Speaking Municipally

Council debated changes to the single-use item bylaw, especially related to drive-thrus. Plus, we discuss a funding cut for Boyle Street, reaction to the police chief's recent trip to Israel, and some new jobs for Amarjeet Sohi and Tim Cartmell.

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (01:43) - Ad: Capital Awards
  • (02:23) - Waste reduction update
  • (14:53) - Boyle Street funding cut
  • (20:18) - Ad: GoodMorning
  • (21:21) - Police chief's Israel trip
  • (30:17) - Arterial roads
  • (33:19) - New jobs for Sohi and Cartmell
  • (36:01) - Become a member
  • (37:21) - Close

Here are the relevant links for this episode:

Audience survey
Waste reduction update
Boyle Street funding cut
Police chief's Israel trip
Arterial roads
New jobs for Sohi and Cartmell
Become a member
This episode is brought to you by the IABC Edmonton's 2026 Capital Awards. You've already done the work. Now bring it into focus. The Capital Awards are Northern Alberta's benchmark for communications excellence, recognizing strategy, creativity, and results that stand up to scrutiny. Turn results into recognition! Submit your work by April 12

This episode is also brought to you by GoodMorning, one of Canada's largest mattress retailers, founded right here in Edmonton. GoodMorning's first-ever flagship retail store is now open at 144 Mayfield Common NW. It's the best place to see, touch, and test the full collection of award-winning Canadian mattresses. Enjoy a relaxed, no-pressure way to find your next great night's sleep. Learn more

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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.
Guest
Andrew Knack
Serving the people of Ward Nakota Isga and all of Edmonton on #yegcc (Edmonton City Council). He/him.

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:
Would you like to purchase a bag for 25 cents? This week, council debated changes to the single use item bylaw. Well, actually they just wanted to make your drive-thru experience a little bit more wasteful. Spoiler alert, they didn't go through with it.

Stephanie:
Plus, we take a look at some reaction to the police chief's recent surprise trip to Israel.

Mack:
Hi, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're…

Both:
Speaking Municipally.

Mack:
Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, episode 347. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our 2026 audience survey. We really appreciate that. We got hundreds and hundreds of responses, they were really lovely to read through, most of them. Lots of really great positive comments about the team and all the work that we do here at Taproot. And lots of constructive feedback too. We did write a blog post this week outlining some of the things we heard, some of the feedback we got, and, sharing some of the metrics with you. So, if you're interested to learn more about Taproot's audience, you can go and do that. And I thought it was really interesting, Stephanie, when I was writing about it because I found myself first using the word reader, and then I thought, well, actually, we need to be more inclusive because people listen to the podcast. And then I thought, well, actually, we need to use the word viewer as well because we do videos. So, some of you might be watching us on YouTube or Spotify. If you haven't, checked it out, we do a video version of this podcast now and have, basically all of 2026. Kind of a new thing we started doing this year. We're happy for you to listen or watch, wherever you get your podcasts, video or audio. Okay, before we get into our items for this week, we have an ad for you.

Stephanie:
This episode is brought to you by the IABC Edmonton's 2026 Capital Awards. This is Northern Alberta's benchmark for communications excellence. A Capital Award is a credential, not a moment. It's proof of strategic thinking, creativity, and results that stand up to scrutiny. Submissions are open to communicators from every corner of the industry until April 12th. Ideas are easy. Impact takes work. Learn more at capitalawards.ca. That's capitalawards.ca.

Mack:
Thank you, Stephanie. All right, our first item of the week, we have the headline in our notes here, the heading called Trash Talk, but I think that might be like a copyrighted segment on another podcast. So I don't know, waste conversations or something? But Utility Committee met this week, and they were talking all about waste, what was on the agenda this week, Stephanie?

Stephanie:
Yeah, so committee talked about two things related to garbage. One was the city's waste reduction strategy, and the other was three-stream collection at multifamily. If you're wondering what the heck that means, it's just that if you live in an apartment, you compost now. Lots of…

Mack:
Or you should at least. I mean…

Stephanie:
Oh.

Mack:
You should compost.

Stephanie:
You have the option.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah. So yeah, we will link to some of the, if you're interested in seeing how the city's doing on those things, we'll link to those. But, of course, they ended up talking quite a bit about the single use item reduction bylaw, which banned styrofoam plates, cups, and containers, as well as plastic shopping bags, and they also regulated the use of takeout bags. So, it's 25 cents now for a paper bag and $2 for a reusable one. Of course, you can always bring your own. So, they've done a waste characterization study, which, from what I understand, they looked at like a year of garbage, before the bylaw, and now they're working on one for after the bylaw, but it's wrapping up soon. So, they've done a three-season one, but still, it's showing us some good data. So, based on this, retail bag use has plummeted by 79%, while straw and utensil consumption decreased by 26%. So, those are two areas that you're really seeing, a lot less waste being given out to people and then it ending up in the landfill. And that makes sense to me because I think it's been sort of, not a trend, but it's been like a social evolution that people just bring bags to go shopping now, and it's been for a while, even before the single use, reduction bylaw, because I remember, like, going grocery shopping with my mom when I was younger and she'd open up the back of her car and there was like 28 reusable bags back then. She's like, "Grab a bag so we can go shopping." so it's been it's been around for a while, but yeah, seeing the evidence that eight, almost 80%, of bags, like it's gone down 80% is cool.

Mack:
I think that's really fantastic. I mean, that is a sign that this bylaw works. I think there was a lot of criticism initially about whether this would actually do anything, so I think that's pretty interesting. It said retail bag use plummeted, so that includes plastic and other ones? Because I don't know about you, Stephanie, but my container that used to be full of plastic bags is now full of these reusable, I guess, in theory, kind of really cheap, thin, papery, fabric-y kind of bags. I do have proper reusable bags too, but you know, you get these in lots of different places. It's just kind of hard to avoid. So, I wonder how many of those are getting thrown out. I suppose it's still better than plastic because at least they'll decompose, but it seems to me like we've transferred some of the waste from one type to the other.

Stephanie:
Yeah. That's a tough one because sometimes you don't plan ahead and you don't bring the bag with you and then you're like, "Oh darn, I wanna stop and get some groceries," and you can't just carry them in your hands walking home, so you do have to buy the little, like, I know the ones you're talking about, like the really tiny ones…

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
That you can barely fit a thing of milk in, and they're just so crappy. So, I do have like a space in my house where I just like stuff them into a closet and try to like close the door to the closet. But, yeah, I don't know what to do with those. I'there's two things that I do, is I try to pawn them off to my friends and family. If I'm like, "I'm giving you something. Would you like Hey, I think you'd like this shirt."… and it's in this bag. And then the other thing, on a more serious note, is that I have heard that, social services, homeless-serving agencies actually really like those bags because of their, like, quasi-disposable nature because you can stuff it full of materials and goods for, someone experiencing homelessness. But then it's not, like, devastating if they lose it or they need to throw it out or anything.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
So if you have a bunch of those bags, check first so you're not just giving them trash. But, hey, maybe, you can donate them to, a homeless-serving agency.

Mack:
Absolutely. And then it is a good habit to get into, to carry your own reusable bag. I've gotten really good at this. I always keep one in my backpack or my little, belt bag or whatever when I'm out and about. Anyway…

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Like, if you have a good bag and you carry it around, you make that part of your routine, it can make a real big difference, right? You've always got it. You don't have to think about it. It's not so great when you're in the drive-through though. Like, I wouldn't want to put my greasy McDonald's into that bag. Like, it's a nice bag. And so when I do go to the drive-through I always say, "No, I don't want the bag." And then I'm like, "Ah, but actually I don't have anything in the car. Where am I gonna put all this stuff?" Which I think is an experience a lot of people run into.

Stephanie:
Yeah. I You know, when I was listening to this debate, I was thinking about my life, which is whenever I go to a drive-through typically the food is consumed within a few minutes of me leaving the drive-through.

Mack:
Sure.

Stephanie:
I'm, you know, like, driving with my knees and eating, doing all the distracted driving. Just joking. But I was thinking, I was like, "Who cares about the drive-through bag? You don't need a drive-through bag." You're like in But then I thought, "Okay, well, what if you're getting dinner for, like, your whole family-"…

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
"… and you got the two kids in the back, and you need to carry them all in?" And, like, it would be really helpful to have a bag. So, like, speaking of which, particularly the bag fee has been a big contentious issue. Coun. Keren Tang had a funny anecdote. She said that she heard more about these drive-through bags than about infill during the campaign period.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
And, of course, Calgary…

Mack:
I believe it.

Stephanie:
Yeah. Calgary repealed its single-use item bylaw two years ago. So this bag, this bag bylaw specifically, with, like, the 25 cents for a paper bag for your McDonald's, it's been rather contentious. So, as such, Coun. Mike Elliott introduced a motion asking administration to prepare amendments to the single-use item bylaw to remove the bag fee only for First of all, it was just for restaurants, which would include fast food establishments. So that would be also if you're going to Boston Pizza, to get, I don't know, like your little pasta and they put it in, like, a paper bag. So, it'd also include sit-down restaurants. He introduced this because he said the fee disproportionately affects lower-income people. It doesn't change behavior as intended, and it negatively impacts businesses and employees who have to, like, fight with people about this bag fee. Committee did consider amendments to make it so that it only includes drive-through restaurants and not a takeout scenario at, like, a regular restaurant. But ultimately, Coun. Ashley Salvador introduced a motion to wait for the results of that waste characterization study that I mentioned and to have that report contain potential amendments to the bylaw.

Mack:
So, we're already expecting an update to that report. And so when that comes back, now we'll also get potential amendments that administration might recommend. Although I don't know why they would recommend it, because it looks like this is working. I mean, I'm not sure what Coun. Elliott cited in terms of evidence for it not being effective, but an 80% reduction in bags is a good sign. It seems like it's working to some degree, no?

Stephanie:
Well, so the issue is that when you're trying to determine whether the bylaw is having the intended effect, the waste characterization study, from what I understand, right now doesn't differentiate between the different types of paper bags. So, whether it's one of those big bags that you use for groceries that rips the second you walk out of the grocery store, or if it's your little bag for your junior chicken, they don't differentiate between those. Side note, whoever's performing these studies, I salute you. That sounds like a really hard job. So And it's just, it's just been hard to, tell if this is working, so that's why they want the waste characterization study to come back that is, like is a little bit more specific about whether they think this specific, 25 cent fee is working. So, related to this, Mayor Andrew Knack told a bit of a fun anecdote about the behavior change.

Andrew Knack:
We have to bring folks along for this. I mean, for myself, I'm so cheap that I will never And it converted me. Like, I'm so cheap, I bring a bag with me everywhere I go, including for fast food, and I will forever and always do that, because it actually did help me realize, like, how useless that bag is in a lot of cases. Like, in many cases, it was grab from the window and immediately take food out of the bag, and then it's on the floor of the car, until it either hits the recycle bin or compost, depending on the situation. And so, this actually did help me, but I think I'm probably the nerdy exception to the rule, and the vast majority of people aren't thinking about this specific piece with that level of nerdiness, let's put it that way.

Mack:
Nerdiness or cheapness, as he said. I mean Those are good reasons, right? To not wanna do the bag. I think it's also just really hard to enforce, you know? Like I've had the experience going through a drive-through. Didn't They didn't ask if I wanted a bag. It I didn't say I wanted a bag. You get to the window, and they give you a bag anyway. Right?

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
I mean, what do you do in that situation?

Stephanie:
Yeah, exactly. And, Mayor Knack also compared the issue to photo radar, of all things. Now, the reason why is that he said photo radar has a real tangible difference. The city has strong data to support photo radar fines to say, "This is why we support it, because it really does help affect safety." But not so much when it comes to the bag fee.

Andrew Knack:
This the fast food bag piece in particular, I'm not sure I have enough good data to inform whether that should stay around. And with the frustration it causes people, I do worry about that broader impact to our overall waste diversion goals. And, there's A little bit to Coun. Elliott's point is that There is an argument potentially, depending on the data, that this actually might cost us less, the Edmontonians less overall, through our waste management system, through our landfills than the bag charge. But I don't know that yet. And so I'm willing to wait a little bit to see that. But if there can't be good evidence, and I know it's tough, so I appreciate it's hard to put that on administration. But truly, I think if we want to get buy-in for our ongoing work in this, we need to be able to show our, show our work. And so there does need to be something more, or else when this comes back, I would likely just support what Coun. Elliott was originally going to put forward.

Stephanie:
And just for context, when he says, "I know it's hard. I know it's hard," that he's referring to the waste characterization study, trying to figure out, narrowing down the focus onto the drive-through bags.

Mack:
That seems like a weird argument for him to make about the overall cost. I, the reason we have this bylaw is not about cost. And if it does cost us all a little bit more, but it supports our stated and agreed-upon climate change goals, waste reduction goals, shouldn't we go ahead and do it anyway? Like, that seems like an interesting argument to make, it, that he brought in, you know, the cost question there. Hmm.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Okay. Well, there's no change right now. If you are out at a restaurant or a drive-through or a grocery store or something, the same rules apply as have for the last while, since this bylaw was approved, and we are waiting for that update to the study. Is that correct?

Stephanie:
Yep. So the specific wording, which I think is important is that, "Administration return to Utility Committee with a report on the completed waste characterization study, including recommendations, impacts, and implications of potential amendments to the single-use item reduction bylaw informed by the results of the study." So, I think what the idea there is if we removed drive-through bags, what would the positive or negative impacts be? And that's why they all wanted to, or many of them wanted to wait to see the results of the study instead of just forging forward, forging forward with amendments to the bylaw.

Mack:
Makes sense. We're what, six months into the council term. There's no, there's no election coming.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
There's no need to make people happy by getting rid of the drive-through thing. You might as well wait till you have proper data. Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Sensible. Well, our second item this week seems a bit less sensible to me, Stephanie. I see that Boyle Street has lost some provincial funding for its Housing First program, or is about to. Tell us what's going on here.

Stephanie:
Yeah, so Boyle Street Community Services Housing First Program is going to end on April 1st after the provincial government took away funding. Now, Jason Nixon, who is the Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services said that the, that department uses multiple programs to fulfill its mandate, and the Housing First program at Boyle Street has not been meeting the same level of results for the participants as other programs. A government spokesperson said that Boyle Street was funded to support 200 people with case management services, but its current active caseload is only 54. Jason Nixon said, "Nobody will lose their funding that's associated with the program, but the program participants are going to move into another program that sees better results through the work that they do."

Mack:
Interesting. Okay. Well, it seems like an extreme reaction to just cut the funding. I don't get the sense that Boyle Street knew this was coming.

Stephanie:
Hm-mm.

Mack:
And you would think that first of all, there would be some sort of a dialogue, some sort of a collaboration to try to understand what's not working, how to make it better. Why is the caseload only 54? Is there other things that should be done? Without just cutting that funding. So that's kind of bizarre. What does this mean for Boyle Street then? What are they doing to try to, deal with this loss of funding?

Stephanie:
So, they said that they're transitioning their clients to other partner agencies. I know, this part just… (sighs) Minister Nixon said, "The government will issue a request for proposals to determine who can best provide the services that Boyle Street's Housing First Program was receiving funding for." And then he said, "Boyle Street is welcome to participate in that RFE process." And I don't often use this word, because I don't actually really fully know what it means, but I think Kafkaesque could fit in here, because what do you I'm taking away the funding, but you can apply to get the funding back? And…

Mack:
You're not doing a good job, but you can feel free to apply to this RFP.

Stephanie:
Right?

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
And it's just like, all of this is so random, and it just seems so weird that they're, yeah, pulling away the funding, then inviting them to apply again. And the thing is that Boyle Street has such a firm presence in Edmonton for helping vulnerable people. They just opened their new building. And the thing is that transitioning people between partner agencies and giving them new caseworkers, this is the last thing this population needs. You know, it'd be different, you know, we talk about like tech funding organizations here. If like a tech startup has to move from, say, working with someone at Edmonton Unlimited to Alberta Innovates, that's probably fine.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
But, like, a person that's unhoused on the streets, barely has a cell phone, knows that they have to walk to the Boyle Street building to get connected to Housing First programs, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this care, like this, social services worker that they've built a trusting relationship with, probably took months to get this relationship going, now all of a sudden they have to go blocks away to access this care. Like, this is the last thing this population needs, and it just seems so careless.

Mack:
I looked it up quickly. Kafkaesque, oppressively complex and seemingly illogical bureaucracy. So I think your use of the word fits very nicely In this situation, in addition to what you just described. I see the funding is gonna end, the program is gonna end April 1st. An RFP usually takes more than a couple of weeks.

Stephanie:
Exactly.

Mack:
So, it sounds like there's gonna be a gap in service here as well, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah, that was something I noticed too. Like, there's still a lot of questions around this. But like, what are those people going to do? You Like, keeping people connected with their social workers is so important, and this is just such an obvious, glaring gap that people are going to fall through.

Mack:
Yeah, and just to back up. So, this 200 people supposed to be supported through this program, active caseload is 54. So, what that doesn't tell us is how many people they already served through the program, so closed caseload. But also, we shouldn't read into this, I don't think, right, that an active caseload of 54 means there just isn't enough people looking for housing.

Stephanie:
Well, no, definitely not, because I just looked at some of the recent data from Homeward Trust in preparing for this episode. There are just about 4,000 people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton, and that includes 845 people who are living rough on the streets, no shelter whatsoever. And you know, the, To be fair though, in about fall 2024, that number was about 5,000 people experiencing homelessness overall.

Mack:
Right.

Stephanie:
So, we're down, we are down quite a bit, which is, which is good that we have, about a thousand fewer than we did when it peaked back in fall of 2024. But still, I mean, there's still 4,000 people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton right now, and…

Mack:
And we should have an update on the most recent homeless count pretty soon, right?

Stephanie:
Yeah, there was a point-in-time count done in the fall, which generally is supposed to be a more accurate full picture of, homelessness, and it's expected to release sometime this month.

Mack:
Well, we'll keep an eye on this. I'm sure there will be additional reporting coming out now that this is known. And, that RFP is certainly something we can follow up on. Okay, before we keep going, we've got another ad for you.

Stephanie:
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Mack:
I had the opportunity to go check out the store, and it's really nice. And when you get there, you can hang up your coat and put on a pair of slippers.

Stephanie:
(gasps)…

Mack:
They have slippers right at the front door, which is really awesome.

Stephanie:
Aw.

Mack:
So, you don't have to worry about, you know, making everything messy when you go and relax on the bed for a while.

Stephanie:
Yeah, it's always so awkward when you go mattress shopping and you're like, "I'm in my winter coat right now."

Mack:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay, this is supposed to be a news podcast, Stephanie. So, why is there a satire news story up next?

Stephanie:
Yeah, this story, a lot of people were telling me that they thought it was fake at first. They It looks like it belongs in The Beaverton. It is real. Great reporting by Lauren Boothby uncovered that Edmonton Police Chief Warren Driechel just returned from a trip to Israel to learn more about policing techniques. This trip was paid for by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a professional organization of police executives from the largest cities in Canada and the US, and this delegation to Israel visited police stations and police leaders. No government or military leaders were met, according to the chief in this interview that, CityNews did.

Mack:
Seems like an interesting time to go to Israel. When was the chief there?

Stephanie:
So, the trip took place in February, and here's what he says he took away from the visit: how to connect with community and build trust, especially with Muslim communities; how to maintain vigilance and understand threats; and how international geopolitics can impact local safety. And of course, Lauren asked the obvious question: why Israel of all places, and why now amidst all of the, you know, conflict going on in that area right now? And the chief said the trip had been planned for a while. "It's part of a longstanding repeated exchange." he also said, "You can't predict the geopolitical state of the world of next week." And of course, what's happening there has lasted much longer Than a week. Yeah.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
Since before he was hired, obvi…

Mack:
Years, you know?

Stephanie:
And then maybe even decades, you know, depending on…

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Interesting. Yeah. I think that's a pretty poor excuse for why Israel. There's maybe valid things to learn, and professional development is obviously good, and we should be open to perspectives and ideas from other places. But there's a time and a place.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
And I'm not sure now is the time, and I'm not sure Israel is the place that our chief should have been, should have been going. I presume that he had to get approval for this, right, from somebody?

Stephanie:
Yeah, so the chair of the Edmonton Police Commission, Ben Henderson, approved the trip according to, CTV News, and he told CTV that visits like this aren't out of the ordinary. And, you know, agencies can share ideas about similar challenges that they face. He said, quote, "This was about connecting to police services that are dealing with some of the same challenges that we are, not just about what's happening right now in Israel, but what happened two or three years ago in Israel. This is about building bridges, not digging trenches." Now, that's what Ben Henderson said.

Mack:
What are these same challenges, I wonder, that he thinks Edmonton and police in Israel are dealing with? Interesting.

Stephanie:
I know.

Mack:
I'm guessing that the reaction to this, in addition to the, "Is this satire?" has been maybe pained or…

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
There's been a lot of consternation about this. What have you been seeing?

Stephanie:
Well, you mentioned, like, time and place, and I think that's a huge factor. 56 mosques and Muslim organizations signed a joint letter to the Police Commission saying that the trip caused deep pain for those affected by the conflict in the Middle East, and that the chief's decision demonstrates a serious failure of judgment towards the communities he's sworn to serve and protect. And that's exactly what it is. It's like, how could you look at this situation and think that it was a great idea to go.

Mack:
Or just that there was gonna be a reaction, and maybe he should reconsider, or maybe he should reach out to some of these communities, have a conversation first. You know, there's lots of other paths that could have been taken here.

Stephanie:
Yeah, Nour Salhi, who is the, who's with the Palestinian Student Alliance, said, "If he wanted to connect with Muslim communities, invite him to talk to Muslims here in our city." But instead, he goes over to Israel.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
And Israel, sure, there's other communities there, like, that he potentially could connect with and learn from. But, you know, I'm not sure Israel's the model police force, is it?

Stephanie:
Well, that's the thing, is that you'd think that an Edmonton Police Chief would want to go to a city that's much more similar to Edmonton. Dan Jones, a criminologist that, you know, talks to the media all the time, he said, "Why don't, maybe the United Kingdom?" They have police forces there that are really known for community relationships. Or even some of the councillors that I was talking to said, "Why not somewhere in the US?" I mean, the US is also, they're more similar to us than Israel, or even other places in Europe, or even in Canada.

Mack:
Another thing came to mind when I, when I saw the comment from Dan Jones too, which is, you know, in the UK, they are pretty well known for being one of the few police jurisdictions around the world where they do not carry firearms.

Stephanie:
Right.

Mack:
Police officers there do not routinely carry firearms. And in Israel, of course, they do, which I suppose is more similar to here in Edmonton. But if we want our chief to go and see how people are doing effective policing in a different way, I'd like the place where they don't carry guns. That might be a good, a good decision to make, right?

Stephanie:
Like, a learning example of how things could be different?

Mack:
Absolutely.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
That makes sense.

Mack:
Okay. I'm sure there are some people who support this though.

Stephanie:
Yeah. So Stacey Leavitt-Wright, who's the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, said the trip was meaningful, especially against, you know, in recent weeks, there have been multiple shootings targeting synagogues in the Toronto area. And Stacey said, "Certainly, I appreciate it. We're a very small community in Edmonton." So, yeah.

Mack:
Okay. Well, where does that leave us then?

Stephanie:
So, you know, on one side, you have the chief and the commission and some community groups saying cross-jurisdictional learning is routine. The itinerary focused on policing leaders, and the goal was to bring back ideas on community trust and threat and awareness, skills that they argue are relevant in Edmonton. But on the other side, you have community voices, you know, particularly Muslim and Palestinian organizations, saying the choice of Israel, giving, given the present reality, really undercuts, the very trust that the chief says that he's trying to build. And, you know, if the aim is to learn about community policing, why not study jurisdictions widely recognized for more engagement and consent-based policing? Like, that's what Dan Jones says. And you know, I just think that optics matter. In a moment when global conflicts are really felt deeply and personally by people here in Edmonton, a trip like this can just land really differently. And again, like I said, like just a judgment, serious lack of judgment.

Mack:
Yeah, I would like to say that, you know, this having happened will probably mean that the chief and the police commission pause and think twice about it the next time. But I also don't know that we have a great track record of that being the case. Police criticism doesn't always lead to a whole bunch of change, amongst the police behavior.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
So we'll see where that goes. This is a bit unfortunate, I would say, for the new chief. I think he's been pretty positively received so far. Haven't been any major missteps or it feels like, you know, our previous chief was in the news every other week for something that was causing, you know, challenges for folks or that people were unhappy about. Chief Driechel hasn't had that experience yet so far. This is maybe, the first one.

Stephanie:
Yeah. You know, again, talking to councillors, one mentioned that, you know, the council and the police and the police commission were in such a good place. It's been, it had been like months and months, maybe even a year now, since there's been a fiery story about stuff going on with that relationship in particular. And this, does not seem to bode well for that relationship. It doesn't appear that any council members knew. It just seems like it was, Commission Chair Henderson that signed off on it. And, the councillors that I did talk to were shocked by it.

Mack:
Yeah, I can understand that reaction. I also think it doesn't matter what the councillors think in this case.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
I mean, this is not something that they're responsible for. It sounds like this was funded entirely by this other association, not by police commission or taxpayer dollars. You know, they can feel politically one way about Israel, but there's very little they're gonna do here to change anything that's happening around the world. Anything else we should know about this one, Stephanie?

Stephanie:
Well, just that I'm also sure that this is another story that's gonna continue evolving, and, I'm sure we'll be covering it more in the coming weeks.

Mack:
Probably will come up at a upcoming police commission meeting, I would think.

Stephanie:
Oh, yes. I even saw some post online that was like, you know, "Demonstrate solidarity, next meeting, we're all gonna show up." So the next, Edmonton Police Commission meeting is next Thursday at noon. We will be, like, in the middle of recording the podcast when it happens, but I'm sure that there will be much said about this.

Mack:
Indeed. We got a couple quick items we wanted to touch on. This is not the rapid fire. We're not bringing that back, for…

Stephanie:
.

Mack:
For those of you who are fans. But there's a couple of smaller items that we saw this week that we just wanted to mention. So one was, for me, was about arterial roads. And at a public hearing this week, Councilor Joanne Wright put forward a motion asking for a report explaining how the city decides when a road meets the threshold to be widened because what she and some other council were raising is that we have all of these two-lane roads that seem like they're at capacity. People wonder, I've had this experience myself, driving on some of those arterials that are just two lanes, one in each direction, thinking, "Why didn't they just build this four lanes to begin with?" Like, we know the city's gonna keep growing. Why wouldn't they just do it at the beginning? Administration said that 18,000 vehicles a day is the current threshold to expand a road to four lanes. So, if it doesn't have that amount of traffic, then, they're not gonna expand the road. And even once it hits that threshold, it's not easy because sometimes they have to make sure they get the right-of-way access, they have to purchase adjacent land if they haven't already done it, you know, there's some other It can take time, essentially. What I thought was really interesting about this, Stephanie, Mayor Andrew Knack pointed out that it might not matter what council wants to do because the Municipal Government Act actually limits how large of an access road a municipality can build in a new development project. So, there's rules in the MGA about how many lanes the road can have, which I did not know. So, I thought that was pretty interesting. And the mayor said that, you know, he's got this long list of things that he wants to discuss with our transportation and economic corridors Minister, Devan Dereeshin, and this is on that list.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm. You know, I've been noticing now that we've been back with, or with this new-ish council for about six months now, and, this is a issue that Councilor Wright seems to be really wanting to address. It's almost every public hearing, I wanna say, she brings up, "Well, what about the roads?" Because almost every public hearing, there's something to do with some development in the outer ring. A lot of those are in her in her ward, kind of like the southeast corner of Edmonton, near Mill Woods, Laurel, that sort of area. And she brings up a lot, like, "Okay, if we rezone this and there's a bunch of new cars there, what's it gonna do to the traffic on 17th Street Southwest," for example. And I kind of love seeing these, like, little pet projects emerging. So, I think that's, it's gonna be an interesting conversation.

Mack:
Absolutely. This is also, to me, one of those benefits of having a mayor like Andrew Knack get elected. Someone who's been on council, someone who's been there for a long time, because he has this depth of knowledge.and obviously there could be benefits of having different, new perspective as well, but, you know, he does bring some context to all of these complicated issues, which I think is really helpful. Okay. Another item we saw, speaking of, elections, our former mayor, Amarjeet Sohi, and former mayoral candidate Tim Cartmel both have new jobs.

Stephanie:
Mm-hmm. So, this is just some professional news for this week. So, Tim Cartmel is, has joined NAIT as associate vice president of major capital projects, and he'll be working with the Advanced Skill Centre, which is a new, you know, kind of building at NAIT. He's trying to get funding for this new, center, so that's his new job. Congrats to Sounds like a great opportunity, Tim. And then former Mayor Amarjeet Sohi has joined New West Public Affairs as a senior advisor.

Mack:
Yeah, I think that new, technology skill center that NAIT wants to build is a, is really a great project. I mean, they say they'll be able to train another 5,500 students in the trades, and I don't know if you've read any news about the trades lately, but there are major concerns about a lack of people, you know, in all the construction trades. And so, NAIT is gonna play a really important role in, addressing that challenge here in the Edmonton region, so that's really awesome for Councilor for former Councilor Cartmel. Are we surprised that Sohi is gone to be a consultant? This seems like kinda what happens usually.

Stephanie:
Yeah. It's not surprising at all. It was just a matter of, like, when it would be announced and with whom it would be announced.

Mack:
Yeah. To me, this seems like a temporary thing.

Stephanie:
Yeah.

Mack:
You know? Like, I think we got the impression from him that he's not really done with public service or with trying to contribute positively, you know, and as a, as a public leader, and, this doesn't seem like his long-term role. It seems like this will work for now until I figure out what that next public office looks like.

Stephanie:
Yeah. One last little update that I wanted to share is that, so last year when we covered the State of the City, we noted how odd it was that the mayor at the time, Amarjeet Sohi, wasn't there, and just a little announcement is that this year, Mayor Andrew Knack is expected to give an address at the State of the City, which is going to be on May 14th. It's presented by the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. But yeah, I'm sure we will be attending that. I remember last year it was, like, deep Oilers playoff time.

Mack:
Yeah.

Stephanie:
And Hunter the Lynx came and scared the bejesus out of me because he was banging that drum. So, we'll see. If we're in the playoffs, hopefully, Hunter the, Hunter the Lynx will be there.

Mack:
Yeah. I've been to my share of, State of the City addresses over the years. Never as fun as the one you went to last year. So, we'll see what this year brings for…

Stephanie:
It…

Mack:
Mayor Knack's first.

Stephanie:
It was genuinely such a fever dream, but it was fun.

Mack:
All right. Well, that's our show for this week. We've, got some interesting things on the agenda for next week, so make sure you tune in for that. We're gonna have a guest, actually, which we've not done here on Speaking Municipally for a little while, so it'll be nice to get back into that. I mentioned off the top that we've published the results of our, Taproot audience survey, so you can go and check that out. I'll have the show, I'll have the link in the show notes. But I also wanted to mention that if you've been thinking about becoming a member of Taproot Edmonton, and we did get a lot of comments from people in the survey, you know, folks saying, "Ah, I love this. I really should become a member," or, "I'm seriously thinking about becoming a member in 2026," well, now is the time. You can use, promo code SURVEY10, that's SURVEY10, and get 10% off your first year of membership if you become a member of Taproot Edmonton by March 31st. So, we'd love to have you. If you become a member, you'll start to get our weekly member newsletter where we give away tickets and discounts and things like that for lots of really cool local experiences and events. You get access to Taproot Exchange, which we've been doing every couple of weeks, where we bring together some, interesting local folks to get their perspective on the news of the day. And then you can also personalize your Taproot experience. So, SURVEY10 is the promo code to use if you'd like to join us and become a member of Taproot Edmonton.

Stephanie:
Do it.

Mack:
All right. We'll be back next week. Until then, I'm Mack.

Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.

Mack:
And we're…

Both:
Speaking Municipally.