Be Ready, Or Be Left Behind provides a roadmap for creating a globally competitive, future-ready Edmonton Metro Region.
A core concept of successful metro regions is the ability to plan, decide and act as a region. This means strategically bringing the critical cornerstones of competitiveness together into aligned systems across a region.
What are these regionally significant systems? While the Panel examined many recognized drivers of competitiveness in city-regions, three stood out as most critical for this region:
- Economic development
- Public transit
- Land use and infrastructure development
These three cornerstones are the primary factors considered by investors when deciding where to locate new industries and major facilities. If aligned, they provide a strong foundation for this Metro Region to achieve its economic, social and environmental goals.
Another core concept of successful regions is the capacity to negotiate and manage shared investment (costs, risks and investment) and shared benefits (revenue, assessment and other returns) from projects. This requires appropriate agreements in place and the forum or platform for these negotiations.
The Recommendations
Recommendation 1: Affirm the Metro Mayors Alliance by developing and signing a Memorandum of Understanding that spells out a commitment to plan, decide and act as one Edmonton Metro Region
As a first step, municipalities should publicly affirm their Alliance as an Edmonton Metro Region by committing to a shared vision and principles embodied in a Memorandum of Understanding.
Our Panel has worked with legal advisors to develop a draft non-binding MOU for the Mayors to consider and present to their respective Councils. The MOU declares the municipalities’ intent to think, plan and act as a Metro Region on regionally significant issues in each of the three cornerstones of competitiveness. Under the MOU, municipalities commit to taking steps that fulfill this intent.
Recommendation #2: Formalize the commitment to think, plan and act as an Edmonton Metro Region through a legally binding Master Agreement.
In order to successfully deliver and act as one Metro Region to build regional systems, municipalities will require a formal inter-municipal agreement. They will need to move forward in a way that is meaningful, rigorous and ensures a long-term commitment on the part of all Alliance members. This Master Agreement would set the stage for delivering and acting as one Metro Region.
Recommendation #3: Consistent with the signed Master Agreement, establish the structures needed to create the three key cornerstones of a globally competitive Edmonton Metro Region.
Recommendation #3a: Establish and mandate a new entity responsible for regional economic development in the Edmonton Metro Region.
As opposed to competing against rival jurisdictions to attract investment and jobs to the region, the Metro Region municipalities are competing against each other. To make our mark, we need to develop a Metro Region economic development strategy to leverage our strengths. This shared strategy would be reinforced by a single Edmonton Metro Region brand. A single, regional economic development corporation would be responsible for marketing the Metro Region across country and around the world.
Recommendation #3b: Establish and mandate an entity responsible for planning, decision-making and delivering core public transit across the Edmonton Metro Region.
To ensure the smooth flow of people between municipalities and enhance mobility throughout the region, the Edmonton Metro Region needs an inter-regional mass transit entity focused on commuter corridors. Our Panel believes the regional transit entity might best take the form of a regional services commission, a structure that has been used in the past for inter-municipal activities such as water treatment.
The feasibility of a Metro Region transit system depends on the participation of the metro municipalities with the three highest populations: Edmonton, St. Albert and Strathcona County, which together provide more than 95 percent of the transit service within the region. Other municipalities could join later, but a regional transit system is only possible when these three municipalities commit to moving forward together.
Recommendation #3c: Establish a structure with the capacity and authority to facilitate and act upon regional land use planning and regional infrastructure development in the Edmonton Metro Region.
Municipalities have already demonstrated an ability to work together on land use planning. They must now build on this, and consistently act on those plans as one Metro Region, including the development of major regional infrastructure.
Our Panel has identified two options for making this happen. The metro municipalities can either adopt an Inter-Municipal Development Plan (IDP) or, with the provincial government’s cooperation, become the Growth Management Board for the Edmonton Metro Region.
In terms of one-the-ground results, the differences between an IDP and a Growth Management Board aren’t significant. Both would enable land to be managed in a way that allows the Metro Region’s municipalities to negotiate the necessary trade-offs and resolve conflicts and compliance issues. They would also ensure major infrastructure better supports economic growth.