In his inaugural State of the City address on Tuesday, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi criticized the provincial government for what he called financial inequalities between Edmonton and Calgary.
“We are your capital city. We make outsized contributions. Please stop holding Edmonton’s economy back,” Sohi said in his speech to municipal, provincial and business leaders.
The State of the City address was hosted by the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and held at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
In his speech, Sohi said Edmonton has not received as much in infrastructure funding as Calgary. He also said the University of Alberta is being unfairly hit with cutbacks and that Edmonton loses out in tax revenue because the province is not paying full property taxes on buildings they occupy.
“Too often we are made to feel that Edmonton does not matter to the province. If you feel that way, I am there with you,” Sohi said in his speech.
Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver was in attendance for the speech and was later asked about it at the legislature.
“It is what it is. The mayor’s job, one of his jobs, is to complain to get more money from the province, so on that front, I guess he did his job,” McIver said.
“It’s human nature to assume someone else is doing better than we are. Our policies are pretty consistent between municipalities.”
The mayor also spoke about climate change, homelessness and ending racism. He also said Edmontononians are building a business-friendly city.
The president and CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Jeffrey Sundquist, said the mayor’s speech could have been stronger regarding the economic outlook.
“We were looking for a little bit of a plan on investment attraction, the investment in getting businesses to locate, get the vibrancy back downtown and all our business districts.”