Erin’s Reflections

• Photo taken in the neighbourhood of Griesbach located in Ward Anirniq. Beautiful community garden!

This week, I’d like to reflect on the importance of protecting public services. I put forward a motion to pause the wind-down of the City’s Aggregate Recycling Program - in other words a program that takes construction materials and recycles them to be used again in other construction projects. While I get that this topic isn’t super exciting, the decision could have some MAJOR impacts on construction projects going forward in both costs and timelines.

All 3 sectors - public, private, and non-profit are essential to our economy and community well-being. However, these three sectors serve very different, yet important, purposes. Public sector provides equal access to services, essential infrastructure, and programming that ensures public good. The public sector, at times, is also the regulator - keeping private rates lower. The public is our shareholder and who we are accountable to. I know the public sector doesn’t always get it right. That’s why the roles of elected representatives are so important to bring forward the public's voices and challenge decisions that may go against public good.

My motion called pause the wind-down of the Aggregate Recycling Program and have a Council discussion. This is a very reasonable motion and provides due diligence on this decision so I’m pleased that this motion passed.  

Here are a few recent articles  from CTV and Edmonton Journal - to get more information on what’s potentially at stake.