Tips for doing your River Valley Advocacy Work
ERVCC follows council agendas and mobilizes citizens to speak on river valley and related issues (biodiversity, equity, culture, and climate). Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of our home page) to stay up to date on current issues.
The city has a form for looking up your ward and contacting your councillor. However, issues affecting the river valley affect everyone, so consider addressing all decision-makers by writing the City.Clerk@Edmonton.ca and asking that your letter go to all of City Council and the Mayor.
For illegal trail cutting call 311 and inform your local councillor. For hyperlocal issues, it may be appropriate just to contact your councillor
Signing up to Speak at a Committee Meeting or Public Hearing
* in “It isn’t easy staying on top of council agenda’s” — get rid of the apostrophe in agendas. What is FPIC? (spell this out). Homelessness should not be capitalized. Cut “ERVCC does not “stay in our lane” taking instead a systems approach focused on relationships first.” and replace with “ERVCC takes a system approach to issues.”
* at the end, state that if they have questions or need extra support, to reach out to ervccinfo@gmail.com
Find the agenda item you want to speak to here or google “Council Agenda Edmonton”.
Let’s use development in Rossdale as an example:
Open the Agenda for the day the item appears at council (in this case June 23 at 930 am)
Find the relevant agenda items. In this case, items 4.11 4.12 and 4.13. Note: When Items are interrelated, as is the case with these three on Rossdale, council usually hears all three items together.
Sign up to speak using this easy form.
Most questions are straightforward but you need to know the agenda item (4.11, 4.12, and 4.13), the date (June 23) and what type of meeting the agenda lands on (in this case, a public hearing).
You can speak in person or online via Google Meet. When you sign up for online, the clerk will send you a link to join the meeting.
When they ask if you wish to answer questions only, say NO. Most people like to speak to influence outcomes. You only get 5 minutes, and they are strict with time.
If you have good visuals to add to your talk, let the clerk know and send them to the clerk as a PDF. When it is your turn to speak ask the clerk to please start your PDF.
Write down the clerk’s phone number in case you have questions. City Clerk at 780-496-8178. The clerks are helpful. Correspondence can be submitted to city.clerk@edmonton.ca. If you think your presentation is worth reading send it to the city clerk and ask them to share it with all decision-makers. It can then become part of the public record.
It isn’t easy staying on top of council agendas, but ERVCC makes a good effort to watch for items related to the river valley, including inextricably related items like ecological connectivity, First Nations Rights (including free, prior, and informed consent), homelessness, and climate issues. ERVCC takes a systems approach to issues.
It does not take much
For most issues affecting the valley, we suggest you ask the city clerk to copy all of council and the mayor. Simply write City.Clerk@edmonton.ca and ask for your letter to go to all decision makers.
Example:Taking Action: Launching an Environmental Advocacy Campaign
Dear Clerk,
I fully support a strong Public Tree Bylaw. 65% of our canopy trees are on private land, and we are falling short of our canopy goal of 20% coverage. Current data points to 13% coverage and falling.
Name/Ward/Postal Code
Watch Richard Schneider’s webinar on advocacy hosted by Nature Alberta. Taking Action: Launching an Environmental Advocacy Campaign