Coming up at City Hall

Rossdale Redevelopment

TAKE ACTION

Register to speak remotely or in-person, or simply come to City Hall Council Chamber at 9:30 am Monday, July 6, to support others speaking about the protection of a sacred site in Rossdale. Scroll down for more ways to take action.

BACKGROUND

City Council will vote on what is the "best use" of the area outlined in red. City administration says the best use is condos despite this area being known as a burial site for many different First Nation and Métis peoples and as a very significant historical place. City administration also has future plans to support more development in Rossdale, including rezoning the area for condos and a developed promenade called Touch the Water from Rossdale past the Groat Road Bridge along the river. By a series of proposals, each building on the one before, the city administration has plans to extract our collective ecology, climate resilience, culture, history, and spirit of the North Saskatchewan River watershed for economic gain. Participate on July 6 and prevent the first domino from falling.

Through education, we can protect and honour this area of Rossdale culturally, but we can also protect it legally with options such as an Indigenous-led protected area and as a National Historic Site. On July 6, join the community in saying no to condo developments on this land!

We would like to know how, when, and where the city conducts First Nations consultation, and how they view government-to-government relations. Is the duty to consult being honoured in a way that builds relationships and a stronger city? In the Rossdale area, where known burials have occurred and where sacred Sundances have been documented, the city should be extremely mindful of honouring relationships.

Most importantly, Rossdale is a sacred space

Rossdale is a sacred space. It is a known burial site for First Nations, Métis, and settler peoples. The extent of the burials is not known. What we do know already is that the site is extensive. Given its significance, protection for the area should be as multilayered as possible. Through education, we can protect and honour it culturally, but we can also protect it legally, perhaps both as an Indigenous-led protected area and as a National Historic Site.

Credit: Mike Bablitz

Get Involved

1. Register to speak on both July 2 and July 6. July 2 is the Urban Planning committee meeting at which City Council will discuss a report on Indigenous Engagement. July 6 is the public hearing at which City Council will discuss the proposal to rezone Rossdale (Items 4.6 4.7 4.8). (The public hearing was rescheduled to this date after Administration stated at a June 23 public hearing that no Indigenous governments or organizations they had reached out to responded to their calls for input on the Rossdale rezoning…yet there were many Indigenous people signed up to speak against it. City Council thus decided to postpone that discussion until after hearing the July 2 report on Indigenous Engagement.) It is important that many people sign up to speak on July 2 and July 6. Both items are important for the future of Indigenous consultation on matters concerning the river valley.

2. Send a letter to individual City Councillors or to city.clerk@edmonton.ca who will forward to all city councillors. Say yes to river valley protection, full and transparent Indigenous consultation, and protection of heritage sites. Say no to rezoning, River Crossing, and Touch the Water.

3. Spread the word about July 2 and July 6! 

4. Read the reports about First Nations consultation that will be discussed on July 2

5. Read more here from Taproot and the Edmonton Journal

6. Need extra support? Reach out to ervccinfo@gmail.com. This issue is big, complex, and we have additional background information too voluminous to post here. If you are going to speak and submit a written communication, keep reading.

Extra guidance for speaking to the Rossdale proposals

  • Open the Agenda for the day the item appears at council, July 6 at 930 am.

  • Sign up to speak using this easy form. The form requires meeting type (public hearing), date (July 6), agenda title (Rossdale) and your name and contact information.

    • You can speak in person or online via Google Meet. When you sign up for the online option, the clerk will send you a link to join the meeting.

    • 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 and the clerks will forward your correspondence to all councillor offices.

    • Visual Presentations Shown During Your Speaking Time are Impactful! Tips for presentations at July 2 and July 6 Meetings:

      This next section is copied from the auto-reply that speakers receive after they register to speak. It's good to note that the meeting clerks display and advance presentations if there are multiple slides. Speakers control their presentation by giving verbal instructions out loud at the meeting.

      To ensure your presentation can be displayed during your speaking time in a meeting, please note the following:

      • Email presentations to city.clerk@edmonton.ca before 4:30 p.m. on the business day before the meeting.

      • Consider numbering your slides for ease of reference.

      • Only presentations in PDF, Google Slides, or PowerPoint format can be displayed during meetings. Individual photo or video files will not be displayed, but you may embed them within your slides or submit them as correspondence. The Office of the City Clerk will attempt to display embedded multimedia, however, some files may be incompatible with the meeting broadcast technology.

      • For cybersecurity and compatibility reasons, USBs or other external storage devices will not be accepted.

      The meeting clerks will share your presentation at your turn to speak and advance your slides. We encourage you to say “next slide” as you advance through your presentation to ensure your presentation advances as intended. 

      For any other questions or to inform us you would no longer like to speak, please contact the Office of the City Clerk at 780-496-8178 or city.clerk@edmonton.ca.

      NOTE: The business day before the July 2 committee meeting is Tuesday, June 30 and presentations should be emailed to the city clerk office by that Tuesday June 30 afternoon for peace of mind. 

      When people email presentations to city.clerk@edmonton.ca, they can request a confirmation email back that the clerks were able to open their presentation.

      This same formula applies to the July 6 public hearing. The business day before is Friday, July 3 and it's best for presentations to be emailed by that Friday afternoon.

City Budget 2027-2030

The budget has 4 parts: capital budget, operating budget, waste services utility budget and the Blatchford renewable energy utility budget.River Crossing subsidy. The City budgets in 4-year cycles, and the council annually approves adjustments to the budget in response to significant changes. The City of Edmonton is scheduled to hold a non-statutory budget public hearing for the 2027–2030 budget cycle on November 23 and 24, 2026. [1] This hearing follows the publication of the proposed operating, capital, and utility budget reports in late October/early November 2026.

2027-2030 Budget Timelines:

  • March 23 – May 1, 2026: Closed. You can find the "What We Heard" reports and monitor for new updates on the Engaged Edmonton website. [1, 2, 3]

    Fall 2026: "What We Heard" report published.

  • Late Oct/Early Nov 2026: Proposed budget reports published.

  • Nov 23-24, 2026: Non-Statutory Budget Public Hearing.

  • December 2026: Council deliberation and final budget approval. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

If you would like to join our budget committee, please reach out to ERVCC.

ONE-YEAR Review OF the new public Spaces Bylaw

The new Public Spaces Bylaw consolidates and replaces previous regulations that addressed parkland, transit, and public places, with new rules that took effect in 2026

You can find the new bylaw here

ERVCC and other advocates for improvements in the bylaw will be undertaking work over the next few months. If you would like to join our Public Spaces Bylaw subcommittee, please reach out to ERVCC.

The City’s Executive Committee approved the Rossdale development on Thursday, March 26. The agenda and debate can be accessed here: https://pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=33ad610a-d3d0-4764-8b9f-1d9ab8814751&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English&Item=29&Tab=attachments. See item 7.5: River Crossing Capital Profile Adjustment. 

Council approved $15 million for underground infrastructure and new roads through Rossdale as phase 1 of the River Crossing and Touch the Water plans. River Crossing is a residential development project meant to bring in 2600 units of housing (including high rises) and Touch the Water is an expensive concrete “promenade” that will involve much tree cutting and transform the area next to the river from a natural area to a concrete park. This project also involves repurposing of the Rossdale Power Plant – which could be a good thing, except that the City has described its vision for this area as highly commercial rather than educational or cultural. Sadly, the executive leadership team does not seem to promote that Edmonton’s river valley, which still functions as a wildlife corridor, holds incredible natural value. We should be proud of and protect our river valley and respect its rights holders.

Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition spoke against the proposal due to ecological / wildlife corridor concerns, flood plain concerns, concerns and lack of Indigenous consultation and public engagement, cultural and historical concerns, and financial concerns.

Here are more details on our ongong reasons for opposition:

1. Ecological / wildlife corridor concerns. This development will greatly disrupt, if not destroy, the North Saskatchewan River Valley as a functional wildlife corridor through our city. This corridor extends all the way from the Rocky Mountains to Elk Island and then Hudson’s Bay, and currently the greatest “pinch point” is Edmonton’s central river valley. We need to restore this area, not degrade it further. The recently approved Ribbon of Green strategic plan states, "As the City of Edmonton grows, the [River Valley and Ravine] System faces increasing pressure from urban development and use. The Ribbon of Green Strategic Plan helps support and sustain an interconnected System that meets the needs of the environment while providing diverse recreational and cultural experiences for those who work, play and/or live in Edmonton.” As this Rossdale project would bring an end to the wildlife corridor, it completely undermines the Ribbon of Green. 

2. Flood plain concerns. The report acknowledges that flooding is a real risk but then says nothing more about it. Flooding here is probable and perhaps even inevitable, especially considering the ecological crisis and increasing extreme weather events. The City recently allowed EPCOR to cut 577 trees in the river valley and build concrete berms as part of their $65 million flood mitigation projects around the Rossdale and E.L. Smith water treatment plants. Cities everywhere are removing concrete barriers and renaturalizing their flood plains as the only way to effectively work with water during flooding; why is Edmonton still engaging in outdated thinking and trying to do the opposite?

3. Concerns with lack of Indigenous consultation and public engagement. The report uses obfuscating language to talk about consultation: “[The project] identifies several areas of focus that seek opportunities for inclusion across various project stages: project engagement, communications and information sharing, historic reviews and monitoring, economic reconciliation and ownership and operations.” Not once does it actually say that Indigenous people were consulted, or how, or that they gave their consent for this project to proceed. What if they simply said “no, Rossdale should not be developed”? In fact, buried below in the report is the statement "Given this previous engagement and the limitations imposed by existing decisions guiding this project, the City’s engagement decision assessment process determined that engagement would not be recommended for this work."

4. Cultural and historical concerns. Rossdale was a gathering space for Indigenous Nations long before settlers arrived, and it is also the historical heart of this city. It is also a former burial ground. This cultural and historical significance should be honoured in Rossdale by leaving the area natural and incorporating existing historical structures into museums / cultural centres that tell this story. Instead, the project proposes just a small “Reconciliation Park” that is not even at the river’s edge. Instead, the river’s edge is taken up by Touch the Water, an expensive concrete promenade that will involve much tree-cutting and replace the natural aspect of this entire area. Furthermore, the only “positive” change this project can say about the important cultural history of this area is that it "will create additional space between the Traditional Burial Grounds and Fort Edmonton Cemetery and the roadway.” That’s it! And the burial ground covers a far larger area than the current memorial site. Why is the City considering building on a former burial ground?

5. Financial concerns. This project is not even financially sound. As the report says, "Revenue from land sales will partially offset development costs, but it is expected that costs will exceed revenue and the project will result in an overall financial loss. This is consistent with information that was shared with Council as part of the RCBP approval. Generally speaking, other profitable land development activities offset unprofitable projects such as this.” If the project won’t even pay for itself, why do it? Furthermore, the estimated "$840 million in construction value” of this area is just a one-off and nothing compared to the value of the land in a natural state.

Selling off and developing the river valley here is akin to killing the goose that lays the golden egg. The City would be far better off focusing on incentivizing residential development of downtown, including affordable housing units, and keeping Rossdale as parkland as an adjacent amenity for those residences. Protecting the river valley and repurposing existing historical structures in Rossdale to honour the culture and history of the area would also help create a sense of identity for Edmontonians and present a major tourism opportunity. Ecotourism is, according to many studies (example here, here, and here) the single largest tourism growth area today. 

Wildlife Corridor Remains Under Threat

The new River Valley Redevelopment plan(RVARP)has passed.

The new RVARP is weaker than the old bylaw, allowing far more discretion by a single development officer. That, combined with a Ribbon of Green that embeds infrastructure that has never been subject to location scrutiny or environmental review, means we must remain vigilant. Below, find news regarding specific threats.

1) upzoning proposal in Rossdale by Eugene Dub

Soon City Council will decide whether or not to approve an amendment to the Rossdale Area Redevelopment Plan that would allow for three residential / commercial towers of up to 17 storeys and 490 units. ERVCC opposes this proposal for four main reasons:

1. Environmental impact on the wildlife corridor and bird migratory corridor. This area is an important part of the wildlife corridor and migratory bird corridor. It is currently riparian habitat and park space. As the City Plan, the Ribbon of Green, the River Valley Bylaw, the Natural Connections Strategic Plan and other city plans and policies make clear, we need to protect the river valley, not develop it.

2. The land is a flood plain. As Calgary and High River learned twelve years ago, it is a bad idea to build in flood plains. This is particularly important to understand now that we are in an ecological crisis and are seeing extreme weather events and massive flooding at unpredictable levels. It is misguided to say that because the glaciers are receding, the risk of flooding is low; the fact is that the wildfires in Alberta forests mean that all the rivers in our province have a great risk for flooding now, as the trees and topsoil that would normally slow runoff, especially in the mountains, are gone. Respecting flood plains is more important than ever. Considering the City recently granted Epcor permission to do “flood mitigation” work in Rossdale, it makes no sense to allow further development in this area. 

3. This development detracts from downtown residential development. We need more people to move downtown in order to support the businesses there. This project would detract from downtown residential development. If instead the land was protected and restored as biodiverse parkland, it would serve downtown residents (and all Edmontonians). 

4. Public and Indigenous engagement results. The public engagement process showed that nearly three times as many people oppose the project than support it, largely for the reasons above. We have also heard from Indigenous community members that they are concerned about the impacts of this project on such culturally sensitive land. 

Action: Please email city council (see their email addresses below) and tell them you oppose this project and want to see the river valley protected. You can also sign up to speak here. It is item numbers 3.13 / 3.14, “Rossdale proposed development."

2) The new bike skills park has been approved by the council.

ERVCC’s response is to look for restoration opportunities in the central valley and focus on preventing further infrastructure that could create a choke zone for wildlife. We call on all partners (bikers, walkers, paddlers, birders, etc) to help us look for opportunities in the central valley for road diets, fence removal, and other restoration opportunities.