ANDREW KNACK

		As there is still much time before the next civic election on Monday October 18th, 2010, I will give a general overview of the topics I would like to focus on if elected as the Ward 1 City Councillor.

		Managing Taxes and Sprawl Edmonton is one of the least dense cities in Canada and also has one of the lowest tax rates among major cities in Canada. The concept of keeping taxes low while allowing sprawl to increase at the current rate will not be able to continue. One of these two will have to change and I would prefer increased density instead of large tax increases every year. Although we need to work to reduce sprawl, we cannot ignore those who live on the edges of our city. We need to ensure people who live on the outskirts have easy access to public services. Also, when we work to increase the density of the more mature neighbourhoods, families must be an important component or else we risk more school closures in established areas.

		Working to Minimize the Boom and Bust Cycle Although many governments will create policy documents that have the long-term in mind, when it comes to the financial side of meeting our long-term goals, we rarely have the money in place to accomplish our vision. This results in a cycle that has been active for decades. When our city is successful and bringing in excess money, we need to put a portion of the extra revenue away instead of spending every dollar available each year. This will prepare us if our economy starts to decline as we will be able to dip into our savings to spend on our necessary projects which will begin to reduce the gap between the boom and the bust. This is a common practice in many households and there is no reason it cannot work for a city.

		Create New Business Opportunity and Revenue for Our City Edmonton has made some great strides over the years in diversifying our economy. We also have many opportunities to continue our growth. Tourism is the one industry where I feel we have the greatest potential to show improvement. We have amazing festivals, many different shopping districts and unique attractions such as Fort Edmonton Park yet only a small percentage of our annual visitors come from outside our country. We have to create a campaign that will attract worldwide attention and focus on the strengths that Edmonton has to offer. Edmonton Tourism has the potential to bring even more revenue into the city which can be used to improve our essential services while allowing us the ability to have extra money set aside for some larger projects.

		Making Environmental Change Easy Most people recognize that we need to do our part to improve our environment. The big obstacle is that although most people want to help, they do not have the ability or time to make a drastic lifestyle change. Our responsibility as a city is to introduce concepts that will have a huge positive impact while minimizing the lifestyle change. It can be as simple as providing more opportunity to take items to the ECO-centres or partnering with businesses to encourage more customers to use their reusable bags. Improving our environmental impact on our city does not require large amounts of money as it can be accomplished by small changes that have significant results.

		As we get closer to the election date, I will be providing the specifics of the above points and many other opportunities and ideas to help our city grow. I would appreciate any comments or questions you may have regarding my platform. You can contact me by phone, e-mail or other social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Finally, my blog is also available to give you more insight into the issues that are important in Edmonton.