Suburban ‘glamour projects’ put Ward 7 incumbent on hot seat

Veteran councillor Tony Caterina came under fire at a Ward 7 candidates forum Thursday night from combative challengers who accused him of not standing up for the interest of older communities in northeast Edmonton.

Caterina, fighting for a third term on council, said he’s proud of his record, which includes revitalization projects such as Alberta Avenue, a new pool and redevelopment of Borden Park and a new recreation centre in Abbottsfield.

But rival Dave Colburn, former school trustee, accused Caterina of voting for many projects in the suburbs rather than supporting redevelopment in mature neighbourhoods.

“Suburban sprawl hurts older neighbourhoods, brings more traffic and pollution here and leads to school closures,” said Colburn, who also said he’s opposed to taking donations from developers — as Caterina has done in the last two elections.

Candidate Terry Rolls said Caterina supported “glamour projects” such as Alberta Avenue rather than looking for ways to keep people in the community.

“The biggest concern is why young people aren’t coming to the ward,” said Rolls. “Without schools in the ward, families won’t come, houses won’t sell and there could be a downward spiral.”

Tish Prouse, 30, making his first bid for council, said it’s clear the northeast communities are seen as “bad and shoddy” by the rest of the city.

“That’s because we don’t have a good champion at city hall,” he said.

Candidate Mimi Williams said encouraging higherdensity development in the ward is important for revitalization, but “we have to be sure we preserve the character of the communities.”

Williams also said while she dislikes subsidies for business, she’d like to see a business incubator program specially aimed at new Canadians.

The ward is very ethnically diverse, but many of those people can’t get credit to start business — yet the ward is full of small businesses and has room for more, she said.

Traffic short-cutting is a major problem and needs to be addressed with lower speed limits and street barriers to cut down traffic, Williams added.

“I certainly would not ignore a 1,400-name petition as the incumbent did,” said Williams, referring to a traffic petition from Newton community.

But Caterina said his projects have already had some success.

Parkdale community has seen an influx of new housing, a sign that people are responding.

Colburn drew applause when he called for a city council that adheres to “fairness and equity as guiding principles, and fights poverty and eliminates homelessness.”

Candidate Daniel Eniafe did not attend the forum.