 Summer in the City - Message from the Mayor
As we settle into summer, I hope you take the time to enjoy the continuous stream of festivals and events that make us Canada’s 2007 Cultural Capital.
We’ve had an outstanding year so far. Whether you wandered through the Works Art & Design festival, watched FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer, or were part of a record-breaking year at Capital Ex, you will have noticed that Edmonton’s festival city reputation is well deserved.
And as we look forward to more summer time traditions like the Folk Music Festival, the Fringe Festival, Heritage Days, Eskimo games or just enjoying the incredible energy of our city with your friends and family, I hope you have a safe and pleasant summer.
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 Largest Infrastructure Investment in History
Even though we’re in the midst of our holiday season, it’s clear that the City’s efforts to keep pace with our incredible growth are ongoing.
This year we will spend close to $1 billion on new roads, an aggressive LRT extension, new bus rapid transit routes, neighbourhood revitalization and recreation centres.
This is the largest single infrastructure investment council has ever made in our city -- keeping pace with the city’s record breaking growth.
 But as billion dollar capital budgets become standard - and as new infrastructure and growth continue to drive operating costs, it’s apparent our property tax base cannot keep pace. We need to work with our provincial and federal governments to ensure long-term sustainable funding is in place for municipalities – and we need to look at ways to ensure a larger percentage of the overall taxes our citizens pay, stay in our city, where right now only about 8 cents of every tax dollar funds municipalities.
Plus the new Regional Growth Management process, which the Premier established, must succeed and bring forward a much more cohesive and efficient planning and spending structures for infrastructure and services across this region. Edmontonians also want to see a much fairer sharing of costs across our region where right now 750,000 Edmontonians pay for infrastructure depended on by over 1 million residents of the Edmonton region.
For more information on Edmonton’s Infrastructure Strategy, visit www.edmonton.ca/infrastructure. |
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More Affordable Housing Units on the Way
The city has stepped up to ensure that more residents have a safe and affordable place to live by approving the development of 3,878 new affordable housing units in the city. |
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The $169.8 million plan includes:
- offering more fixed rate rent supplement units
- developing secondary suites
- buying a motel to help newcomers as they look for a place to live
- building more transitional housing to relieve pressure on shelters and,
- getting more housing units available quickly by providing land for mobile homes.
For information about the city’s new plan visit http://www.edmonton.ca/citygov/newsrls/rls0391.pdf |
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