Stephen Mandel

0:00Why politics? Oh, I don't know. At the time when I ran for city council, that term I kind of retired from business and I was looking for something interesting to do. And ran for city council and that was one reason. Running for mayor was more than I didn't think the city's had any strong vision for a number of years and there was lots we needed to do and we weren't doing it. And so rather being in city council and I felt running for mayor would allow me to lead the city and to allow my council colleagues who were quite creative. To do the kind of things that they wanted to do and so we've been successful. What did you want to do? What were some of those things? Well, I think there was a lot of things. I mean, just generally, you know, one of the biggest things is to develop a really strong relationship with the other orders of government. The fact of the matter is that cities survive or fall on being having a good partnership with the provincial governments.

0:49That doesn't mean we get more than our share or less than our share, but do we get our share? And I think in the past, Evan, that hasn't done his good job creating that strong relationship and we've done that. Another big thing was our region and our region is the most dysfunctional region in Canada, fighting about everything and you can't do that. You can't, as an area of million people, you can't create this level of animosity we had. We need to work together to make a stronger region and we now go along fabulously. I mean, it's just really great fun. We get together and enjoy each other's company. And I think the other part about it was how we could, counselors do things and challenge counselors to be effective in leading initiatives and doing things. And, you know, for example, one of our counselors and next coach in high school, and he's really passionate about sports facilities.

1:40And for six years, and counsel went nowhere in the last six years. We spent $760 million building new rec centers and fields and all kinds of facilities in the city. You know, he's led that challenge and led that initiative. And so counselors have had an opportunity to do things. And so without their support, we wouldn't have gone anywhere. That's how I go to sports. I know a new arena is a big topic up here. How's it coming along? What's the plan? Well, it has its challenges. They always do. You know, it's not that complicated of an issue, but it's become complicated because how it's progressed. And hopefully, the next little while some of the issues that are creating great confusion can be straightened out and then we'll be able to take a look at the future. And then we'll be able to move forward with what the decision is. Should we build an arena or should we build an arena? And that's really where we need to get to right now. We're off in all these fields of dreams that really aren't relevant right now.

2:32Like what? Well, I mean, you know, what the arena might look like. You know, the importantly, the public want to know how we're going to pay for it. That's a key ingredient. People want to know that the citizens are not going to get stuck with the bill. And the citizens aren't going to get stuck with the bill. And so how do we do that? And hopefully, the case group can see their way forward to coming up with a proposal that allowed them to do. We've been very clear that ticket taxes are something that has to be put on because those who are using should pay for it. And it's not unreasonable and that there's a need for an investment by the team themselves. If you want to get a fair deal in rent, pay some of the rent. So it's things that we're working on. Hopefully over time, something will happen.

3:19Right now, it's a bit of an impasse. Well, once you get everly playing here, you're just talking with your neverly before. I think that'll sell more tickets too and help the whole situation out. Well, I mean, the hockey team itself is in great shape. I think having the first big day here. You know, like, listen, you end up in ninth place or last place. It's the same thing. True. You know, I mean, maybe a little more excitement for your fans. And our fans probably went at the end of the year because they want to make sure we lost it and get the first pick. So we're going to get one of two great picks. I don't know who our team's going to pick. But we've got, you know, two or three other guys that are just coming up from the miners are very strong. We had a huge number of injuries last year. I think we got a very good hockey team next year and maybe not in 10-11, but in 11 and 12. You see a few of them? A little bit buildings necessary, perhaps. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's nice.

4:05From sports to arts, I know you're big into the arts here and talk about that. Well, I think that that's one of the great accomplishments that this council's had is that we really raise the profile of the arts community. And I think it's a fundamentally important part of the city because, you know, people come to cities because they have a desire to not just see sidewalks and pavement. They have a desire to see theater and arts classes and crafts and all kinds of music and entertainment. And so I think our city has taken great strikes the last six years there. Focus on that and give it the profile needs. We developed the first of a poll of Laurier. We have the Mayors Evening for the Arts. We have a far more investment in our arts community.

4:53We have more added festivals. We have a poetry festival. We have a historian in Laurier. A historian or historian in Laurier would call it. So it's, you know, lots of things happening. I think it's been lots of fun for the community and it made a big difference. One of your things I was reading on the website is a 10-year plan to end homelessness. How is that possible? Well, when you say to end homelessness, we're talking about those people that want to get off the streets. We have opportunities for them to get off the streets. There will be people that no matter what you do are going to stay in the street. Just from the very nature of their lives and nature of their challenges in life. But we need to be able to, when they want to make that change, they will offer a roof over their head so they can begin to transform their lives.

5:39And so our Housing First Model is really what it says. It's about finding a place for people to stay so they have a bed to sleep in their own bed, their own kitchen, a roof over their head so they can begin to transform their lives. If you don't have a roof over there, how do you begin to change people? How do you create them to if they have drug problems, how do you give them proper counseling? If they need to get a job, how do you train them? If you need to do all those things, you can't do it if they're on the street. And so the Housing First Model is really the fundamental core to change the dynamic. And also the 10-year plan to homelessness act as a catalyst to bring all our organizations together. And we're working as a real team in the city right now. And it's going, I think, I've got challenges, but in the last 15 months we've probably housed almost 800 people.

6:26And they say about 120 now I have jobs, full-time jobs. And so it's coming very well. That doesn't mean that we're not having, I don't know whether we've had 150 people coming to the system. Right. So I don't know where we're gaining this October, we'll do a homeless count and see. But we're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train, it's a solution. And I really believe that if you stay the course, with the great people having the city, we'll meet the challenge and solve the problem. What do you think about what Vancouver is doing with homelessness and more importantly the drug situation? Well Vancouver has a much, well everybody has a drug problem. Right. I mean that goes without saying, you know Vancouver is probably more substantial than ours, but ours has its challenges.

7:12I think there's a real need to face the fact that there are drug problems and the need to develop proper housing for people, proper support systems for people. I'm not a real believer that we should be giving drugs to people. That's something if once they get into, once they get into methadone clinics and stuff like that, then that's a way to help them. But we should have opportunities for people when they want to feel safe and secure, even if they aren't drugs, to replace the go-do. And we haven't done that well enough. And how do you plan to? Is there a plan to? Yeah, part of our program for homelessness is to create some wet shelters and create some opportunities for that. We also have the same time we developed a program called the REACH Report, which is a community safety report, which is going to transfer some of the responsibilities for communities safety away from the police to neighborhoods.

8:08And some of the programs are like this to reach out to create different facilities for people to go to and more shelters and more space for people to break their habits and find safety and security. We'll do that. It's going to take a bit of time. But cities committed to it, the province committed to it, and our communities are committed to doing it. Well, hopefully you have some more time, too. There's an election in the fall. Yeah, I know. What are some of the goals? Well, we're not going to talk much about that. Now, we've committed that we're still in office. We have a lot of work to do. And when the time comes in September to talk about the future of what we'd like to see happen in the city, then we'll do it then. I think it's a bit premature to do it. We have a lot of work to do. And a lot of things to complete that we've wanted to do.

8:58So I'm not going to look forward in election. I want to try to finish what we've got. We're not to finish to move forward on the issues we have now. On that topic, was there anything when you got in that you're still working to accomplish that that was harder than you thought it would be? Yeah, there's a couple of things that I'm very frustrated with. One is that we really needed to develop our downtown east, which is 97th Street going forward. And we've spent a lot of energy on this. And it has not developed as it should have. It's been very frustrating. We can't seem to get that momentum moving forward. And that's some bureaucratic problems, some societal problems. But it's really that will push it over the end. And we've got to make a big push on that. And I think that's something that we've got to do. And it's why I don't want to look forward.

9:43I want to look today and try to get that done. I think another one we've made great strides in, but we have a long way to go is dealing with some of our more challenged communities in the city. And our Aboriginal community with a fast and growing in Canada. And we need to find ways to engage our Aboriginal community and make them feel comfortable in the city of Edmonton. We've gone a long way. I would say right now we have the best relationship with any Aboriginal community in the country. But that's not good enough. We need to find ways to do a better job. And to help and ensure that some of our new immigrants have opportunities. And so those are areas I think we've made some strides, but not far enough. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I've seen my pleasure.