[The_Cat]

Edmonton could grow to 1.25M people in two years, says administration

Edmonton city council was briefed on the city's growth pressures and potential solutions during intensive orientation overview

edmontonjournal.com

 

[TravellingChris]

Write to those wayward councillors.

Make sure they understand they just made a big mistake.

Very poor timing on their part.

On the contrary, their timing was excellent. They've just been elected or re-elected. Four years is an eternity in politics.

Yes, some of their constituents are angry now, but will anyone care in October 2029? By that time, new issues and concerns will have taken centre stage and nobody will remember anything about who did or didn't show up for a given proclamation one month after the 2025 election.

 

[buildings]

No more Christmas tree collection in Edmonton

Edmontonians getting rid of real Christmas trees will now be their own responsibility. The city says getting rid of the collection will save the city money.

www.ctvnews.ca

I fear this will have some bad outcomes. In the past the city would pass all the collected trees through the wood chipper and use the resultant mulch for weed control in the many shrub beds in the parks and roadways. Hope the money they save in this way will pay for all the herbicides to replace it. Also, you just know that many of those trees will end up in ditches and the side of the road where the CIty will have to go pick them up anyway.

 

[TAS]

Knack met with Smith. Glad he hasn't forgotten about the $330 million.

 

[Gronk!]

On the agenda: Surplus, capital budget, Winspear parking

This week, council is set to receive an update on the operating and capital budgets and discuss a potential parking revenue agreement with the Winspear Centre.

edmonton.taproot.news

• Of the 85 projects in the 2023-2026 capital budget, 80 are within the acceptable tolerance for budget and 78 are within the acceptable tolerance for schedule, according to a report set to be presented to council on Dec. 8. The city is 61% delayed on its work to rehabilitate the Iron Works building, 28% behind on the Imagine Jasper Avenue project, and 120% behind on the downtown district energy project, as that project has increased in scope. The Enterprise Commons project is 45% over budget, the Heritage Valley land development project is 59% over budget, and the Capital Line LRT south extension is 34% over budget.

 

[kcantor]

While not disagreeing with the percentages, they’re not completely percentages of equals. A $25,000 exterior slab outside of a fire station is a capital project that gets the same rankings as Jasper New Vision or the District Energy projects.

 

[kcantor]

^
I’ve often wondered what the percentages would be if they were weighted to total dollars and not individual projects, ie if you had $500 million in total project values and a $200 million dollar project was over budget and was late, then only a maximum 60% of your capital budget expenditures could be considered on/under budget and on time.