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David A said:
Thank goodness for that. On one hand, I get that there is a steep curve for new councilors and a lot of pressure. But at this point she either needs to get her act together or go.

Several other mostly new councilors have been underwhelming (although none quite this bad) in my opinion too. I hope this situation causes all to reflect on doing better. If not the electorate will deal with them.
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Council as a whole and the mayor for sure have been one of the poorest quality councils we have had in recent memory, and we have had our share of poor quality councils.
 
CaptainBL said:
Council as a whole and the mayor for sure have been one of the poorest quality councils we have had in recent memory, and we have had our share of poor quality councils.
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The lack of any desire to attract business to the City is what pisses me off most with the Council. They seem to be more concerned with other things.
 
I think over 80% of council has no actual business experience and the ones that do are not influential on this.

During his election, I recall the mayor said some nice things that at least indicated he thought about it a bit, which is more than I can say for most of council, but I haven't seen much serious follow through yet.
 
David A said:
I think over 80% of council has no actual business experience and the ones that do are not influential on this.
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Yep and there is a significant lack of anyone with experience in a leadership role in the private sector (aside from maybe Cartmell). Not to say that's a requirement for a good councillor, but the best councils will have a variety of backgrounds and individuals rather than nearly all of them being cut from the Jan Riemer cloth like we have now.

Our current council doesn't really have anyone in tune with the business community here. I wish Cheryl Watson would have tried for councillor before going for the mayor seat. Her stance on the VLW aside, she would have brought a better balance to this council.
 
David A said:
Thank goodness for that. On one hand, I get that there is a steep curve for new councilors and a lot of pressure. But at this point she either needs to get her act together or go.

Several other mostly new councilors have been underwhelming (although none quite this bad) in my opinion too. I hope this situation causes all to reflect on doing better. If not the electorate will deal with them.
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The reporting on her staff turn over and her behaviour points to why she is so uniformed.
 
northlands said:
Yep and there is a significant lack of anyone with experience in a leadership role in the private sector (aside from maybe Cartmell). Not to say that's a requirement for a good councillor, but the best councils will have a variety of backgrounds and individuals rather than nearly all of them being cut from the Jan Riemer cloth like we have now.

Our current council doesn't really have anyone in tune with the business community here. I wish Cheryl Watson would have tried for councillor before going for the mayor seat. Her stance on the VLW aside, she would have brought a better balance to this council.
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In all fairness the council isnt the principle body to actively woo businesses. Its the job of the economy focused organizations the city creates and funds.

It seems to me they did a fairly good job with the budget situation they have and a province that has returned to downloading expenses back onto the cities.
 
Yeggy said:
In all fairness the council isnt the principle body to actively woo businesses. Its the job of the economy focused organizations the city creates and funds.

It seems to me they did a fairly good job with the budget situation they have and a province that has returned to downloading expenses back onto the cities.
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Agreed. The province has ministries specifically about attracting business to Alberta (although most of these MLAs are from Calgary) as well as organizations like Alberta Innovates etc.

Aren't organizations like Edmonton Global and Economic Development Edmonton our main municipal bodies?

I believe the mayor should play a role, but in terms of the rest of council I believe the best they can do is to ensure everything else in the city is conducive to businesses wanting to set up here.
 
TAS said:
Agreed. The province has ministries specifically about attracting business to Alberta (although most of these MLAs are from Calgary) as well as organizations like Alberta Innovates etc.

Aren't organizations like Edmonton Global and Economic Development Edmonton our main municipal bodies?

I believe the mayor should play a role, but in terms of the rest of council I believe the best they can do is to ensure everything else in the city is conducive to businesses wanting to set up here.
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frankly, we need the city to run. We need them in their boring committee meetings approving and guiding work

Frankly
 
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Unfortunately, the mayor is one vote. Yes, he can influence and lead council to some extent, but for something to really work they have to buy in and be involved too.
 
Not pro-business?!
This is the most pro-business council we have ever seen! They removed minimum parking, they liberalized the zoning bylaw, and they are afraid to fight developers on the unending, city-killing sprawl. This City Council is too pro-business!
 
trevorhayden said:
Not pro-business?!
This is the most pro-business council we have ever seen! They removed minimum parking, they liberalized the zoning bylaw, and they are afraid to fight developers on the unending, city-killing sprawl. This City Council is too pro-business!
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why don’t you tell us what you really think? :)

I also think you need to differentiate between pro-development and pro-business.
 
trevorhayden said:
Not pro-business?!
This is the most pro-business council we have ever seen! They removed minimum parking, they liberalized the zoning bylaw, and they are afraid to fight developers on the unending, city-killing sprawl. This City Council is too pro-business!
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Isn't one of the primary aims of the zoning bylaw precisely to reign in sprawl?
 
trevorhayden said:
Not pro-business?!
This is the most pro-business council we have ever seen! They removed minimum parking, they liberalized the zoning bylaw, and they are afraid to fight developers on the unending, city-killing sprawl. This City Council is too pro-business!
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I would agree there is a fairly cozy relationship between council and developers now, maybe a bit more so now, but that has long been the situation.

I realize being pro developer and pro business can be confused, but they are not exactly the same thing.

It kind of reminds of a previous BC government political party that received an inordinate amount of contributions from the real estate industry. It was lucrative and worked for a while, but the narrow focus excluded a lot of other people and so that party was eventually voted out.
 
Whattagame said:
Isn't one of the primary aims of the zoning bylaw precisely to reign in sprawl?
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It will not do that in my opinion. Zoning isn't really a tool for that. It will make for more development choices in mature areas, and we are slowly shifting more of our total units built every year to infill, but to actually curb sprawl would be to actually curb sprawl itself -- not approving new ASPs, etc. That has consequences. Changing the zoning doesn't really move the needle that much.
 
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