office workers that are like, "Hey, maybe downtown office work isn't that bad." You know, I think it, I think it's, like, a small program that I don't think it can hurt. That's basically it.

Mack:
Yeah. I get your point, that it's not a huge amount of money. And yes, it's great when you're downtown and you see, like, the Zumba classes that used to happen in Churchill Square. And those things are kind of fun, they add a bit of vibrancy and all of that. But what you said about, "Let's spread some seeds around," that makes sense if the seeds can take root and grow and blossom into something. But usually what happens with these is we do a one-off and then we don't do it ever again. And so, that kind of is very ephemeral. It comes, it has a, an impact for that short period of time, people have a good memory about it, and then we go back to complaining about how downtown isn't vibrant anymore. And I, and I think we know that the way to make it more vibrant is to have more people there, first and foremost, get people living here, and then secondly, make it so that the people who live here wanna be outside. And that's where I think the other two streams make a lot of sense to me, the amenities, the facilities, the beautification, the lighting, the making spaces feel more welcoming. I think those can be really positive investments as long as they're not too temporary, right? Like if hopefully some of those things can either prototype or be a longer term change to a space downtown, then I think that can make a real positive impact. Salsa dances don't cost a lot of money.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Like, I mean, even if you were gonna pay an instructor, like still, it's not gonna cost that much money.

Stephanie:
No.

Mack:
And maybe I'm just being put off by the $100,000 per project. Maybe, you know, in my head that should be like $5,000 per project or something like that but, you know, you can do a lot for very little.

Stephanie:
Yeah. I think And I'm it's, you know, a maximum of $100,000. Existing festivals are excluded, and then they're gearing more towards things like, series. So something like a once-a-year music festival downtown, which would probably need the $100,000, not really right for this. So yeah, I get what you're saying, where 100,000 bucks is a lot of money, but yeah, maybe gearing them down to like smaller grants for many different organizations everywhere around, that would be Yeah.

Mack:
Yeah, I think the dollar amount sets some expectations, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
So the expectations for a $100,000 event are quite a bit different than if the maximum was say $5,000 or something along those lines, right?

Stephanie:
Right.

Mack:
The second stream about, or was it the third one? I think it was the third one actually, the one about beautification, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
So where there's lighting, you know, decorative elements, those kinds of things. I love that it explicitly excludes, in the program guidelines, any private property that has surface parking lots.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
I would love to see more of that. I think that is a great thing to see in this fund program guidelines. We don't like surface parking lots. If the whole point of this fund is to increase the vibrancy of downtown, then we shouldn't be supporting people who have surface parking lots. Now, it did make me wonder, 'cause we talked about this recently, would an event or some sort of beautification on the BMO site be eligible? 'Cause it's a disaster, but it's not a surface parking lot.

Stephanie:
You know, that's a great question. If it does become a surface parking lot, like the project that we talked about a few weeks ago, obviously then that wouldn't be, eligible. But I'm not sure. That's a great question. Maybe we'll have to have some folks from Westrich on to talk about it.

Mack:
Yeah, and again, this is like a bit of a slippery slope. Like I guess the city can be ultimately the ones who make the decision here. But you could imagine that it's not a parking lot right now, maybe they apply for some funding in the beautification stream, and what do they do? Put up vinyl around the fencing. Like that is not a good use of city funds. And I hope things like that do not get approved under this Downtown Action Plan Fund. Remains to be seen, which projects. You mentioned, applications are open already. I think there's a series of intakes, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah, there will be four, intakes over the next year or so. So lots of chances for folks to get in there.

Mack:
All right. So application's open. We'll see who applies. Anything else you learned about the Downtown Action Plan or the fund itself?

Stephanie:
So if we just back up a little bit, the Downtown Action Plan is very tied to the Downtown Community Revitalization Levy, the CRL, which of course was extended over the summer to a little bit of it was a little bit contentious because it involved about $69 million going towards the event park at Rogers Place. But another thing that came out of that agreement was the Downtown Attainable Housing Incentive. Now, a report on that is going to go to council or to council's executive committee next week. So you were mentioning getting more people living downtown. That's another part of the Downtown Action Plan that they're, the city is going to be trying to target with that report. Because it's going to committee and then council, we'll have more to say on that on the, in the coming weeks.

Mack:
Excellent. Well, I'm glad to hear another report about housing downtown. That's an important thing. I think that's what we should be focused our energy on. Though you've just reminded me, 3 million bucks for some funding for beautification and rec amenities and programs is nothing compared to the $70 million we've committed to that event space that nobody asked for and that we do not need. So okay. Maybe I should pause my criticism here, spread it around a little bit.

Stephanie:
Yeah. Well, and you know, playoffs are kind of coming up soon. Hopefully we're in them and we will be reminded once again about how the Oilers is the economic engine that fuels downtown Edmonton. Right, Mack?

Mack:
Oh, that's right. Absolutely. All right. Well, thanks for that update, Stephanie. The next thing we wanted to talk about is construction because not only do the Oilers go into the playoffs in the spring, but construction season starts again. Although I think some would argue it never really ends.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
But it I guess it kicks off again in earnest and council was talking about that this week.

Stephanie:
Yeah, so it was at the infrastructure committee, a relatively new committee for, the City of, City of Edmonton Council. So in this report, the 2026 Traffic Management Plan, administration said that it's gonna make changes to construction plans for a more integrated, proactive, and coordinated approach after what administration called a, quote, "challenging traffic season" in 2025. I think some people would say that's an understatement. I remember, I think like several mayoral candidates, made videos of them like driving, "We're trying to get from the west end to downtown and it took us two hours," and all It was like a very big thing during the election, was all this construction. Yeah, particularly West Edmonton into downtown was bad because, you know, just to name a few projects, there was the Wellington Bridge closure, Valley Line West construction, Imagine Jasper Ave, 95th Av-, Renewal. So lots of concurring projects at the same time. And the city's like, "Maybe we shouldn't do that this year." So they said they're gonna focus on finishing what it started and limit new projects. One change to the schedule that they've made that's pretty big is that it's deferred the construction on the northbound low-level bridge. You'll remember that this past year they were, doing construction on the southbound, so one direction on the bridge was closed down. And then, you know, if you were going, north into downtown, you had to take like a detour and go around a different entrance in. Luckily, there's lots of bridges that lead into downtown and, you know, you just have to do a little bit of a loop-the-loo.

Mack:
Yep.

Stephanie:
And they're also delaying some EPCOR work on 107 Avenue until 2027. So both of those projects aren't gonna take place until next year. And then to deliver some traffic relief, admin anticipates that it will complete the Wellington Bridge project, 95th Avenue renewal, and stage two of the Terwilliger Drive project by the fall. So should be a little bit of relief in those areas.

Mack:
Well, I'm glad to hear the recognition here from administration about what lots of people across the political spectrum were talking about. That, yeah, it's a problem when you've got a whole bunch of things happening at the exact same time, and we talked about that on the show before. Getting into downtown east-west was pretty challenging with LRT construction on 104 Avenue, then the Imagine Jasper stuff there. You know, your two main east-west arteries really just clogged up and then all of the roads in between, which aren't meant to be traversed by as many vehicles, also get really clogged up. So, that's really good to hear. I'm a bit concerned about the 107th Avenue one that you mentioned, because this was another project that was happening around the same time as those other two. And so this is a bit further north, but still a major east-west avenue, and they kind of left it in a mixed state, I would say. Like, if you went down 107th, sidewalks were missing, there was, like, open, you know, dug up pits where the trees and things used to be along there. I hope that they don't just leave it in that state until 2027. It's one thing to defer the construction. It's another to have started it and then to leave it so that certain parts are just impassable by people with accessibility or mobility challenges, strollers, like, any of that kind of stuff can be pretty problematic. So, I hope they take that into account when they talk about these project deferrals.

Stephanie:
Yeah, that'll definitely be something to keep an eye on.

Mack:
They In addition to acknowledging that this was a problem and, "Hey, maybe we should do something different," what else did they tell council?

Stephanie:
So, the report on the 2026 traffic management plan also said that they've hired a manager, or they've created the manager role, to focus on integrating projects and minimizing traffic impacts downtown. Sounds like a really crazy job to have, just to be like, "I am the downtown traffic person." but this is something that people have been asking for a long time, is like, these departments should be talking to each other because I'm You know, EPCOR work would be in a different department than, for sure, Imagine Jasper Avenue, and then also probably Valley Line because it's all, they're all kind of under different, areas. So bringing all of that together to be like, "Maybe we shouldn't have these all at the same time," you know, that's what people have been asking for.

Mack:
This is one of those blinding flash of the obvious, like, "Oh my God, I can't believe we didn't have this already." types of positions, right? And, hopefully this person can be the convener that is needed to make sure that those things are a little bit more coordinated. But, you know, usually the challenge with these roles is they have no power themselves. So they are just a convener person to bring in you know, different parties together, bring information together, hopefully report on that. If we can boost the transparency of what's happening, maybe that can lead to some of the decision makers making different choices. The other complaint that people had was not just that these things were uncoordinated, but also that some of them went on for quite some time. Did they say anything about the length of projects?

Stephanie:
Yeah, so, our listeners will probably remember the accelerated construction timeline for Valley Line West. This was announced, I think late in 2024 for the 2025 season where instead of having, like, one lane closure or, two lane closure. Instead, they were just kinda closed, like, a lot of stuff, but for a way shorter amount of time. I remember they closed the intersection of 104 Ave and 124 Street just entirely, which is two very well traveled roads. So, you know, you had to do different routes. But the thing is it changed the construction timeline by weeks, if not months. I think one particular intersection, I can't remember off the top of my head, but it changed the amount of, like, disruption time from over two years to, like, six weeks or something like that.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
Now, I don't understand how that works. And then, of course, you know, people were still upset that there was still gonna be a full closure, but then, you know, it was done in six weeks or a few months. And, that's not something that the city had typically done before, is like, the, short shorter term pain for long term gain, right? Like, getting it done really quick, even though it's more annoying in the moment, it'll be less annoying over the course of, you know, the construction process.

Mack:
I wanna see more of that. Yes, absolutely. Let's get these things done quickly. We've committed to doing them, let's make them happen as fast as humanly possible. I know there's other considerations and it needs resources and stuff, but yes, that is a, that is a good change to make.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
I'll reiterate my one other request if anybody from the City of Edmonton is listening, which is just to make it easier to understand what is this construction that I have all of a sudden run into every day traversing the downtown. Things are in a different configuration, where you could walk yesterday you can't today, where you could drive yesterday, you've gotta take a slightly different route the next day. It would be good to know if there was, like, a QR code or something I could just quickly scan to say, "What is this thing?" Might help me feel a little bit better about the interruption if I can see what that long term gain is gonna be about.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and you know, that is one thing that was mentioned in the report, is just, like, better communication overall. I feel like, you know, that's, that is said all the time about everything, but hopefully, you know, that, is maybe a result of this new up, approach to construction in 2026.

Mack:
Okay, before we move on, we've got another ad for you.

Stephanie:
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Mack:
Well, Stephanie, we are Speaking Municipally. We talk about municipal affairs in Edmonton, but at Taproot, we pay attention to the entire Edmonton region. And this week we have a fairly juicy item about another municipality in the region, and that is Gibbons.

Stephanie:
Yes. So Gibbons is a town about 40 minutes north of Edmonton, and I have been just obsessed with this story for a while because I'm a big fan of the show Parks and Recreation and it kind of feels like, it could be in Parks and Recreation. So Gibbons is experiencing a financial crisis and it faces dissolution or a triple digit tax increase.

Mack:
Wow.

Stephanie:
Yeah. How did we get here? Well, according to the province, town administration has not been sharing the town's full financial struggles for at least five years. The municipality reported overstated revenues in its 2025 operating budget and it's been using cash reserves, debt, and conditional grant funding to cover operating expenses, a big no-no. You're not supposed to use debt for operating. This is like All municipalities, they do this.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
The new staff at the town say there's no cash in reserves, bank accounts are depleted and the town is at maximum debt capacity, and it's weeks away from not being able to fulfill payroll and other basic obligations. The province has appointed an interim, CAO, that's a chief administrative officer, city manager, obviously town manager. He's called the situation unprecedented. Rather than a typical municipal viability issue, the financial crisis has been developing over several years. It was initially believed to be tied to a commercial development called Heartland Station. The town spent about $4 million on that development and they haven't fully gotten their money back from that. However, further review, has uncovered broader systemic issues.

Mack:
So like you said, but like the CAO said, unprecedented. It's not uncommon actually for small towns across the province to face questions of dissolution. Maybe instead of being their own municipality, they just get reabsorbed into the surrounding county. Often, you know, the county has a larger budget, more ability to cover infrastructure costs and things like that anyway. But to be forced into that situation because of what appears to be poor financial management, seems pretty concerning. So we have a new CAO. We also probably have some new councillors 'cause we just had a municipal election. What do those folks say about what's happening in Gibbons?

Stephanie:
So it's actually an entirely new council, fully cleared out and new people in. So yeah, they elected a new council in October, and soon after, the council reached out to the province for help. The new mayor, Rick Henderson, said, and I love this quote, I'm just gonna read it verbatim, "The steps of controlling and watching what we spend happened probably the second we got in there. As soon as we realized exactly how bad it was, we pulled on the fiscal restraint belt in a hurry. To give you an idea of where it's at, we had to fight to get toilet paper for the arena and to find the money to get toilet paper for the arena. That's how tight it is and that's how much we're watching our funds right now."

Mack:
Oof. When you can't even, when you can't even buy toilet paper, you know, you know you're in trouble.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
And it's also just funny to me, you said this started about five years ago, right? 2020.

Stephanie:
I know. That's what I thought about too.

Mack:
The pandemic toilet paper thing, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah. There, people probably still have some left over. If you have any leftover toilet paper, send it to Gibbons. They need it.

Mack:
Donate it to the Gibbons Arena. Yeah, absolutely.

Stephanie:
Yeah. So when I say they reached out to the province for help, that means that they have asked for help with an expedited viability review for the town. So that means that eventually residents will vote on whether it will stay a town or dissolve and become a hamlet in Sturgeon County. Now dissolution, it's happened in the region before. The village of Wabamun, voted to dissolve in 2020 after TransAlta left the community and took it, with it about half of the community's tax revenue. Now that's part of Parkland County. And also the summer the summer village of Mameo Beach on the shore of Pigeon Lake, south of Edmonton underwent a viability review last year, but residents voted to remain a summer village instead of dissolving into the county of Wetaskiwin.

Mack:
Okay. And Sturgeon County is where this hamlet would be. What do they say about what's happening? Are they eager to have Gibbons return as a, as a hamlet?

Stephanie:
So Sturgeon County has been directed to work with Gibbons. They don't really seem like they have a choice. Kind of seems like the province says, "You have to do this." And they released, I will call it a terse, statement and within it they basically said they're working with Gibbons to find out what it would look like if it became a hamlet, so how programs would, and services would be provided, how local roads and buildings would be looked after, how local costs and taxes might be determined. They're gonna work together, town and county staff, to see how technologies could be integrated and what local governance and representation could look like, right? Because that's a whole bunch of more people that would have to be kind of integrated into the municipal, like coverage or the wards. They might even have to redraw the wards if they get a big influx of population from Gibbons, right? To make it more fair. And, you know, for the county's part, it said in a statement, "Sturgeon County also has its own financial realities and pressures to manage, and any potential change in municipal boundaries or responsibilities introduces additional risks to the county's fiscal position and service delivery. The county will carefully assess all impacts, be transparent about findings, and continue to keep residents informed as more information becomes available."

Mack:
Yeah. Well, you can understand their position, right? This is not, probably what they were hoping to have to deal with, and as you say, they kind of don't really have a choice in this case. I recall from past viability reviews that these things can take quite a bit of time. Like, we're talking about government here.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
It doesn't happen overnight. They usually take, I don't know, a year, 18 months, sometimes a couple of years. I know there's others that have gone on longer. If they can't even buy toilet paper for the arena, how are they gonna make it through this review?

Stephanie:
Yeah, so they've made a couple of changes in the short term to try to get to the next year, you know. So in December, these provincially appointed administrators helped council build interim capital and operating budgets. They also passed a moratorium on new capital projects except for those required for health, safety, or regulatory compliance, or if a contract was already in place. The town is receiving some financial assistance from the province to help it manage immediate cash flow pressures. It's also laid off staff, frozen nonessential spending, like toilet paper. No, I'm just kidding. And it's initiated a line-by-line budget review, and they're also talking with Sturgeon County about, in the short term, transferring fire services and family and community support services to the county. And then, also, the official documentation is like, "We've requested financial arrangements with Sturgeon County," which I think just means, like, "Will you please give us some money?"

Mack:
Yeah, or cover some of the cost. I mean, sometimes towns and counties like this have cost-sharing agreements already for emergency services or fire services or that kind of thing, so it's possible that they could just extend one of those agreements or something like that.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Okay, well, not a great situation if you're out in Gibbons. Thank you for this overview, Stephanie. I guess we await the provincial review, viability review. It would be shocking if they said, "Gibbons is viable." Given what you've explained so far.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
So we'll find out what happens, but I guess the other question is, how did we, how did this, how did we get here?

Stephanie:
You know, that's a great question. Like I, like I said, we know the official reasons based on these, like, provincial news releases and that sort of thing, but like, how did it actually happen? I wish I could get in a time machine and like, sit in on those council meetings. I don't know. You really, you really don't know. I think, I think part of why we don't know is because the media and, like the media landscape in the Edmonton region, there aren't reporters really working in these small towns.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
And, they wouldn't have been there to be like, carefully looking over budget documents like a bigger city like Edmonton.

Mack:
They don't have a Stephanie who goes to council every week And pays attention to those documents, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah, exactly.

Mack:
I mean, we would love to do that if there were more resources across the region, but as you point out, there just isn't.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and really, I think that it's gonna, it'll come out.

Mack:
Yeah, hopefully in the fullness of time, we'll learn a little bit more about that. I mean, probably in a situation like this, you've got past councillors who maybe made some poor decisions along the way, but as we know, the way councils work usually is they're offered advice and guidance from the administrators, and maybe there was, you know, bureaucrats working in the town who withheld information or it wasn't clear for some reason. As I say, hopefully in the fullness of time, we get a better understanding of what happens, and hopefully, for the folks who live there, the province and the county and maybe what's left of the town Can, you know, quickly get to a situation where, all those essential services continue to be offered and there's no impact on their quality of life out in Gibbons.

Stephanie:
Yeah. So like you were saying, the 12 to 18-month timeline, that's exactly what it says on the province's website. Now, I'm not sure if because it's expedited if it'll be faster than that. Also, now that the, this is getting more news coverage, it's been covered by most of the main Edmonton outlets, I'm sure that we're gonna get more regular coverage on this, on this situation. But yeah, like, one of the reports said that, to fix the situation or to even get close to fixing it, they'd have to have a 120% tax increase.

Mack:
Wow.

Stephanie:
So, yeah.

Mack:
And that's probably not a permanent long-term fix. That's a, like, get back to…

Stephanie:
Exactly.

Mack:
A viable place, and then probably there's additional increases in the future, even if they're not as large.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Very concerning.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Okay. Well, thank you for that, Stephanie. We have one more story we wanted to talk about this week. I saw this on Instagram, and I knew we just had to put it on the episode. Coun. Reed Clarke posted about having his first, he calls it, "long-awaited first motion" Passed at council unanimously, 13 to nothing, and just as you might have expected back in October when he was elected, it's about sports.

Stephanie:
Yo, he's gotta get his head in the game, you know?

Mack:
So his motion is called the Sports Legacy Motion, and in his words, he said, "It will begin the process to modernize how we measure and deliver benefits from the major sporting events we host." So if you look at the motion that was passed, there's four parts to it. He's looking for a quantification of the outcomes of major sports and cultural events that were either attracted to Edmonton and sponsored by the city or, you know, planned from 2024 to 2026. Wants to know the positive community impacts, including economic activity, broadcast numbers, as called it specifically in the motion, community participation, which infrastructure was utilized identify who is accountable for oversight of the legacy part of this, provide options for funding major events that generate $3 million or more in economic impact and have formal legacy plans that are written into those funding agreements, and then the fourth thing is propose a shared evidence-based definition and impact framework for legacy outcomes. So-The point of this is, if I understand correctly, is just when we do host these big events, kind of back to what we were talking about earlier, we don't want them to be just one-offs. We want them to have a longer term impact for the city. What is that legacy impact, and can we be a little bit more intentional about making sure that these events have a positive legacy? He says, quote, "Economic impact matters, but impact on our communities is the real legacy. Edmonton can become the best sports city in Canada, and this is a small first step." He also has another thing in his text here where he's talking about ensuring that these events serve our communities long after the final whistle. Got to work in a little bit of those sports puns, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah. You know, this is a really interesting motion, with the legacy part. That's, it's a interesting phrase in this context. I wonder if it means sort of, you know, it's not just that people come in, rent their hotel room, go to the event, go get dinner, and then leave and go away. Maybe it's more about, you know, if it's like a basketball event, for example, there was like courts built or something like that. I also like that it includes cultural events in there too because the first thing that I thought about this was Game Con Canada which entered into a three-year agreement to host it here, and, that's like a legacy, right? Instead of just coming for one year, they set up like a three-year-long agreement, and they also just added like more to the event that's happening this year. They kind of lengthened it, and they're having a bit of a summit before. So, you know, that's kind of a perfect example. It's not sports, of course. It's maybe esports, but, I think that's…

Mack:
Still sports. Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah, and it, and it's good that they're also including the cultural events.

Mack:
Yeah, absolutely. I think about, when I saw this, I think about events like Red Bull Crashed Ice…

Stephanie:
Oh, yeah.

Mack:
That happened a number of years ago. Like, that was pretty cool. It was a big event. It got quite a bit of attention. (sighs) As I've said, I think those economic activity numbers are pretty just let's pull something out of the air, so I don't know how real those are, but it seemed to have a positive impact. There was a lot of people downtown. But I don't know. What is the legacy of that event? Like, I don't think we got any permanent infrastructure built out of it. I don't think there were any facilities that got improved or upgraded as a result. Maybe there was an impact on, you know, local athletes and the connections that were made or those kinds of things, but going into these events with that we want to have a positive impact on the community even after the event is done I think is a, is a healthy thing, and I think that's the spirit of this motion. So, it is expected to come back pretty fast actually for council. The date is June 29th this year to a future Community and Public Services Committee meeting, so I look forward to finding out what administration puts together. And congratulations to Coun. Clarke On the first, his first motion.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Well, Stephanie, that's our show for this week. We have sent out a reminder for those of you who haven't done it yet. We have one more chance for you to fill out our audience survey. If you could do that by February 28th at midnight, that would be fantastic. We've got hundreds of responses so far, but we want to hear from just a few more of you. It's gonna help us understand how to better serve you, and it's also gonna help us communicate to people who fund TapRoot, advertisers and things, about why they should continue to do that. So, we really appreciate your input. If you feel so inclined to provide input in other ways, we've got Your Turn. Right, Stephanie?

Stephanie:
Yeah. Every Friday, we're publishing a collection of like feedback and engagement opportunities around the region. Sometimes we also include stuff from the whole province. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Lots of, lots of chances to shape the region, shape the city.

Mack:
And if you want to do something about what Stephanie said earlier, you know, there's just not as many reporters around the region, you can help support Taproot. We'd love for you to become a member. You can do that as an individual for $100 a year, or you can do that as an organization as well and get some memberships for your team. So, you can learn about all of that and all of the things we publish, Your Turn and everything else we do, at taprootedmonton.ca. Stephanie, we'll be back next week. Until then, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're…

Both:
Speaking Municipally.