This morning (June 21), Mayor Peter Brown gave his State of the City Speech to the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce at Woodside Golf Course.

Overall, Mayor Brown iterated that he believes Airdrie is the best community to live in Canada, and said the next five years should be the most exciting the City has seen.

"I love living here. Best community in Canada. I tell everybody everywhere I go, 'Yeah, you guys are really nice, you've got lots of things, I'm really happy to be here,' but I'm always happy to come home. This is home. Airdrie's the best."

In the speech, Mayor Brown outlined a number of municipal initiatives accomplished in the last year or currently underway, while also keeping an eye to the future. The City could soon move to a barcode method for signs and trees, where assets are tagged and can be monitored for upkeep. That will show the City how much money is needed in order to maintain it's assets.

A number of road projects are ongoing. Mayor Brown said he's received confirmation that the 40th Avenue project to Reynolds Gate will be completed by the fall, and the Luxstone Pedestrian Tunnel should see completion by July. The City has also finished designs for a new QE2 interchange, and continue to work on the left hand turn lane out of Sierra Springs and the Yankee Valley twinning project.

In order to accommodate future growth, the City is looking at building a fourth fire hall in the north east, completing plans to have a fire hall in all four corners of Airdrie.

On the transportation front, the City will roll out a phone app for public transit in the fall. The app will take a bus or vehicle near to a rider's house.

Mayor Brown also highlighted the success of the blue bin project, saying they've been able to divert 4,700 metric tonnes of organic material.

He also addressed the controversial Downtown plan roll out, expressing some regret over how the process unfolded. Mayor Brown also touched on the recent flair up over domestic violence numbers, saying that while Airdrie has a problem, the number of instances are not as inflated as had been previously reported.

On the economic front, Mayor Brown said residential growth outpaces business growth, and Airdrie was hit by the down turn, but there's reason to be optimisitic. There are 2,349 commercial or industrial businesses in Airdrie and 1,416 homebased businesses, a 5.7 percent increase in business licenses last year, from 3.89% in 2015. When Mayor Brown talks to local businesses, they say things have been tough, but they're surviving.

"Things are looking better. You talk to home builders in and outside of Airdrie and Calgary - the development industry is always a good gauge - things are looking up. Things are starting to look again. We're starting to see more people coming to our communities so that's always great."

Mayor Brown also said that the City has been able to build strong relationships with the Provincial Government. In the past, it felt like there was a revolving door in Edmonton, but that has changed.

"There's some continuity now. We're starting to know the executives, we're starting to know the chief of staff, we're starting to get to know the ministers. They'll return our calls."

Mayor Brown pointed to the recent debut of 24 hour health care, an increase in new schools, abundant FCSS funding and addressed road and infrastructure needs as the result of strong inter-government relationships.

 

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