If the rest of the province says yes in those questions, what might that mean for your city?

Well, what I think it means is we need to continue to remind our neighbors, both internally in the city of Edmonton and our neighbors outside the city, that we want to continue to be a welcoming city.

This is one of the most diverse cities across the country.

We have been welcoming people to our city for so very long, and that's something I'm so proud of.

It's something that I love to celebrate.

You know, we are host to the world's largest three-day festival that celebrates multiculturalism and heritage festival.

And that's what Edmonton shines for.

What would you like to see municipal and provincial governments do if these are issues that some Albertans are concerned about? How do you think they should be tackled?

How do you think that's going to have a ripple effect in the city of Edmonton?

Well, let's start by actually breaking down the results for those nine.

So even as I go through the numbers this morning, even question one, which had the greatest percentage of people saying yes to no, in Edmonton, more people said no than yes.

So this city, which is one of the most diverse cities in this province and in this country, has said yes.

that for all nine of those questions, we actually did say no to the nine in Edmonton.

And I think we need to be very careful about how those questions are approached going forward, because being such a diverse city, which welcomes so many new immigrants, which welcomes people from across the world, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe in, we are welcoming.

And we need to make sure that we don't start going down a path where we just try and try to find a scapegoat or where we try to find somebody that we can other in the next as we go forward on this.

So what does that mean?

That's the rub for me.

me.Yeah. And, and, and turn that around, right? Because I do see some people say, "Yeah, you know, this, this decision, it's the right one." Flip it around.

If tomorrow there was an NDP government and they overruled the decision of the Brooks City Council, how would you feel? Or let's talk about what the premier's been talking about for the last number of years.

If the federal government came in and told the, the premier of Alberta how they should be running Alberta, how many people would feel confident about that decision? How many people would feel that's the right thing? You know, at the end of the day, we need to focus on the issues that really matter to folks.

That's affordability, that's safety.

Uh, and I get, you know, there's still work that needs to be done.

There was always ...

So what is your plan going forward from here? How do you tackle this file as of this morning?

Where's your head at?

It's not often we get to do fact checks, so I need to take just a few moments to do a few fact checks.

Let's go.

Because she had so many opportunities to get the facts.

They had the opportunities to, in her words, figure it out.

But they didn't take the opportunity to get the facts.

When sent the facts by the city, they didn't take the opportunity to read them, which is why she just shared blatantly untrue information throughout the entirety of your interview.

What evidence have you seen that the infill policy actually was leading to easing the pressure on that

How does this, putting the brakes on infill or changing what we do with infill, how does that increase property tax and other costs to Edmontonians?

Sure.

Well, let's start with the housing affordability piece.

So really important to remind everyone that Edmonton is considered to be the most affordable major city in Canada.

That is something that we've been working on and we didn't get there by accident.

We got there with 15 years of dedicated land use decisions, five years of public engagement leading to the zoning bylaw.

And this is important because right now, one in eight homeowners are in core housing need where they're paying more.

So what is your plan going forward from here? How do you tackle this file as of this morning?

Andrew Knack, what, what's your reaction, uh, from, from the provincial capital?

Well, it's a reminder of what's at risk.

You know, this is not about a conversation about being an independent Alberta.

This is a conversation about, you know, the United States looking to just take us over, and that to me has been part of the challenge of this, is that this is a very dangerous path.

Uh, and again, the vast majority of Al- Edmontonians, the vast majority of Calgarians, the vast majority of Albertans don't want this.

And the fact that this is actually happening, where you have Republican operatives coming in to, to have these conversations, is really troubling and is a reminder about why we all need to be-

But what is your sense of the motivation in Edmonton? Because, as you say, people who want this referendum to h- to pass, to get to the real one, they're gonna show up.

Yes.

Andrew Knack, what, what's your reaction, uh, from, from the provincial capital?

Well, it's a reminder of what's at risk.

You know, this is not about a conversation about being an independent Alberta.

This is a conversation about, you know, the United States looking to just take us over, and that to me has been part of the challenge of this, is that this is a very dangerous path.

Uh, and again, the vast majority of Al- Edmontonians, the vast majority of Calgarians, the vast majority of Albertans don't want this.

And the fact that this is actually happening, where you have Republican operatives coming in to, to have these conversations, is really troubling and is a reminder about why we all need to be involved in the upcoming vote.

But what is your sense of the motivation in Edmonton? Because, as you say, people who want this referendum to, to pass, to get to the real one, they're gonna show up.

Yes.

How does it land with you in the Edmonton mayor's office?

Yeah, again, I would come back to just echoing everything Mayor Farkas said.

There are a few reasons why we are allowed and in some cases required to go into camera, but the vast majority of what we do is in public.

and should continue to be.

And it's messy at times.

Being public for our debates is messy.

You get to see how the sausage is made.

Is this top of mind for you at the AB Muniz Convention? Top of mind for you as you're talking to the province?

It's pretty harsh, Andrew.

Yeah, and I think it's tough because, of course, that's the one quote that has been getting all the attention from that.

We don't give attention to the quotes from the other mayors that had very different things to say.

And I get it.

That's how this works now.

We focus on the one that really has critiques to offer.

And we shouldn't ignore the challenges.

Can you explain that a little bit? And should we even be talking about it? Will this see the light of day?

What do you say to these business owners? Something meaningful that actually has verbs in it, Mayor.

Yeah.

Well, I, and thanks for playing that clip.

I actually went to Spilt just a couple nights ago.

It was a, it was a great experience, and didn't get a chance to chat with her, uh, directly, but hoping to visit again.

Um, I also spent the last, uh, during our summer recess, I was out doing some door-knocking of some of the downtown businesses, talking to them, hearing firsthand what they want to see, and, uh, very common themes.

So for the construction, a hundred percent.

What'd you think of that?

Your thoughts on how everything rolled out.

Yeah, I, I mean, I think city crews have done as good of a job as, as one could hope for.

I mean, I, I was outside when the Friday night storm hit.

I was over at Heritage, or, sorry, Hawrelak Park, and it was the most intense storm I've ever been caught in.

And a tree came down, uh, not too far away from where we were, uh, and yet, uh, you know, even with all of that sort of, you know, what felt like a flash flood and then a similar experience the next day, uh, city crews have been quick to respond.

Um, they've been able to try to remove trees where, uh, tree branches and impacts like that.

Um, so all I would say to folks is, you know, if you still see any remains of, of those storms, to contact 311 so the, the city crews can get to it.

Was that really needed, or did you just think that maybe we just have to say something and just move right on?

all right let's talk about something else the city did trying to recoup and trying to raise more money for city revenues um i know it's hard to say that you're wrong but you are coming out and saying that you were wrong when it comes to patio licensing fees about seven grand this year to open a outdoor space uh what's what's going to happen now

yeah and so what i had talked about is that i i had been comfortable with the idea of introducing a charge back to this point of you know i and i think you've made the comment even on parking it's a free ride the challenge is nothing is a free ride the question is what's the right combination of property taxes versus user fees and so for patios i had originally been comfortable introducing a charge because the way we used to pay for the traffic calming measures around patios, which was covered through our automated traffic enforcement, our photo radar revenue.

Since that was reduced by the provincial government, we now had a gap.

And so I said, okay, I'm comfortable with introducing a 50% charge because we have to make up that somewhere.

And I didn't want to put the full cost onto property taxpayers.

The issue was that since then, I've learned that there are additional charges above and beyond that $7,000, all the way to the point of one patio and one business owner I'd spoken with that shared an email that said they would be charged another $70,000 to open up their patio.

What? Wow.

Yes.

Where does that stand?

Yeah, because I think right now the process is quite cumbersome.

It feels like there's a lot of red tape.

We heard yesterday during that report that each red light camera we want to add back in requires about 150 pages of information.

submitted to the provincial government.

And we've been told on just the eight locations that have been requested for that, they still won't even review that information until September.

Who knows when a decision will be made? That is a very red tape heavy approach.

How likely is that? Where do we go from here?

so i know there is a request going to the city to say we need to bring it back at least in some locations which is something that is allowed under the legislation if you can make a case for it will the city be appealing to the province saying we need to bring this back you know as much as possible i'm sure you'd like to see it brought back the way it used to be where does that stand

Yeah, because I think right now the process is quite cumbersome.

It feels like there's a lot of red tape.

We heard yesterday during that report that each red light camera we want to add back in requires about 150 pages of information submitted to the provincial government.

And we've been told on just the eight locations that have been requested.

for that.

They still won't even review that information until September.

How likely is that? Where do we go from here?