Will Edmonton neighbourhood renewal be scaled back?

Edmonton’s neighbourhoods have seen renewal work scale up over the last several years, but a tough budget could force city council to scale back.

On Tuesday, councillors heard from officials, as well as those who live in certain neighbourhoods, about how crucial renewal has been.

“It’s changed the design of the streets and sidewalks to make it safer for kids to go to school and for people to move around,” said Conrad Nobert, who lives in Old Strathcona in central Edmonton.

Nobert was in front of city leaders Tuesday touting the benefits neighbourhood renewal and redesign have had on the lives of residents.

“They came into my neighbourhood and redesigned it, gave the design a rethink, and then built something really great,” he said.

Edmonton’s mayor tells CityNews the program has ramped up in recent years.

“I remember when we started this program in 2009, we were only repairing one neighbourhood per year – and we have 300 neighbourhoods in our city,” Amarjeet Sohi said. “Now we’re doing four to six neighbourhoods every year.”

Neighbourhood improvements come with big price tags for taxpayers. Edmonton city councillors now have to consider a reduction of funding with tough budget deliberations – something that could delay renewal by up to 20 years.

“I think scaling back by 25 per cent, that is going to have huge impact on communities and neighbourhoods,” Sohi said. “For me, that is not a goal. Could we do a little less? I’ll look into that. And we’ll have some ideas that I’m working on with council colleagues.”

Edmonton city council will begin budget talks next week.