Q&A: 'An Edmonton for all of us': Affordability is top priority, mayor says
Sohi says zoning changes helped build more housing types in more neighbourhoods
In his fourth year as mayor of Edmonton, Amarjeet Sohi says he and other members of city council have managed to build more housing, maintain core services, invest in transit and keep the city affordable.
Appropriately enough for the former bus driver, the mayor did his year-end interview with CBC while riding from Mill Woods to downtown on the Valley Line Southeast LRT, which opened in November 2023.
Along the way, he talked about his focus on continuing these trends in the final 10 months of his term.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Progress on transit
You have a long relationship with transit. How has it changed over 20 years and where do you see it going?
The opening of the Valley Line Southeast LRT is very near and dear to my heart because I worked so hard to get this project going when I was on city council. Now to see it in operation and close to 1.2 million people use this line already. So that is obviously helping with mobility, affordability and providing people with choices — how they want to move around our city.
And also the bus network has grown considerably. We saw a 34 per cent increase in our bus ridership passenger growth over from last year to this year.
People often say that they feel transit isn't safe enough. What do you say to that?
People's personal experiences are what they are. And one incident is too many.
So anyone who has experienced violence or discomfort and disorder on transit, that's their personal experience. I want to acknowledge that but at the same time, we are making it safer. And data will tell you that it's getting better and the ridership is growing and the more people using transit system actually is the best way to make it more safer.
Dealing with encampments
There has been a crackdown on encampments over the past year. The police, in conjunction with the city, started closing encampments and that displaced quite a few people. Do you agree with that tactic?
Whenever you remove encampments, I hear that from communities, that you're basically dispersing people into other neighbourhoods. Yes, encampments are not safe, they pose a huge safety hazard for neighbourhoods, for people who live in them. But without building more homes, without having more treatment facilities, detox facilities, without having more interim transitional housing, we will continue to deal with symptoms instead of actually looking at fixing the problem that we need to fix.
Conflict about bike lanes
There is conflict between groups of people about bike lanes. Can you talk about council's decision to spend millions of dollars on bike lanes?
Building transportation network is a core responsibility of the municipality, whether we build roads, bridges, public transit, bus service or active modes of transportation. Because Edmontonians, not all of them have the ability to drive because of their socioeconomic situations — they can't afford to buy a vehicle or they can't afford gas or insurance costs or other costs related to private transportation. So they deserve a mode of transportation that is affordable for them, that is safe for them.
And it's a fraction of the money that we actually invest on the overall investment we're making into the road network.
Affordable housing
We're passing by Bonnie Doon and Holyrood and there's a lot of development here. When we talk about affordable housing, how much of this falls into that category?
I would say one of my biggest highlights of 2024, that in Edmonton we have built more homes and built them faster than any other major urban centre in Canada.
We have removed zoning regulations to spur more infill including up to eight units of apartments, small apartment buildings that you can build in mature neighbourhoods. So we are doing what we can in our capacity to empower private sector to build more market-oriented homes and we are seeing the results.
Looking ahead
At the end of your term, what will you be remembered for?
I would say my role has been to ensure that we continue to invest in our core municipal public services and make sure that those services remain affordable. I would say that that is one of my biggest focuses over the last three years: maintaining affordability, continue to invest in core municipal services, build more homes and build a more equitable and fair city for everyone.
And my slogan has always been we need to build "an Edmonton for all of us."
Do you plan to run again for mayor?
I don't know.
During the break I'm going to sit down with my family. It is not my personal decision. It is a family decision. So we'll have that conversation.
I also need to reflect on the changes the province has made for Bill 20 — introduction of political parties. They have created a significant advantage for people running under a party banner and they have created, I would say, significant disadvantage for those who want to run independent. So that will also go into my consideration for my decision.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
