The Edmonton infill debate has caught the attention of a federal Member of Parliament. Kerry Diotte has been the Conservative MP for Edmonton Griesbach on and off for just over seven years. Last month, he announced a public town hall on infill housing, led by him, this Saturday. “It’s been a very hot topic. I met with constituents from the Newton neighbourhood, which is part of my riding, and they’re very concerned by some of these monster projects,” Diotte told CTV News Edmonton on Friday. Infill and new housing construction in traditional neighbourhoods have been a point of contention for years, more recently as council solidifies construction plans for new projects to keep up with population growth. “I am not a municipal politician, I was a city councillor at one time, but I want to bring people together and maybe find some solutions, because the way I look at it, if my constituents have a problem, I have a problem,” Diotte said. Diotte, a former journalist for the likes of the CBC and Rebel News, was first elected to parliament in 2015 and 2019. He briefly lost his seat to NDP candidate Blake Desjarlais in 2021 before re-election in 2025. Before his federal run, Diotte was an Edmonton city councillor from 2010-2013. He says he’s invited municipal, provincial and federal leaders to hear residential concerns on Saturday and hopes to be a “mediator” of sorts on the issue. He noted the federal government’s involvement in some housing projects in Edmonton as another reason to call the town hall. Area Coun. Karen Principe says she plans to attend the session, calling it an opportunity to hear from people in her riding. She says she doesn’t have any “particular thoughts” on a federal politician hosting the meeting. “I’ve had several discussions with several people on the topic of infill, and I’ve met with many groups over the last year to discuss the concerns they’ve had,” she told CTV News Edmonton. “What I’m hoping is to have more conversations to see how we can work together.” Neighbourhoods have banded together to voice concerns about spacing, sunlight, parking regulations, eyesores and construction dangers. Some have considered restrictive covenants to put binding rules on developments. Home developers, on the other hand, have been working to placate concerns while accelerating build timelines by improving construction standards and communication with neighbours. Lydia Cowan, who works with the Residential Infill Working Group to advocate for construction discretion, says all levels of government should hear about development management. “Those (government) levers generally have operated independently … When Edmonton moved to this sort of massive change of taking some of those levers away, we’re now trying to restructure some of that,” she said. “There’s lots of good infill development happening, but there are things that are not happening well, and in those areas we need to correct them.” Meanwhile, a pro-infill group believes infill is not Diotte’s problem to solve. “Local problems should be solved at a local level,” Sean Sedgwick, of the Infill Development in Edmonton Association, said. “We need to be able to be flexible and adapt to the context that zoning bylaw is actually in.” He said generalizing the concerns of locals runs the risk of losing focus of work that needs to be done. Earlier this year, Edmonton’s city council passed changes to zoning bylaws that reduced the height of small-scale residential infill housing by one metre in response to size concerns from residents. Council also shrunk the length and width of infill last June. They did, however, vote to keep infill eight-plexes as opposed to making the maximum number of units six. Diotte’s town hall will take place at the North West Edmonton Seniors Society on 120 Street at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny
