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We're joined by Ward Nakota Isga Coun. Reed Clarke for a conversation about the upcoming four-year budget. We talk about the struggle to keep businesses in Edmonton, the need for better bylaw enforcement, and how infill has impacted the tax situation.
- (00:00) - Introduction
- (02:10) - Reed Clarke
- (05:17) - Revenue ideas
- (10:41) - Past tax increases
- (14:11) - Ad: ECAMP Curiosity Tours
- (14:51) - Tax impacts
- (19:23) - Industrial development
- (28:11) - Infill
- (31:34) - What does success look like?
- (34:59) - Close
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Reed Clarke
Budget
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Creators and Guests
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:
Reed between the line items. This week, we're joined by Ward Nakota Isga councillor Reed Clarke for a conversation about the upcoming four-year budget.
Stephanie:
We talked about the struggle to keep businesses in Edmonton, the need for better bylaw enforcement, and how infill has impacted the tax situation.
Mack:
Hi, I'm Mack.
Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.
Mack:
And we're…
Both:
Speaking Municipally.
Mack:
Welcome back to Speaking Municipally, Episode 365. We've got another special episode for you today. This is the second in our two-part series on the state of Edmonton's finances as we head into council summer break and the next four-year budget. So last episode, if you missed that, we spoke with Councillor Aaron Paquette from Ward Dene. It's a great conversation from one of the longest serving members on council and sort of the experience that he's had going through budgets in the past, so we encourage you to check that out if you haven't. In this episode, we're going to hear from Coun. Reed Clarke who was just elected to his first term in Ward Nakota Isga last fall. So, Stephanie, you got to do this interview with Coun. Clarke. How did that go?
Stephanie:
You know, it was really interesting. I think one of my favorite parts about it, and maybe this is just me being a huge nerd for politics, but I really loved hearing his insights just, like, from a human level about what it's been like taking on this job and what's surprised him. He says something about how every single day something new comes along and surprises him, and I think we see a lot in municipal politics, especially around the election cycle. And I'm not necessarily saying that Reed Clarke did this sort of thing, but you hear a lot about, you know, the candidates come in, they go, "Why isn't the city doing this. It just doesn't make any sense at all." And then I imagine that once they actually get elected, they go, "Oh, okay. This is why." And I wanted to ask a little bit about that, so we get into that. So just from I don't know, from a human level, it was really interesting to see sort of how a, quote-unquote "normal" person who is brand new to this, is approaching the job, as opposed to Aaron Paquette, who has a bunch of these under his belt.
Mack:
Okay, so let's get into this conversation. Here is Stephanie's interview with Coun. Reed Clarke.
Stephanie:
Coun. Clarke, thank you so much for joining me to chat a little bit about budget. It's been a long, journey, you know, getting to this point so far. It'kind of feels like it's taking, like, the whole year leading up to the, budget deliberations. Would you agree?
Reed Clarke:
Yeah, it's a process. You know, when I when I first got elected and I met with Mayor Knack over coffee and he kind of explained, he's like, "Hey, here's how we're gonna build the budget and do it differently than we've done it before, Reed." He's like, "We're gonna have this thing. It's called the strategic planning session." I was like, "Whoa, wait." I was like, "We haven't done this before?" Like, that's crazy because every organization, I've led or boarded and been a part of, we have the strategic planning session and you go away for a night or find a, you know, location and put the sticky notes up and do that whole thing. So that, you know, when I heard that, I was like, "Oh, okay. Well, yeah, obviously we should be doing that. That's great." And to kind of go through that process, land on our council our priorities, and then start it way earlier, like start getting the budget presentations in really Q1 this year is when we did it. And then kudos to the mayor and his team for doing the budget engagement sessions in every ward. I thought that was a really important step and the survey they put out with that to really get people engaged on how this process works. So then now we're in a spot where, you know, we're at the end of June and we've already had a lot of conversations about this, and we're having a few more before we go on recess on July 9th that are pretty important. So we'll be in a way better spot when we come back in August and really start building this thing out for the fall.
Stephanie:
So as council heads into the '27 to 2030 budget, how would you describe Edmonton's financial position?
Reed:
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a secret to anybody that, you know, we're in a tough spot, right? We've got a lot of infrastructure deficit that we have to kind of come up with, right, and, you know, tax rates been pretty high the last few years after some years being, you know, pretty low. And then, you know, citizens of Edmonton still want their services, right? They still want things to be done well and done better. So it is a tough spot. I don't think we're unique in that. I think a lot of municipalities are in that and, you know, as funding is less than what it used to be traditionally from the province and the federal government. We don't have a lot of levers, like, you know, when I came into this, I'm like, yeah, I guess we have, you know, there's probably an expense issue we gotta look at, but there's also a revenue issue we gotta look at. But as I go through this, I'm like, there's just not that many places to generate more revenue, right? I mean, there's property taxes, obviously, there's user fees, there's fines, you know, there's development permits, all that kind of But there's not that many kind of things you can pull really on that revenue side. And that'that's a little bit different than me kind of coming into this, you know, as a new councillor and looking at it more from a business perspective. You'd I always hate the thing, the example of, like, try to cut your way to prosperity. I never liked that. It's always like, well, let's generate more revenue and try to figure out that way. But in the municipal government sense, it's tough because there just isn't that many places to really get enough revenue, to be able to make up all the expenses and services we have to provide.
Stephanie:
Yeah. You know, that kind of touches on a couple of things that I did want to ask you about.
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
What were some of those ideas that you maybe had for generating revenue when you were coming in as a new councillor and then, you know, what happened with that wake-up call saying, "Oh, actually, maybe this isn't gonna work out"?
Reed:
Well, you know, one of the kind of big ideas I had coming in, I was like, okay, well, hold on, how can we get, like, more partnerships and corporate involved to try to help offset some of the expenses we had? So I thought that could be, like, a really big revenue stream for us. And kind of going through that, they put a motion that was defeated on that, but I don't know, even if we got there and we put ads on everything and we got corporate, good Edmonton-based companies to support these things, Stephanie, I don't know if it would be enough money. Like, it would be… … kind of a drop in the pan with it, which I thought it'd be bigger, right, than what that would be. So I thought that would be something. I also thought, you know, the city has, you know, for one of the assets, like, we have a lot of land, we have a lot of buildings, right? I was like, "Okay, well, how do we put these, like, essentially on sale? How do, how do we put these on sale and get rid of some of these assets and sell them to generate more revenue?" And that's a tricky one as well, because a lot of the land, as I went, kind of through the process with admin is, like, a lot of it is not shovel ready, it's not serviced at the level we need. So it's not easy to just hand over to a developer and say, "Hey, buy this land and go at it, and then we'll get some future tax revenue." And then also our buildings, and our assets, and, you know, we're starting to look at some of that asset rationalization, but there's over a thousand, buildings. But the state that some are in are not very good as well. They'll need a lot of tenant improvements from whoever would buy them. And then we also kinda wanna maintain some of them for, like, you know, the not-for-profit sector as well. So I thought those things were like, oh, you know, coming into this, I'm like, "Oh, these are obvious. Let's make these moves and this can generate revenue." And it's a little bit trickier than I thought on it, and it might not still yield, the returns we need.
Stephanie:
Yeah. So it's just complex. Like, whenever You know, I've been reporting on city municipal stuff for, like, four or five years now, and I'm just always amazed at how actually complex it all always is, right?
Reed:
Yeah. It, I mean, there's so many layers to this. There's so many departments. You know, it's a really kinda unique structure. Like you know, I look at us as city councils, you know, kind of a board of directors. We have a city manager who's kind of a CEO, and then there's, you know, 70 plus departments and department leads there, and then, and layers below that. But it doesn't operate exactly like that, because everyone's kinda gotta do their part. And within all those departments, there's so many different things too. I mean, you look at community services and the range and scope that's under that one kind of branch is immense. It touches so many different things, right? So it's, yeah, I'm probably surprised every day, about the complexity that goes, that goes into all this. And it's, you know, it is easy to say, for some people on the outside to be like, "Hey, you gotta run it like a business," but it ain't, but it's not a business. It's different than that. It's a government, right? So there might be some things, you know, with my experience in that sector that I can bring forward, but there's still so many unique cases, that really add a whole different layer of complexity.
Stephanie:
We've touched on this a little bit, but let's go a little deeper on it. Like, what is your understanding about how we got to this position, and what are some other things that people might not realize about how we got to this position?
Reed:
Well, (sighs) I mean, from a kind of a high level general sense, I mean, how we got to this position is, you know, I think for a lot of years, it was not having, you know, dedicated maintenance in our facilities and our infrastructure, right? So we were not putting the dollars we needed to do and getting it really from the tax base to keep up with that. And then, you know, as the mayor said numerous times, I mean, when you add 250,000 people in a short amount of time, that pressure's real and that growth is real. And, you know, we should be encouraged by that people are selecting Edmonton to come, whether it's from another country or, inter-provincial. And we're still seeing that now with everything going on, which is, which is, I think really good to see and really encouraging and where we're at from our, from our own, economics. But you add those things up where we probably didn't do as great a job as we could have in terms of making sure our infrastructure renewed, and then just the sheer amount of people that are coming to Edmonton and the growth pressures that come with that. Those two things is how we got here. So it's hard to say, like I don't blame any councillors in the past for the decisions they made. I think everyone had a, you know, all the information they had and had to make the choices in front of them. But it's, You know, even when I got into this now, like, there's so many decisions that were made years ago that I've gotta deal with, and you get put in a spot as a councillor. I'm like, "Well, I got option A and B in front of me and I don't really love either one, but which one sucks the least," right? And you, and you kinda have to make those choices. So, you know, we have to look at that too, is this isn't just in my four-year term on this, because the choices we're making are gonna affect eight years, 10 years down the road. And I, and I don't know if kind of the, you know, the public understands that side of things, that it's nice to do everything in a four-year budget, and try to keep it as contained in there as much as possible, but stuff's gonna have effects for years and years, long after I'm gone.
Stephanie:
Yeah. So I totally see that. You know, every year when the tax increase number gets released the percentage, whether it's, you know, back during COVID when it was 0% or 1% or whatever it was…
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
And then, these days when it's a little bit closer to 5, 6, 7%, that is, like, the headline, the headline. And everyone's…
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
Very focused on what their taxes are gonna increase the next year. But then, you know, that 0% tax increase during COVID had a big effect on things for the next few years. And it everyone loved it at the time, but maybe not so much now. And I know that some other councillors have said, like, "I regret doing that. I regret doing that tiny tax increase because it kind of put us on a bad path." Do you have any thoughts on that?
Reed:
Yeah. You know, when I was at event, yesterday, it was the West End Biz Association, the mayor was speaking, and he brought up that point kind of exactly. He said, "You know, looking back at it, I think I would have at least liked to keep up the taxes with inflation." "But it was hard to do that at the time." I mean, the sky was falling. Nobody knew what was happening.
Stephanie:
Totally.
Reed:
And I think kind of this last council, like, as much as they wanted to get things done in a four-year budget, when the world's changing so fast, they kinda had to go on the, on the spring and the fall supplementary budget and make adjustments, because things were changing all the time. Whether businesses could be open, whether they couldn't, you know, whether we had mask mandates, back to work, not back You know, it was all those sort of things. So I don't fault them at the time to have to make the decisions with what was in front of them. I think that would have been really tough, right? And it's You know, looking at it hindsight, being, "Oh, we should have made this decision here and this would have helped us and we wouldn't have had maybe this infrastructure gap now." But, until you're in that seat in that moment, it's really tough to put yourself in those shoes.
Stephanie:
Yeah, totally. Speaking of renewal and,…
Reed:
Okay.
Stephanie:
Maintenance, there's some talk about, a dedicated renewal levy or reserve. Do you support that sort of thing, and why or why not?
Reed:
Yeah, that came up at the Infrastructure Committee, and, we all supported it, I think everybody. I think it was five-zero at committee. It makes sense to have a fund that's dedicated to that. I mean, we set that up years ago in terms of, neighborhood renewal as well. I think that was probably under Mandela at the time, and it just made sense. It was like, hey, these things, like, we know the scope of them. We know the life cycle they have, so to put money aside for doing these roads, for sidewalks, for active transportation, for alleys, for all those things, I think just makes sense. And the more you get ahead of it and that you can put those funds there, which are, which are really core, services and needs that Edmontonians have, right? It affects kind of everyone. I think, you know, that should've been, you know maybe we should've looked at that a while ago. Maybe it was done in a different way. I don't know. But to do that now makes a ton of sense, and I think that's an understandable thing that if that comes on a, on a tax levy, people get it. It's like, okay, we're putting money in for renewal so that we have a pocket to pull out of when these things inevitably with, you know, the world and the climate that we're in, are going to start to need, you know, a total paving, restructuring, you know, redesign, all those kind of things. So I think it made total sense, and, you know, even at committee, I think we all just passed it and selected it because everyone kind of read the report and knew what the details were and said, "Okay, this lines up."
Stephanie:
I mean, it's if you're gonna be taking the tax money from a specific levy versus just the general tax levy, and it's going to renewal anyways, you know, kind of seems like a no-brainer I guess.
Mack:
We'll have more with Coun. Clarke in just a moment. This episode is brought to you by the Edmonton City Is a Museum project. Join ECAM for two immersive walking experiences this summer. The Curiosity Tours bring Edmonton's past to life, exploring the stories that shaped our city. One will take you downtown for the working class history of our city, while the other will take you to the Rossdale neighborhood to see how it changed through the lives of two kids who grew up there. Tours are available into September on Thursdays or Saturdays. Learn more at citymuseumedmonton.ca/tours. That's citymuseumedmonton.ca/tours. Now, back to our interview with Coun. Clarke.
Stephanie:
So speaking of, like, taxes going up, you know…
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
Again, you hear a lot from residents, "My taxes keep going up, but services-"…
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
"… feel worse." What do you say to your, constituents when you hear that sort of thing?
Reed:
Yeah, and I hear that a lot. You know, people email, calls, messages on social media, popping by my office all the time. It's taxes, and I hear that from the residential side. I also hear it a lot from the business side in my ward. Like the west industrials is a big pocket, so I hear that, and I totally get the concerns, like how much the increase has been going up and how much that affects people, especially if you're on a fixed income, and you're getting hit with, you know, not only a higher assessment, but increased tax rate, right? And then I hear from businesses where it's like, "Hey, now property taxes are becoming, you know, my number three or number two expense on my line item, and this is a real thing. And, you know, if I look across the street to Acheson or in the south in Tindall and Nisku-" "… you know, my taxes are a third of that. And, you know, I'm a, I'm a company that's been here for years, and maybe it's been passed on generation whatever. All my employees are here. I'm a big supporter of Edmonton, proud Edmontonian. I wanna stay here, but, like, these numbers are starting to not make sense to me, Reed. What can we do about that," right? And that's like that's the big question on it. So, I mean, it the answer is complex, but, you know, I think what we got presented in terms of, numbers for the tax rate, you know, they're a little bit higher than five, four, three in the next four-year budget. If we could get to those numbers, and what had been presented, we weren't that far off, Stephanie. It was, it was just like, 5.6, 4.3, 3.9, 3.7, but if we get to, like, 5, 4, 3, 3, and that's, you know, 15% over four years on average, 3.75, I think that would be a really good signal that's saying, "Hey, we understand that these are becoming real pressures to everybody, whether it's residential or it's, or it's on the business side, and we're gonna take some, you know, dedicated measures to really bring that down. And it might not get down right away, but we're gonna be able to get that down in this four-year budget." So that's where my, that's where my lens is. And then the question always comes up, it's like, "Well, I, like, I still want snow removed. I still want the roads pa-… I s-… I still want more transit. I still want a bus out here." So it's kind of having that honest conversation on service levels, and I think that has come up already a few times at council, and it, and it will even later as we get towards budget. But we have to be pretty honest with Edmontonians and look at, like, if you just say, "We're gonna drop service levels across the board," people are like, "Well, I don't want that. Like, I want these services to be better. What are you talking about? Like, I got potholes. We didn't even do my road this winter, Reed. Like, what are you talking about?" And I don't think it's that. I think we have to look at some of the policies in these service levels and make some choices. So, you know, one thing that came up at the Infrastructure Committee was about sports and rec indoor facilities, right? And right now, the policy is that you're five kilometers from your residence to those, to those locations. But if we wanna maintain some of these pools specifically and some other facilities, that might get into a pretty big number. Like, it's 500 million or it's a billion plus if we really wanna do it well. So we might have to have an honest conversation with Edmontonians and be like, "Well, what happens if you were now 7.5 kilometers away or 10 kilometers away from those facilities? Is that a is that a better option than us adding a whole bunch more money to our capital and our, and our operating, you know, debt and budget and the effects that would have on your taxes?" Right? So though I think those are the kind of things that we really need to talk about. And I know there's more engagement going on this summer, and there'll be a lot more in the fall. But that's kind of the crux of this is. It's like where are those service levels that, you know, Edmonton's Newtonians would be okay with saying, "Okay, if that changed a little bit, I'm okay with that." Right? And I could, I could see that being a compromise if that gets, if that gets taxes down because, I mean, taxes have a real effect on affordability and opportunity, right? Taxes go to homeowners, they're gonna get to renters, maybe not right away, but if they keep going up…
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
We'll see those rents go up. It's the only way to do it. And if businesses are kinda hindered by the tax rate, it's tough for them to expand, to have more jobs, more economic developments, and the last thing we wanna see is somebody moving across the street to Atchison and taking their 150 employees with them, right?
Stephanie:
Yeah, totally. I think I'm so fascinated by the whole industrial thing, to pick up on that thread, because, you know, this region is, really known for its industrial strengths, yet Edmonton is not capturing as much as it used to, and we have such limited space left. And I've also heard, just kinda anecdotally, that, like, the actual land itself is kind of difficult to develop versus, like, just, like, the soil makeup in West Edmonton is different than Nisku, for example.
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
Do you have any thoughts on, like, expanding industrial to increase revenue in that way?
Reed:
Yeah, I mean, so one, we gotta look at taxes, I, that's what I hear clear, so we gotta figure out a way to kind of get that, get that down I think to more of a predictable level that businesses understand, so when they're planning out four years, five years, 10 years, they kind of know where the, where the trend is going. I really like the idea, so the economic development plan that got released, I worked a lot with admin on making sure some things were kind of in there, and if you got, if you got into the report enough and saw it, there are some plans in there. What I'd really like to see is almost, like, a business expansion credit. So let's say you're an Edmonton, operator, you're in, you're in West Edmonton, you've got a facility, and you want to, you wanna buy the piece of land kind of next to you, and it's, and it's, and it's available, and it, you know, all the soil things you talked about are fine. If you wanna take on that piece of land, what kind of incentives and credits can we give to you for you to expand so that you don't move out to those neighboring municipalities?
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
So does that look like, you know, some kind of tax credit on that new development for how many years? That's an opportunity that a lot of people are saying, "Okay, that's something I could work with," right? And then the other level of that is, it kinda goes down to, you know, permitting and licensing, and that's, that gets more complex in industrial than it would be for just, like, hospitality, let's say. But how do we get that process where we've done a really good job on residential where it's, like, it's super quick to get that going, how do we get that for industrial and commercial on the same kind of path, right? Those are, that's a lever that's really in our control of municipality, so there's that about it's great to, you know, hire more people in that department, but only if that's gonna speed up that process and still have all the regulations and everything that we need to have and it's done in a, in a safe way, but get that efficiency going, right? So those need to have, like, real timelines where it's like, "Hey, you're gonna be open in 90 days," or, "You're gonna get this within 30 days, your development permits." Like, we need to put those things on that economic development plan to do it. But back, yeah, I mean, in terms of how much land there is, I, there's still some, and there's still some great spots…
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
To do. And even in the industrial part, there's even, you know, there's some zoning issues too where we've zoned a lot of this in heavy industrial. And we did that to try to make sure we still keep that industrial base, but if we can, if we can change some of that zoning to allow for more commercial, there's even some opportunities, there's some market opportunities I've been, I've been talking to businesses about that wanna get into that, and they're just having a bit of a zoning issue that happened when we did, the whole zoning bylaw change wasn't just residential. It was, it was…
Stephanie:
Right.
Reed:
Also for industrial and commercial. So I think a few tweaks there, we can take some of those industrial spots that you drive by a few times and you're like, "That looks pretty old and not that desirable," maybe that could be turned into something way better that still hits our needs and still gets some tax base for us.
Stephanie:
Changing gears a little bit, where do you think the city is underinvesting? Even though we know the tax burden feels pretty high, but where do you think the city is underinvesting?
Reed:
Yeah, you know, and when we sat through, I think it was, like, 12 budget reports in Q1, which were great, I still think they're at a pretty high level. Like, I asked a couple questions right away, I was like, "Okay, well, like, give me the real details on, like, the personnel and the external services and your rent and your operations, all that," and we're still gonna get that level of detail coming up. But when I was going through the departments, it seemed really obvious to me when I looked at, when I looked at bylaw, that was one of the lowest funded, areas, right? And from what we've kind of heard for any complaints, whether it's construction complaints, compliance, vehicles not being moved when we have the parking ban, for snow removal, like, we don't have enough resources there. And I was pretty honest and frank during that meeting and said, "Like, this looks like a department that we should invest more on." And I'm not saying that's more on the tax levy, maybe that's a reallocation, I'll leave that up to admin to come up with the best recommendation. But a department that has an opportunity to actually generate revenue…
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
And to enforce the bylaws and the policies that we actually make at council seems to make a lot of sense to me, right?
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
To see that level, like, I think they were actually funded less than animal control. And we need the money for animal control, and there's legislation all about that, I get that, but it kinda just put it in perspective for me. I'm like, "Whoa, we really don't have enough people out there, or we need technology more on main enforcement, whatever we're allowed to do from the province side, but that is, that's a big opportunity." And I think most Edmontonians would understand that and they said, "Well, hey, Reed, if you're gonna give more money, if you're gonna give more money to bylaw, that makes sense that they're actually enforcing the rules."
Stephanie:
Yeah. I That is such an interesting answer, because it touches on so many different kind of facets. I was just talking to someone the other day that was trying to report something to the 311, and she's like, "It just doesn't go through because it just doesn't seem like 311 is a thing anymore." And I think that, you know, increasing bylaw, not only would it potentially increase revenue, but also the reputation of the city as something as like a corporation that cares about its bylaws that it passes. Like, what's, you know, what's the point of having a parking ban if only, what, 10% of the cars get towed anyways, and then the street doesn't get cleared because the snowplows can't go down?
Reed:
Well, and it's always, this is supposed to work, like, you know, I tell people, like, if you're walking around your neighborhood and you see some construction that, like, doesn't really make sense and you think, "Hey, that looks a bit off," like, "why is the tree not protected? Why is, like, the fence down?" Whatever, like, the whole process is that should go to 311 and that should go that should go to bylaw, and whether that's a warning or that's a ticket, whatever. But if those things all happen and someone's like, "Hey, I just went on my phone, I went on the app, I put it in," and within a couple days we had some action taken on that, like, the level of trust between the citizens and government and everyone's doing their job and the action taken, like, I wanna get that feedback and be like, "Hey, Reed, I did this and, like, by Friday it was done." Like, that's pretty cool. And, I think it's fair for residents to want that and kind of expect that from us, right?
Stephanie:
You know, on the other side, where do you think the city is spending money that maybe it shouldn't be spending? So maybe they're over-investing.
Reed:
Yeah, I, on that one, it, and it kinda goes back into some into some policy things. So, you know, we've gotta, we've gotta look at, there's some pretty tough decisions that we've gotta make and maybe there's some things that need to be deferred. You know, I talked about, you know, having the infrastructure renewal and having neighborhood renewal, and those are, those are two great things. I think now when I look at it and specifically on, like, neighborhood renewal, like, we need to do it, like, some streets are crumbling and sidewalks and alleys, and I totally get that. When I see the list of some communities that are coming up specifically in my ward, and there's a couple in Lewis Estates, you know, I look at that and say, "Does that need to be done in this budget? Cannot be done in the next budget." these are still pretty new communities, in my opinion, that are, I know when the last house went up, but it wasn't that long ago, right? So I get that it might fit in the, "Well, hey, you know, it's 20 years now. This is the time we need to look at it." But maybe that needs to be pushed down and that will save, some of the capital dollars, that we need to put in this one. So that's kind of one example, you know, I was looking at and, you know, even at our structure committee we had a conversation about alleys and alleys are important to do, but should we be doing the alleys when we have arterial roads that transit uses, that people use, for cars, for active transportation? Like, it, er, should that be more of a priority or should those funds be shifted over there, right? So I think there's a, there's a few things there that, I'm interested to kinda get more details and reports on to look at, because those might be some ways where, you know, we're not really affecting service levels and we're not really affecting personnel that much, but maybe it could be looked at and changed in terms of a policy perspective.
Stephanie:
Shifting gears a little bit again when you brought up Lewis Farms and Lewis Estates, it made me think of this, because you have an interesting board where you have, like, the very…
Reed:
Oh.
Stephanie:
Far out suburbs, that my mom used to live in, Lewis Estates, so I know that area.
Reed:
Yeah. Yeah.
Stephanie:
But you also have, like, pretty, 'cause the, west, valley line west goes most, like, all the way through your ward, correct? Like, a lot of it.
Reed:
Yeah, we go right from Groat Road, essentially…
Stephanie:
Right.
Reed:
To 231st Street…
Stephanie:
Right.
Reed:
Whitemud and then Big Lakes area to St. Albert.
Stephanie:
So where I'm going with this is that's a lot of, infill opportunities along the valley line.
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
So, yeah, you have the suburban and you have these mature neighborhoods that are experiencing a lot of infill. Have you been, you know, a big argument for infill, among many other things, is that it can be really helpful for the tax base because, you know, you have the denser housing…
Reed:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
And then you can take more taxes from that. Has that conversation come up in your discussions with, constituents at all?
Reed:
Yeah, I mean, every day, if I don't get an email, a phone call, or somebody wants to talk about infill, it's not a regular day for me, Stephanie, And that's just the, that's the reality of my ward. A lot of development is happening and it's, and it's happened pretty quick here, right? But a lot of people are, yeah, I mean, it did help the residential tax base. We did see a big lift last year on that, and we'll probably see a big lift this year on that. And I think, you know, as I look out my window at my office here on Stoney Plain Road, 150th Street, we've got a great opportunity where the LRT is going right through an area, right? An area that's been really hit hard by construction and a whole bunch of other fact overs the last decade. But what a great opportunity, of a place to develop, where, you know, I think with transit, Edmontonians is like, if you gotta walk 20 minutes to take a bus or to take the LRT, and maybe you gotta wait, you don't know, it becomes a harder thing to do and it's like, "I'll just jump in my car."
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Reed:
"It's just more convenient." Right? But if you're living, like, kind of right off a line in an area that's close to some great neighborhoods, close to river valley, hopefully some good commercial, around there, and you can just know, like, "Oh, I can hop out anytime and I know that train's gonna be there within five minutes," now we got something, right? Now we're cooking with something, and that's really how we get people to start taking different modes of transportation. So my, you know, one of my big focuses is, like, rally for the road and really developing Stoney Plain Road from 142nd to 156. And we got a few buildings knocked down already, which is great to see, 'cause that will lead to development, and I'm kinda working one by one with lots and developers to try to see what they need to really get that residential done, whether it's kind of multifamily towers, commercial mixed in, but we've got a bit of a blank slate here that we can work with. And I think that's a really cool opportunity and, I'm pushing hard to kinda get that vibrancy back, even better than I think what it was on something like Stoney Plain Road. But it kinda goes to, you know, some of our conversations with… … you know, getting to the RSM zoning and pushing that on nodes and corridors, and maybe that hasn't been as large of a focus or priority for us in the past, and I think there's a big opportunity to do that right. And you're, you know, you're in, you're still, in these neighborhoods, you're still developing to the tax base. But if it makes you a bit closer to, you know, a frequent, transit route, I think, I think that's a good thing, and I think a lot of people would welcome that.
Stephanie:
What does success look like for this budget? You know, where would we be in four years if you got, like, everything you wished for in the budget?
Reed:
Yeah. I mean, I think success really looks like one, we've gotta, we've gotta signal to Edmontonians that tax rates are going down, right? I think, I think we kinda have to do that to show that we understand, you know, all the pressures that get put on from property taxes, from rent and everything. So I think we, I think we have to show that we're doing that, and we're, and we're really kind of taking steps to make sure efficiency is done at the best way we can, which is not an easy job in this city at all. So I think you have to do that, and I think you have to really identify the priorities and the services that most Edmontonians want, right? And that we're doing those, and we're doing those well, right? So those are, like, those are two hard things to do. Like, you're gonna bring taxes down but you wanna make sure, you know, the services that are most important, that we hear from the engagement surveys and we hear from our constituents are still done to a level, that's kind of satisfaction and people are really acceptable with, right? So that's, to me, kind of what success looks like. But I think in the bigger picture, you know, and I've always said, 'cause even the mayor asks me that, kinda when I first started, like, "What does success look like in your four-year term?" And I think it's really kinda building, that trust between Edmontonians and city hall and their councillors that, like, "Hey, these are the things that are important to me, and here are the actions you're taking, and here's the dollars you're putting behind these things," right? So I really wanna get to that level where it's like, you know, hey, the city's like, thing is going great. Like, we're spending money on the things that are important, the vibes are high, there's a lot of momentum. And once that kind of momentum starts, it's really hard to kinda slow it down and stop it, but we need to get, we need to get those signals out to the public that, you know, we're listening, we're taking actions, we heard you, and we're investing in the things that you think are important, right? So that's the end of the day, is, you know, I want people, I want people to feel great about this city, should be proud of it. It's an amazing place. There's so much opportunity. There's so many good things here, and I want them to have trust in us and trust in me that we're making the best decisions for them. And, you know, when they're, when they're traveling, they're talking up Edmonton and they're proud to do it. We're pretty humble on that. But we gotta brag more, and when people come here, they wanna show it off, right? That's kinda the end-day end-day success, you know. There's a whole bunch of layers, how we get there and how we do it, but, if we could do that, I would think I would be, pretty happy.
Stephanie:
Awesome. All right, well, before I let you go, is there anything else that you wanted to say in the last couple of minutes we have here?
Reed:
No. I mean, hey, I'm a big fan of the show. I love what you guys are doing. We need more people talking about municipal government affects everybody's daily life in so many ways. So, you know, and it, and it's hard to follow and to understand unless you're kind of in the chair or in your chair following along every day. So keep doing the great work. I'm happy to come on anytime. Really appreciate all the work you're doing.
Stephanie:
Aw, thank you. And thank you for coming on and sharing really interesting insights. Like, I love getting to know a little bit more about how these decisions are made. So this was very interesting for me.
Reed:
Appreciate it.
Mack:
All right. That was fascinating, Stephanie. How are you feeling about that conversation now? What did you take away?
Stephanie:
Yeah, I just I was kind of surprised about how much we focused on, like, industrial and business and kind of the balance you have to have there of keeping businesses here. And one way to do that, potentially, is by lowering their taxes or keeping taxes low, but at the same time, businesses and industrial are a huge source of revenue. So you can't lower them too much, or else what's the point of even having them? I, but we, yeah, we talked a lot about businesses. I really also loved hearing what he had to say about vibrancy and kind of, like, the pride in Edmonton, that he wants people to have. You know, at the end of the day, that's The feelings of a city are really important, and even if things are, like, if every road was perfectly paved and every train and bus was there perfectly on time and the garbage was always taken away perfectly but there was no life or vibrancy in the city, I don't know if people would still love living here. And I'm interested to see what happens with the Stony Plain Road area, like, the Rally for the Road stuff that he's talking about. But yeah, should all be very interesting, and I'm excited to see what comes out of this budget.
Mack:
That idea that we need to think more broadly about what makes our city great came through in the interview last week with Coun. Paquette, too, so really interesting to hear both the experienced councillor and relatively new one sort of aligned on some of those things.
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Mack:
Gonna be a very interesting budget time in the fall, Stephanie. We've got more budget coverage coming up over the weeks and months ahead, but this concludes our two-part series with, a couple of councillors as we head into their summer break. They're on summer break now as you're listening to this. They're back in early August. Speaking Municipally will continue with new episodes right here every week. Until then, I'm Mack.
Stephanie:
I'm Stephanie.
Reed:
And I'm Reed Clarke.
Mack:
And we're...
All:
Speaking Municipally.