Will the EMR soon be the new GTA?
Mayors of Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, City of Edmonton, Leduc County, City of Leduc, City of Fort Saskatchewan, Parkland County, City of Spruce Grove and City of St. Albert signed an agreement Monday to plan, decide and act as one Edmonton Metro Region (EMR).
The nine municipalities represent 95 per cent of the region’s population and 96 per cent of its assessment base.
They vowed to work together – and build regional systems – on three critical areas:
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- Economic development
- Public transit
- Land use and infrastructure
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The mayors signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday.
“We’ve accomplished a lot as individual municipalities,” City of Leduc Mayor Greg Krischke said. “By acting together on economic development, public transit, and land use and infrastructure, we can more quickly build a globally competitive Metro Region that attracts people, investment and opportunities from across Canada and around the world. Signing this MOU is the all-important first step to achieving this goal.”
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The next step will be a legally binding master agreement formalizing this commitment to work together on those three priorities.
“This is an exciting day for our region,” Strathcona County Mayor Roxanne Carr said. “This MOU is an example of what we can achieve by working together. Obviously, a lot of work still lies ahead of us but we have to continue moving forward on this path. The potential benefits of a Metro Region that competes together to win together are simply too great for our communities not to.”
An advisory panel, appointed to give advice on how to optimize the region in the coming decades, also detailed its final report: Be Ready, or Be Left Behind.
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