Edmonton-area municipalities must work together collaboratively if the region is to prosper, says Doug Lagore, chief executive officer with the Capital Region Board.
Speaking to the Urban Development Institute, Lagore said that the 24 regional municipalities must set aside individual agendas and agree on a collaborative approach on issues that affect everyone.
“We will achieve far more as a region than any municipality can ever hope to achieve,” said Lagore, former city manager for Spruce Grove. “In order to be globally competitive at drawing investment, industry and people to our region, we must provide all the needed elements – energy, efficient transit and transportation systems, stable government, a skilled labour force, good schools, affordable housing (and) support for cultural and social development.”
Lagore said the “elephant in the room” is that Edmonton provides a disproportionate share of the region’s services, and that neighbouring municipalities must discuss how to properly share the cost of those regional services.
“Responsibility amongst member municipalities, the province and regional stakeholders must be shared because everyone profits from major developments,” Lagore said.
Lagore said that politicians must be visionary, which can mean making unpopular decisions. He called for communities to increase population densities with higher-density development. This can be unpopular with residents who prefer to live in traditional single-family neighbourhoods.
“Are we going to continue to grow outward instead of upward,” he challenged urban developers and politicians, “or will we choose to reduce urban sprawl in favour of higher-density development? We cannot afford to keep doing what we’ve done.”
He said that densification makes municipal services such as transit more efficient and less costly, and communities more sustainable.
Lagore said the region’s population will grow by 250,000 over the next 10 years, requiring housing, jobs, roads, transit and other services for an expected 1.4 million people.
Lagore said that the three biggest issues that the CRB and the region must address over the next five years are articulating the board’s vision to demonstrate how its work is supportive of regional goals, strengthening regional relationships to more efficiently deliver core services and completing – and updating as required – the capital region growth plan.
Lagore said the growth plan – which is only half completed – calls for population densities approximately 30 per cent greater than currently exist and 10 per cent higher than existing municipal targets.
He said municipalities have been amending their statutory plans to conform to CRB-imposed targets, but developers must also be creative in their allocation of densities if those targets are to be achieved.
Lagore said the CRB will be updating its regional growth plan (which is targeted for completion in 2015), push for more affordable housing development, assessing the need and value of a regional transit service and communicating to residents and other stakeholders the CRB’s purpose, objectives and activities.
Lagore challenged local municipal leaders to “stop being politicians focused on potholes and instead be statesmen.” This requires them, he added, to look “at the big picture, in other words what can be done for the greater good of the region … Municipal boundaries should be invisible when you are speaking from a regional perspective.”
Wayne Rothe is a Spruce Grove alderman and former journalist.
