How many blogs have I written about getting the most from our project investments?

The City of Edmonton has endured a long decade of over-cost and over-budget capital projects.  

This adds to a common refrain that too many large projects have been too costly and have taken too long. The list is well reported from the Walterdale Bridge to the Southeast Valley Line LRT to the Northwest Police Campus. 

That list continues to grow with the recently revealed significant cost overruns on the South LRT extension. City Administration recently informed City Council of a $240M cost escalation, before the project even broke ground. 

Given that the West LRT extension appears to have fallen woefully behind schedule - as all LRT projects do these days - does it make sense to start another extension without clear comfort and confidence that the current one will end well?

Does it make sense to approve that extension when we are talking about 13% property tax increases?

What is driving these cost increases? Why are projects in Edmonton so much more expensive to execute than in surrounding municipalities? Why doesn’t City Administration provide even this most basic information? Why does Council approve more spending without it?

Why are roads and intersections closed for weeks, even months on end with no activity? 

Why are so many projects undertaken so close together? Don’t we care about the collective impact on the time it takes for people to move around our city? 

Don’t we care about the negative impact these projects and the congestion they create have on business revenue?

Council cannot keep its head in the sand any longer. We need to step up and take control of this problem. I fear that we’ve become complacent and paralyzed by failure. It’s our time to act.

We need to change our approach and then apply intense scrutiny to every project that is in the ground and approved.  There is no more room for error. Our budget is maxed out, and Edmontonians cannot continue to pay for our lack of accountability with higher property taxes.

I am proposing the following practical changes that will help the City turn the page away from project mismanagement and failure: 

• Put the brakes on all new project spending and focus on projects already underway.
• Work with the current and the next City Manager to overhaul our Integrated Infrastructure Services Department.
• Create a permanent Infrastructure Standing Committee. Similar to Audit Committee, it needs to include external third-party experts who give us sound professional advice with a fresh set of eyes.
• That third-party expertise on the Infrastructure Standing Committee needs to report directly to Council - NOT to Administration.

I’m hoping my colleagues can see the plain truth here. We need a new approach. We need to show leadership. It’s time to turn the page on this sad chapter in Edmonton’s history.