Council ponders new infrastructure committee
Edmonton city council will vote in mid-March on whether to establish a standing committee focused on infrastructure before the municipal election in October.
At a meeting on Feb. 26, councillors voted 9-4 in favour of exploring amendments to council's committee bylaw to allow it to establish an infrastructure committee. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he supports having a dedicated committee to help manage the city's infrastructure budget, which is about $8 billion over four years. "That's a lot of money we invest, so I see a value in … creating a standalone committee," he said.
The proposed committee would be composed of four councillors, plus the mayor as chair, and would operate similarly to council's existing urban planning, utility, community and public services, and executive committees. The new committee's mandate would be the "delivery, renewal, and decommissioning of city infrastructure, including financial implications of capital projects and capital project design and delivery."
Generally, the urban planning committee currently sets direction for major city-planning projects; the executive committee, meanwhile, provides input on the budget and contracts for these projects. The proposed infrastructure committee would take some workload away from both. Administration identified upcoming reports that would be moved from existing committees to the proposed new committee: A report about the closure of some driveways or parking lot entrances to allow for active transportation; a report about updates to complete streets guidelines; and a report about operational efficiencies in capital projects.
The new committee could begin holding meetings before the municipal election in October, and even as soon as April 1. At first, the committee would only have council members and the mayor, with industry professionals like architects and engineers added later. The two-phase approach is so that the committee can be established quickly, as industry professionals would need to be interviewed and vetted, city staff explained at the Feb. 26 meeting.
But Councillors Aaron Paquette, Jennifer Rice, Erin Rutherford, and Jo-Anne Wright voted against the motion. Rutherford, councillor for Ward Anirniq, said during the Feb. 26 meeting that she was "deeply uncomfortable" with the idea of creating a committee within the timelines expected. "We're rushing governance and that's concerning to me," she said.
Rutherford also expressed concern that creating a new committee could lead to more work for city administration. She said many city staff members have told her they are working overtime to create reports for council. "The reality is that we have reached a saturation point with the capacity of our administration with what we are asking them to generate," she said. "Just the other day at public hearing we asked administration to go away and do a report on the creation of a shared use path in the river valley. I can only imagine the random motions that would come out of a committee."
Meanwhile, Paquette, councillor for Ward Dene, said he was unsure what problems the proposed committee will solve, as reports about infrastructure are already discussed at other committee meetings.
The new committee would result in changes to council's schedule and the makeup of the utility committee. While only a handful of councillors are voting members of each committee, many councillors attend most committee meetings so they can stay informed and ask questions about reports. Councillors said it was important that committee meetings didn't overlap. If council approves the bylaw amendments, the utility committee would have five members instead of six, to help with scheduling and workload. Council is scheduled to vote on the amended bylaw on March 18.
