Latest news with #ErinRutherford
CTV News
7 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Mayoral candidate Tim Cartmell apologizes after missing council vote on infill
Edmonton mayoral candidate and current city councillor Tim Cartmell is apologizing after missing a vote on infill. After days of debate on the issue in which councillors heard from hundreds of residents, a motion was passed to delay a decision until 2027 on whether to continue to allow eight units mid-block. The motion passed 6-5 on July 8, with councillors Michael Janz, Ashley Salvador, Andrew Knack, Jennifer Rice and Karen Principe in opposition. Cartmell had pledged to curb infill from eight units to six as part of his mayoral platform. He was absent from the vote on July 8. 'I regret missing the council meeting continuation last Monday. I know many people were counting on me to be there, and I apologize for letting them down,' he said in a statement issued Wednesday. Cartmell said it was necessary to miss the vote to spend time with his family. 'I had made family plans to go to a distant, remote place in eastern Canada. A place deliberately chosen because it had no connectivity and therefore no distractions,' he wrote. 'To spend one final week with my family before the final months of the election campaign and hopefully four years as mayor during which there will likely be no opportunity at all to squeeze in a family vacation.' Coun. Erin Rutherford's seat was also empty on July 8, but she attended the meeting virtually while on vacation in Kelowna. Rutherford voted in favour of Mayor Amarjeet Sohi's motion to leave the decision on infill reduction to a later date after consultations are completed in 2027. Cartmell says he will continue to work to 'get infill right' if elected in October. 'I made a mistake. I intend to learn from it,' he said. Edmontonians will go to the polls on Oct. 20 to elect a new mayor and city council. Sohi is not running for a second term after losing a bid to win a seat in the April federal election.
CBC
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
Tow trucks coming back to enforce Edmonton parking bans
Tow trucks will hit Edmonton's streets to boost the city's parking ban enforcement, while fines are being cut back. Edmonton city council unanimously approved bylaw changes Wednesday to tackle the issue of cars being left on the street during seasonal parking bans for street sweeping and snow clearing. Administration presented a variety of options for approaching parking ban enforcement, but council voted in favour of tow trucks and reducing parking fines to $150 — or possibly lower, if the fee is paid within seven days. "We're facing budget constraints right now, and towing to the impound lot with [the Edmonton Police Service] wasn't an option given their own capacity right now," Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford told CBC News. She said taking into account budgetary concerns, and balancing a punitive approach with public awareness, were ultimately what helped council land on the final course of action. "This allows us to put small amounts of funding toward what we know is a bigger problem, see how that affects the ability for workers to do their work, and then, at the four-year budget, potentially add funding if this program is working," Rutherford said. The city will dedicate $100,000 for the upcoming winter for towing on roads where city operators are unable to safely or effectively clear the streets. Fees reduced to improve accessibility A recent city report said enforcement officers handed out about 1,000 parking ban violation tickets in the spring of 2024, after not enforcing during the spring sweep for a decade. Contracted officers issued nearly 6,000 tickets this past spring, the report said. In 2022, the city seasonal parking ban fines from $100 to $250, so the fee served as a stronger deterrent for non-compliance and aligned with other bylaw infractions. But council is reducing the fines after hearing concerns about accessibility. Residents in Rutherford's district understand the need for parking tickets, she said, "but to be hit with a $250 fine right off the hop seemed really drastic." Rutherford said she heard from seniors in her ward who were unaware of when parking bans were in effect and were slapped with $500 in fines, because both of their household's cars were ticketed. "That's really hard for a senior on fixed income," she said. "So to me, not only do we have to continue to educate folks, [but] get people to understand when the parking ban is in effect and when it affects their area."
CBC
04-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Edmonton to consider mandating envelopes, warnings for graphic flyers
Edmonton's city council will consider adding restrictions aimed at preventing people from unwittingly seeing flyers with graphic imagery. Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette introduced a motion during Wednesday's city council meeting that administration prepare changes to the community standards bylaw to require all unsolicited print material containing graphic images to be contained in a sealed opaque envelope with a content warning and senders' names and addresses. Paquette said he regularly receives complaints from residents coming across flyers in their mailboxes with pictures of aborted fetuses. He said such images have traumatized his constituents for a variety of reasons. "It's often children who bring in the mail and they're confronted with imagery that they are not emotionally or developmentally prepared to process in a healthy way," he told CBC News on Thursday. Paquette's motion, which passed unanimously, proposed a minimum fine of $500 for violating the rules. The motion did not mention abortion and the city councillor said he thinks the rules should also extend to other types of graphic imagery. Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford said at the meeting that her office has also received complaints about this topic. Ward Sspomitapi Coun. Jo-Anne Wright said she hasn't been hearing the same complaints but she's willing to explore restrictions to address concerns. "I think I'm going to take the guidance from our legal department as to what they define as being graphic," she said in an interview Thursday. Edmonton follows other cities Calgary's city council approved a change to its community standards bylaw in 2023. The regulations apply to graphic images of fetuses and violations carry fines of $1,000. The City of Edmonton's legal team told councillors Edmonton's bylaw requirements could be modelled after Calgary's. Cities in other provinces have also passed similar bylaws, but several have faced legal challenges. The City of St. Catharines, in Ontario, repealed its graphic images bylaw last year after the Association of Reformed Political Action, a Christian political advocacy organization, launched a legal challenge against it. The ARPA filed a notice of application last month challenging the constitutionality of a similar bylaw in London, Ont. Who's distributing flyers? Blaise Alleyne, the eastern strategic initiatives director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, said the organization distributes abortion-related images across the country. He said volunteers with a partner organization, Edmonton Against Abortion, deliver postcards in Edmonton year-round and an internship team from Calgary visited the city for a week of outreach in June. Both groups use the same flyers, he said. CBC News has not confirmed which flyers have prompted complaints to city councillors' offices. Alleyne said there are a few versions of the group's most up-to-date flyer and the organization rotates photos every few years, with slight variations since 2017. Alleyne said the CCBR believes bylaws like Calgary's won't survive constitutional court challenges. "City councillors would be better off to recognize that victim photography is a part of discourse in a democracy, even on contentious issues," he said. Gerard Kennedy, an assistant professor of law at the University of Alberta, said there can be limits to expression but the duty is on the government to prove that any are reasonable and proportionate. "Freedom of expression is supposed to be content-neutral with very rare expression limits, which means that you by all means regulate the time, place and manner in which expression is done, and by all means protect vulnerable persons, but you shouldn't be stopping a message being sent out simply because you disagree with the message," he said. Richard Dur, executive director with Prolife Alberta, said Albertans won't reject abortion until they see the reality of it. "When something is so horrifying we can't bear to look at it, perhaps we shouldn't be accepting it," he told CBC News in an emailed statement. Dur said Prolife Alberta launched a province-wide advertising campaign, in part "to bypass unjust municipal censorship." The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada says on its website that graphic images of aborted fetuses are harmful and encourages people to complain to municipalities and ask for regulations. Alleyne said he has not heard of any cases of people being fined under graphic images bylaws. He said the CCBR complies with municipal bylaws, usually by not delivering in communities with them since doing so is much more expensive and time-consuming. "We've not faced fines, but it's impacted our ability to share our message with the public," he said. Councillors on Edmonton's community and public services committee are set to discuss possible bylaw amendments early next year.
Global News
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- Global News
Edmonton city council explores budget to tow vehicles during winter parking bans
It may be July, but Edmonton city council discussed ways to better deal with illegally parked cars during winter parking bans on Wednesday as city councillors prepare to take their summer break at the end of the week. 'A big component of making sure we're doing parking enforcement is making sure that the crews can do the work that they need to do,' Coun. Erin Rutherford. 'And giving people a ticket doesn't move the car.' The parking bans are also issued in the spring when crews are directed to sweep streets. City councillors discussed a report prepared by city administrators for the community and public services committee. One of its recommendations was to potentially increase enforcement funding by $100,000 or more when parking bans are declared because of snow or ice buildup on roads in the winter. City council also debated the merits of allowing the city to contract companies to two vehicles that are violating a parking ban to a nearby street so that crews can clear the road. Story continues below advertisement '(Edmontonians) want to know that we are working as efficiently and effectively as possible,' Coun. Ashley Salvador told reporters. 'In order to do that, we do need folks to move their vehicles off the street.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy During the winter season, the city can declare a parking ban on specific streets with just eight hours notice to try to clear roads to make them safe for travel. The ban is usually implemented in phases to target different kinds of streets at different times and comes with temporary parking restrictions. City administrators said contract towing services have not been available since the city had a one-time funding boost to parking ban enforcement in 2022-23. Currently, there are five bylaw enforcement officers who issue tickets during parking bans and there is no budget for towing. One of the other changes councillors are considering is to reduce the cost of tickets issued for violating parking bans from $250 to $150 if the budget to tow vehicles is brought back. Story continues below advertisement The discussion about how to enforce parking bans is set to be discussed again in the future once city council resumes after a summer break. –with files from Global News' Jasmine King
CBC
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Edmonton aims to set homeless shelter limits, locations through zoning bylaw
Shelter operators in Edmonton may soon be under new rules on where they can open facilities and how many people can stay overnight, if city council approves a set of regulations proposed by administration. The regulations would limit the number of people sleeping overnight in a year-round shelter to 125, according to a report by the city's urban planning and economy branch. The shelter could exceed the limit for up to 90 days during an emergency like flooding, wildfire smoke, hail storms, tornadoes, extreme temperatures, the report adds. The city also suggests facilities shouldn't be allowed to open in areas zoned for business employment near heavy industrial sites. City council asked administration last September to propose the changes through the zoning bylaw. "Council has been concerned about the impacts of shelters with large congregate sleeping areas on both shelter users and surrounding neighbourhoods," the report says. Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford said she's in favour of the limit, as there are challenges with some of the traditional shelter spaces. "If we're permitting new shelters, we don't want them to be just major communal sleeping spaces," Rutherford said in an interview this week. "There needs to be some dignity and safety that people will actually be wanting to go to that shelter." People choose to stay in encampments instead, she said, because they're not comfortable in the communal sleeping space in a shelter. "That is, they would rather sleep in the river valley or somewhere else." The city based the 125-person limit for a sleeping area of 1,373 square metres, with a minimum area of 11 square metres for a bed and a two-metre separation between each bed as recommended by the city's emergency shelter best practices guide. The report was scheduled to be discussed at a public hearing Monday but due to a lengthy agenda, it was postponed to the next meeting on Aug. 18. Zoning toolbox Shelters are primarily funded by the Alberta government and regulated through Alberta Health Services, leaving the city little authority to influence how shelters are run, the report says. But the city can enforce some standards through its zoning bylaw. "It is the one tiny tool in our zoning toolbox that we have to actually enforce any kind of shelter standards, as a municipality," Rutherford said. Councillors started discussing amendments to the bylaw last summer when Hope Mission planned to open a new 120-bed facility at 124th Avenue and 149th Street in Rutherford's ward. The newly revised zoning bylaw that took effect in January 2024 now allows for shelters to open in all business employment areas, unlike under the previous zoning. Some councillors consider the industrial areas inappropriate locations for shelters, with few amenities and places for clients to go. Most existing shelters in Edmonton would conform to the 125-overnight limit, the report says, except for two of the largest shelters. One of the biggest providers in the city says efforts to renovate and improve existing facilities would be challenging. "We don't have any problem with restricting maximum occupancy in emergency shelters to 125 people for new shelters," Tim Pasma, senior director of programs for Hope Mission, said in an interview Monday. "Our concern is more related to: What does that do to our existing operations?" Between 375 to 400 people a night stay at the Herb Jamieson Centre, he said. The cost to build new smaller shelters would range from $6 to $10 million a site, he said, with higher operational costs. "So if we were to move spaces, stay out of downtown because our existing sites are now in non-compliance, that just becomes very prohibitive." Edmonton currently has 14 year-round shelters and one seasonal shelter, according to the Alberta government. As of May this year, 4,896 people in Edmonton were considered homeless, according to Homeward Trust, the agency that supports housing options and services for the city's homeless population. The total is broken down in three categories: 805 people staying in shelters, 2,930 provisionally accommodated, which includes temporary stays at medical facilities and couch-surfing, and 1,161 people unsheltered.
