Mayoral hopeful Tim Cartmell unveiled his slate of 12 Better Edmonton candidates on June 3. In a little over a month, there’s disconnect and cracks appearing in the new municipal political party. Read More
Candidates on Cartmell’s slate hesitate to give their leader votes of confidence in wake of infill controversy
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Candidates on Cartmell’s slate hesitate to give their leader votes of confidence in wake of infill controversy
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Mayoral hopeful Tim Cartmell unveiled his slate of 12 Better Edmonton candidates on June 3. In a little over a month, there’s disconnect and cracks appearing in the new municipal political party.
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This all comes in the wake of city council’s 6-5 vote to keep the cap on mid-block infill developments in mature neighbourhoods at eight. It came after a lengthy public hearing in which nearly 100 speakers were on the list. Cartmell was on vacation and did not participate in the vote, which likely would have been enough to move the cap to six units.
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On the first day of the public hearing, Cartmell proposed a motion that called for a moratorium on infill, which his fellow councillors ruled to be out of order. It was later revealed that council had previously received legal advice that a moratorium would likely contravene the Municipal Government Act.
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On Thursday, Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz suggested that Cartmell’s absence for a key vote, and his proposal of the moratorium motion despite legal advice not to do so, would have had him charged under council’s old code of conduct.
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“He’s put out misinformation,” said Janz. “He’s poured gas on the fire, and he’s tried to make this a winning election issue for him at the cost of good governance and at the cost of good city planning.
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“If the code of conduct was still in place, I do not doubt for a moment that he would have been found guilty of contravening it, for misinforming the public.”
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But Janz said council no longer has that option, as the province has shut down municipal powers to enforce codes of conduct.
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Keith Gerein: Alberta government unwise to abolish conduct rules for city councillors
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Edmonton councillors blast Cartmell for failed infill motion
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City council’s summer break was set to begin on Monday, but the public hearing was extended due to the sheer volume of public speakers. Janz said the number of speakers on the list “was less than 30” until Cartmell went public with his moratorium plan. Cartmell and fellow Coun. Sarah Hamilton told council last week they could not attend the Tuesday continuation because of previously scheduled vacation plans, and neither would have access to the internet while the meeting went on.
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Kandola: Need more density, not a moratorium
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Harman Singh Kandola, a homebuilder, lawyer and former board member of the city’s Anti-Racism Advisory Committee, is one of Better Edmonton’s star candidates. He’s running in Ward Sspomitapi. And he said that Edmonton needs to embrace density, not place a moratorium on it.
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“We need to embrace urbanism,” said Kandola. “You can see we’re falling behind in term of our targets when it comes to housing. Council engaged in unnecessary debate, using resources and time. I would like to have seen council let the market dictate what gets built.”
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Kandola chided Janz, who initially proposed the move from eight to six at the committee level, “for making this an election issue, when it didn’t need to be. Edmontonians are more worried about affordability, and if they can make ends meet and be able to have a place to live. Watching councillors melt down in the face of some opposition is not good leadership.”
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Janz’s motion came in the wake of community outcries from Glenora and Crestwood, where residents are planning to band together to place restrictive covenants on their land titles, which could neutralize developers’ ability to build multi-family buildings on those properties.
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As for his party leader’s motion?
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“I don’t think it was necessary,” said Kandola. “I take a market-based approach. Investors want to have confidence that the regulatory framework is stable. A moratorium is something that would have potentially jeopardized that. I understand the point that Tim was trying to make, that it was to take time and re-evaluate, to take a step back. But I don’t think that the way it was played out was they way he intended it to.”
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Clarke: Listening to the ward is his priority
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Reed Clarke, a former partner in the Edmonton Stingers and CEO of Sport Edmonton, is running in Ward Nakota Isga and is another of Better Edmonton’s star candidates. He spent much of the public hearing in the gallery. When asked point blank for a vote of confidence in Cartmell, Clarke shifted the focus to his own campaign.
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“I can only speak to what I’m doing in trying to represent the ward and all the residents of Nakota Isga,” said Clarke. “That has to be my No. 1 priority, to be listening to them and taking that feedback, hopefully back to city council. I’m more focused on representing them and making sure their feedback is going to the right places. I have to stick to that plan.”
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Clarke said he’s met “thousands” of residents so far during his campaign, and the infill debate is something he’s hearing about over and over. And he said council has to come to grips with how fast eight-unit mid-block developments are changing the mature communities in his ward.
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“This is a massive issue,” he said. “It’s huge for people in really any mature neighbourhood, but even some of the other neighbourhoods as well. In speaking to people at the doors, I haven’t found one person who is against density. I haven’t seen anyone who doesn’t believe the city needs to densify. They just have concerns and they have ways in which they want to see this happen. I think some of that argument has been lost, as I saw at the city council meetings.”
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He said he was concerned to hear councillors talk about the city’s need to better “bring the public along” when it came to the new zoning bylaw, which is just over a year old.
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“It makes sense to have an approach where you say ‘We don’t know better than you do on these things and we’ve just got to convince you to come along on this.’ That language is very troubling to me.”
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Doyle: An ‘unfortunate’ event
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Joshua Doyle, who will be Better Edmonton’s candidate in Ward papastew, where he’ll face off against Janz, gave Cartmell his endorsement.
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“I’m incredibly confident as a member of Better Edmonton,” said Doyle. “This particular event was unfortunate, but this is a tribulation in the entire campaign, in which there will be many. Our team is built on the idea that we will come together and fight for Edmontonians and hear their concerns and work as a team in these kinds of tough situations.
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“Everybody knew Tim was going on vacation and these plans were public and planned for a long, long time. Tim supported the motion to have this important part (the eight-to-six debate) moved to the front of the agenda and council voted against that. And then it took them forever to figure out when they wanted to do it, when they wanted to get to it. Finally they moved to Tuesday, when they knew he wasn’t going to be there. They decided that was the appropriate time and, unfortunately, Tim’s one vote turned out to be a very important one.”
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He said the current council simply can’t handle the zoning issue. And he believes moving from eight to six was a proposal that didn’t go far enough in the first place.
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“This went on so long because of the dysfunction in council, ” said Doyle. “All because of ideology, because of political tactics. It’s a slap in the face to Edmontonians, to watch council struggle to achieve so little and, at the same time, ignore what the people are really saying. It took them five days to get to the point that everybody was waiting for. And, then, they couldn’t agree on even reducing from eight to six, which really is an insignificant amount. People I am hearing from say that does nothing.”
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Janz said in hindsight, he recognizes that future debates about infill should be tied to lot sizes. He said some larger lots can accommodate the bigger projects, while others are too small for those sorts of developments. Coming up with blanket limits doesn’t work.
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Cartmell’s voting record before the election campaign showed that he was supportive of infill projects. And his party includes the likes of Kandola and Nicholas Rheubottom, the former executive director of the Infill Development in Edmonton Association.
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Janz said the moratorium pitch was an about-face for Cartmell. He said the return from summer break will be telling.
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“I don’t know which Tim is going to show up. Is it the Tim of four years ago who is committed to City Plan, committed to infill, committed to more housing choices? Or is it going to be ‘Cartmell for mayor?’ Tim has to decide.”
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Better Edmonton’s campaign manager confirmed that Cartmell is away and unavailable for comment.
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