Outgoing Edmonton mayor Amarjeet Sohi speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the end of his term, his political future, and advise for the next Edmonton city council. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Michael Higgins: How are you feeling about your term very quickly coming to an end? Amarjeet Sohi: I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my city over the last four years in this role and prior to that serving on city council for eight years, and then as a Member of Parliament and Minister of the Crown for four years. It has been just a great privilege. I never imagined that I would one day be in this role. So I am honoured that I got to serve my city over the last four years in this capacity as mayor, and we have done some good work. Particularly in maintaining our housing affordability, building more homes over the last four years - both market and non-market - including Indigenous-led homes in the last four years than we did in over a decade. So very proud of that accomplishment. MH: Public safety is an issue that is front of mind for many voters. Is it an issue you wish you had more time to contend with? AS: Public safety is a very complex and complicated issue, and there’s various players in this field, including the role federal government and provincial governments need to play, as well as the Edmonton Police Service and city council. City council’s role is to make sure that we are allocating proper resources for EPS and proper resources for transit safety, as well as interventions to connect vulnerable populations to the services that are available in our community. On the police side, we have increased police funding significantly. Now EPS is one of the best funded police services in Canada, we have more per capita police officers in Edmonton and we are seeing the results. Crime is declining. Yes, we have a long way to go coming out of COVID. We had such significant spike in in criminal activity, gang activity, drug dealing, extortions, so we have a long way to go, but we’re trending in the right direction. We also doubled our peace officers on public transit, including eight teams of social workers connecting our houseless population from LRT stations to services, and we are seeing good results there as well. Our ridership on the LRT has bounced back. We have more people riding ETS now than they did in 2019, so we are trending in the right direction. The biggest challenge is that the other orders of government who are responsible for tackling the root causes of crime and disorder in our communities have not stepped up to the level that they need to. To build homes, to build mental health facility interventions, to build detox facilities, to build treatment facilities for struggling Edmontonians. As well, there are issues of people being released on bail or parole into our communities, and there are many other reasons that are beyond the control of a local government. But we are doing what we can on our end of the responsibilities. MH: We’ve had many of the mayoral candidates address that municipal-provincial relationship, saying it needs a reset. How uncomfortable was that relationship for you? AS: I always had a very professional and respectful relationship with the provincial government as well as the federal government over the last four years. I had close to $1 billion of federal investments secured for the City of Edmonton. Similar with the provincial government, we got our emergency shelter numbers increased from 700 shelter to 1,700 shelters that are open 24 hours, seven days a week. We have built more affordable homes. Our non-market affordable supply has increased by 32 per cent over the last four years. We are empowering Indigenous communities to build more homes with appropriate health and cultural services that people need, and we secured a $187 million investment into our downtown with provincial support. As well as the demolition of the Coliseum, and the province restoring the cutbacks that they implemented in 2019 when they stopped paying the full cost of accessing municipal services for Provincial buildings. So we have some significant wins through my advocacy with the provincial government. I look forward to what the future mayor is going to do. We have a long way to go to make sure the province is treating Edmonton equitably compared to other municipalities and communities. That has been an ongoing issue, and I have been a strong advocate, and I look forward to what the mayors in the future do on that file. MH: Any regrets for attempting to jump back into federal politics with an unsuccessful bid in the April election? AS: I think it was the right decision at the right time, when I felt that our country needed leadership from Edmonton to be the voice in the future government. But I am very proud of what I have been able to accomplish over the last 17 years in public office. I’m very proud that the only pipeline that we got built to diversify our oil markets beyond the United States was built under my leadership as a Minister of Natural Resources. Now that pipeline is paying dividends, both federally and provincially, as well as for the oil companies with increased revenue. I’m very proud that I was able to work on the building of the Meadows Rec Centre, the Mill Woods Library and Multicultural Centre, the building of the LRT from downtown to Mill Woods, the expansion of the Yellowhead freeway, the overpass at 50 Street and 82 Avenue. There’s numerous other things that I have been part of over the last 17 years, building a better Edmonton and making life better for Edmontonians by investing in services. And now in this role, really moving the needle on anti-racism work. And also moving the needle on our commitment to reconciliation with First Nations communities. MH: So maybe what is the one issue you see the next mayor and council need to do significant heavy lifting on? Your parting advice? AS: We’ve got to continue to invest in core municipal public services that I was able to stabilize. They need investments and going back on those commitments will be detrimental to our economy and people’s well being. We have an ongoing issue of, you know, affordability. We have issues of houselessness, an addictions crisis, the overdose crisis that our communities are facing. They require collaboration and strong leadership and advocacy on behalf of the mayor’s office. As mayors, we have to stand up and speak up on behalf of our communities and we cannot be timid about speaking up and advocating for our cities when that those voices need to be raised, whether it’s our partnership with provincial government or the federal government.
