Former Edmonton mayors say situation downtown, homelessness is ‘heartbreaking’
Posted September 15, 2026 11:28 pm.
Five former Edmonton mayors discussed the state of the city on various topics from construction, LRT, downtown public safety, and taxes on Tuesday.
Amarjeet Sohi, who spoke virtually, Don Iveson, Stephen Mandel, Bill Smith and Jan Reimer spoke to a packed ballroom of business leaders, each giving their own take on where Edmonton is at and the challenges it faces.
The event was called: “Edmonton Then and Now: The Leaders Who Shaped the City.”
“I’m still haunted by the fact that we haven’t been able to end homelessness,” said Iveson, who was mayor from 2013 to 2021. “And sometimes in the comment section, which you shouldn’t read, people say, ‘how’s that 10-year plan to end homelessness going?’ Obviously it’s not going very well. This should be heartbreaking to all of us.
“And it has consequences for our downtown. It has consequences for the felt sense of safety in our community.”
“The easiest budget to balance in the City of Edmonton is the operating budget,” said Smith, who was mayor from 1995 to 2004. “But you have to be determined to cut out stuff that you don’t need and can’t afford now.”
“We really need to build relationships with the business community, the investment community, the neighbourhoods,” added Reimer, who led Edmonton from 1989 to 1995. “Our neighbourhoods are our strength. The relationship of council with one another.”
But it was Mandel who was the most blunt and critical of the current city council and Mayor Andrew Knack.
“Tears come to my eyes when I see what’s going on,” said Mandel, who was mayor from 2004 to 2013. “The only thing downtown that has anything is the arena. If you didn’t have the arena downtown, you could blow it up and no one would know.”
Mandel called downtown Edmonton a “crap hole.”
The mayors were also asked what they would do differently if they got back into the chair at Edmonton City Hall.
“I’d push people back, I’d have all the city employees come back to work,” Mandel said. “This is craziness that a whole bunch of them – I don’t know how many, but several thousand – are sitting at home, and you can’t get anything done.”
“Adapting to the changing severe weather,” said Iveson. “We saw this coming, this season with the storms, and the city’s doing nation-leading work around managing storm water. I think we have to accelerate that.”
“The city needs to be out front with AI, what they’re doing, what they should be doing,” said Smith. “Is it dangerous? Yeah, I guess it could be. I mean, I use it instead of going to the doctor now.”
