Bryan Kapitza

Councillor Ward 6

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Our Way Forward ...

Realizing that our present approach to governance limits our social and economic development, we must enact fresh strategies to achieve our vision of a fair and prosperous society. All the ideas detailed below have been successfully implemented in other cities. Some we can act upon immediately. Others will require time and the cooperation of other organizations to become reality. All are worth pursuing.

Fiscal Transformation
Stopping the Debt Spiral
This really should be the easiest of all tasks for council to undertake. There is good debt, and there is bad debt. At this point in time, with our national and provincial governments struggling to balance their books, no civic debt is good debt. I will not support any additional debt financing.

Controlling Tax Increases

Individuals and families cannot prosper if we tax away what little economic advantage they have. Tax and service charge increases must be held to the rate of inflation.

Transforming our Economy

Property Tax Reform
Under our current tax regime, if you improve your property by adding a garage or developing a basement or adding some sort of new amenity like a deck, you will pay more in tax. Essentially, city council has decided to punish you for improving your property. It makes no sense. This philosophy of punishment for improvement has resulted in 52% of our downtown core being turned into surface parking lots, and hundreds of inner city residential properties becoming run down and unsafe. The less value you have on your property, the less you pay in tax. We need to change our way of thinking about taxation. Instead of penalizing individuals for improving their properties, we should motivate those owners that have allowed their property to deteriorate, or

become unproductive, to undertake upgrades. I propose that instead of taxing what you own, we tax what the community has provided you, i.e., the infrastructure that surrounds the land. Under this method of taxation, all those downtown parking lots will only make money if they are improved to a point to recover the cost of their surrounding infrastructure. For most homeowners in our ward there will be little difference in what they pay under one regime or the other. Condo owners, however, will see a decrease in their property taxes since they share infrastructure with their neighbours. Residents further away from the core will need to pay more to cover their infrastructure costs - costs that are subsidized by mature neighbourhood tax dollars. The consequences of our new tax system are momentous. Urban sprawl ends, the downtown and distressed neighbourhoods are redeveloped, jobs are created, taxes are fairly distributed and tax increases are controlled.

Micro Financing
Our ward has more residents from more parts of the world than any other ward in Edmonton. Regrettably, despite having great business ideas, our newer residents often have no established credit history and cannot qualify for a business loan from traditional lenders. I propose that the City establish a Mirco Financing Corporation to assist our new entrepreneurs in realizing their dream of business ownership. A small loan, approved on the basis of a good business case, allows an individual or family to provide for themselves, to employ others, to pay taxes and to build their community.

Economic Development Zones

Economic Development Zones have been used throughout the world to stimulate and grow economies. Nations have used EDZs to raise the standard of living of their citizens. Alberta has effectively used the EDZ concept as the means to develop our oil sands industry. An EDZ attracts capital intensive businesses by foregoing taxation until an agreed upon portion of the capital invested is recovered through production. The economic benefit is derived from the jobs that are created during construction and after the business begins operation. As a city we can use EDZs as a means to attract investment and diversify our economy.

Growing Small Business

Small business drives our economy. And yet, in Edmonton, council could not have done more to discourage small business creation or growth. Our small business property mill rate is 3X that of our residential mill rate. It is significantly higher than the business tax rates in Calgary and Vancouver, and it is paid whether your small business is profitable or not. I will work towards creating a fair business tax structure that promotes the growth of small businesses.

Transforming our Communities

Form Based Zoning
Our current use based zoning regime is a mess. Under use based zoning each parcel of land is assigned a usage. There are 14 residential, 7 commercial, 4 industrial and 18 other types of land use and over 2 dozen sets of special rules. It's complexity and cost is one of the major reasons why developers are concentrating on building suburbs instead of developing in our core. It is why we have high-rises next to houses next to abandoned lots. It is why Jasper Avenue is such an unattractive mix of building types. With Form Based Zoning we concentrate on how a development allows people to experience their environment. Sunlight, consistent building heights, wide boulevards that favor walking and biking, store fronts that draw people inside are the principal features of such a design approach. Interested in what Form Based Zoning looks like? The cores of cities such as Amsterdam and Paris are the premier examples. Granted our downtown will never rival such centres, but we can begin this transformation towards Form Based Design in the communities that surround the core.

Small is Beautiful
The construction of remote large recreational multiplexes does nothing to build communities. Nor are such centres any more economical to operate. Smaller community-sized recreation facilities bring communities together. I intend to save and maintain our existing small facilities and to work towards identifying new opportunities for community rinks, tennis courts, ball courts, parks, pools and meeting places.

New Ways to Move

Ward 6 has the residential density favorable to walking, biking and public transit and yet council has remained focused on expediting automobile traffic through our communities. I am committed to creating pedestrian-only street ways, wide bike lanes, and improving transit service.

Transforming our Society

Council has paid little attention to addressing the challenges of the inner city. We cannot wait for financial or service assistance from the provincial or federal governments to deal with abuse, addiction, exploitation or neglect. Its time that we get serious about creating a community in which all our citizens are recognized as valuable in themselves and where assistance is offered without judgment.

Service Delivery
Edmonton is fortunate to have a wealth of agencies dedicated to assisting those in need. I believe that it is

prudent that all agencies work together to share best practices and maximize social benefit. The creation of a council of service providers and stakeholders is in order.

Harm Reduction
The first step in addressing a medical issue such as addiction is to stop individuals from harming themselves and others. A concerted and sustained harm reduction program that supplies condoms, clean needles and a safe place to inject street drugs will protect people with addictions, ease their transition into treatment, and eventually enable them to rejoin our community.

Housing
Housing First works. It gives our homeless citizens the diginity of having a roof over their heads and an opportunity to restart their lives. Social Housing works. It allows citizens with limited resources to live without the fear of eviction for missing a rent payment. Affordable housing works. It provides working individuals and families the opportunity to live in a decent home while they work towards home ownership. I support, without reservation, the financing and the construction of new non-market housing throughout ward 6.

Cultural Awareness and Outreach

In order to provide effective assistance to ethic communities experiencing distress we need to understand the issues that are giving rise to their frustration. Promoting or imposing a solution without being aware of what is acceptable within a culture or society will not work. Nor will the best intentions of groups from outside the affected community bring about the desired change. Remedies will be found by placing motivated members of the community in distress within the city and public benefit organizations and giving them the authority to design and implement solutions for their community.

Transforming Governance
Value Oriented Governance
In value oriented governance, departments work across traditional boundaries to achieve a value identified by the citizens of Edmonton.

For example, let us say that "safe communities" is a value that our communities wish to pursue. The realization of this value requires more than giving the police additional money. It demands the cooperation and integration of such departments as the police service, bylaw enforcement, community and social services, and urban design. A new Manager of Safe Communities would become the budget holder and individual responsible for achieving the identified value of safety. Departments would be allotted their budgets by the Value Manager based on their proposals to achieve the value. As another example, suppose that "less time spent in transit" is identified as a value. ETS, transportation, urban planning and others would all work under the manager of "Transit Efficiency" to determine the best way to go from A to B. That may mean car, LRT, rapid transit bus, bike lanes, or walking. Whichever way realizes the value is where our tax dollar would be directed. Value oriented governance will improve service and reduce cost.

tel: 780-490-8110

Transform Edmonton

email: Bryan@TransformEdmonton.ca