Everyone in this City deserves to feel safe, no matter what they are doing or what street they walk down. In my life, I have had times where I felt unsafe or was a victim of crime.
Those experiences force you to look at others with suspicion and rob you of the connection that makes you feel a sense of belonging in your city. It is a debilitating feeling that creates barriers to building a prosperous and inclusive community.
But the complexity of making—and keeping—our communities safe is precisely why I’m so passionate about it. It’s a big part of why I’m running for Mayor. Every component of our modern life contributes to how safe our communities are—our housing policies, health care, economic opportunity, equity & diversity, recreation opportunities, how we deploy police and fire, community design—everything contributes to that sense of safety, or the lack of it.
Because of this complexity, there is no singular solution to community safety, no matter what people may promise you. You cannot arrest your way to it, nor can you spend your way to it. A safe community is one that continuously brings the right people around a table—community leagues, Indigenous and racialized community leaders, health services, urban planners, police, social workers, faith groups, elected officials, and many others—and develops solutions according to community needs. It is something our community needs to work on, together, on a constant basis, always adjusting to make sure we’re staying ahead of things.
I’ve been doing this work in our communities for two decades, from co-founding the Mill Woods Crime Council, to bringing together police and community while I was on City Council and Edmonton Police Commission to supporting racialized communities as a Member of Parliament.
As your Mayor, I would lead that continuous, constantly changing discussion. For me, it would be the everyday work of leading this city. Your Mayor needs to go beyond sending out tweets or making statements. When something happens, I will be in the community, standing shoulder to shoulder with impacted individuals, families and communities, understanding the real impact, and asking them what needs to be done to solve those problems. This conviction of mine comes from my lived experiences of not seeing the support I need when I felt discriminated or unsafe. I will be the kind of Mayor who stands with the community, one who is dedicated to understanding what needs to be solved and one who can bring the right people around a table to make our communities safer as a result.
I have always been proud of my record of convening and collaborating with people in real ways. As your Mayor, I would put that track record to use to do the most fundamental thing any Mayor does for its city—making it a safe and vibrant place to be.
There are communities in Edmonton, particularly Indigenous, racialized and LGBTQ2 communities that have had a historically difficult relationship with the police. As an experienced and well-connected community leader who has worked closely with police and diverse communities in the past, I am in a unique position to be a bridge-builder to repair and strengthen those relationships.
Hate-based violence is an increasing problem in Edmonton and we must find immediate ways to stop it in its tracks. No one should feel unsafe in this city for any reason, but the feeling of being attacked or persecuted for who you are is a very specific and serious fear that we cannot allow. If elected Mayor, I will convene a community-based table on hate-based violence, filled with those with lived experience, academic expertise, and institutions and agencies that can help. I will direct the City Administration to develop a plan with this table to specifically address hate-based violence in Edmonton. I will ask this table to come up with an initial plan within 100 days of my being sworn in as Mayor. While there is much to attend to in Edmonton—this will be my top priority.
Police are a fundamental part of community safety, but we cannot keep diverting them away from their core mandate. Sometimes they are not the right service to be attending to an issue in the community.
Edmonton has some innovative existing community safety efforts that actually address this. The 211 Crisis Diversion line and HELP pilot are two programs where police and our excellent social agencies partner to dispatch appropriate support workers in conjunction with or instead of police. This frees up police resources to focus on enforcement and other actions within their core mandate. I want to see more of this kind of collaboration and innovative thinking. When we see results from programs like these, they need more funding to keep doing good work.
Community safety has been a passion of mine since I became an Edmontonian. As your Mayor, it would continue to be one of my main focus areas. An Edmonton for all of us is one that we all feel safe in, every day.
