Iveson's top priority: sustain Edmonton's prosperity

Don Iveson started the first day of his second term as Edmonton's mayor by meeting all four of the city's new councillors Jon Dziadyk, Aaron Paquette, Sarah Hamiltonand Tim Cartmell.

"The most important priority I have this week is to onboard the new councillors and reconnect with the existing councillors and for us to gather and hear from each other about what we heard from citizens in this election," Ivesontold reporters Tuesday.

"We'll have each heard different things and we need to gather that up into the beginnings of consensus for priorities moving forward."

Ivesonsaid his next priority for his second term will be to ensure the city is able to sustain its prosperityas it evolves from a resource-basedeconomy.

"We had it really good when oil was expensive," Ivesonsaid."That probably won't happen again, so we've got to fight tooth and nail for investment, for talent, for reputation like every other big Canadian city."

• DonIvesoneasily wins 2nd term as Edmonton mayor

Ivesonsaid his job will be to "rally the troops" not only at Edmonton Economic Development Corp. but also at post-secondary institutions, the city's major employers and small businesses to ensure the city sees long-term growth in jobs, wealth,entrepreneurship and innovation.

"Our work at city hall has to be to make Edmonton as resilient as possible," he said.

"But the wind is at our backs right now. People are paying attention now in Toronto, New Yorkand London to what's happening in Edmonton," he said, pointing to RogersPlace, the city's work aroundhomelessness,poverty andreconciliation.

Ivesontook more than 72 per cent of the vote as he cruised to victory Monday.

Incumbents Andrew Knack, Bev Esslinger, Scott McKeen, TonyCaterina, Ben Henderson, Michael Walters, Mike Nickel and Moe Banga were all re-elected, while incumbent Dave Lokenlost in Ward 3 to Dziadyk.

Mayoral tag-team back again

It was a tighter race for mayor in Calgary as Iveson's big-city counterpart in Calgary, Naheed Nenshi held off challenger Bill Smith.

"Mayor Nenshi and I were trading bitmojis into the the end of the night," Iveson said. (A bitmoji is a personalized cartoon avatar popular among social media users.)

"Mayor Nenshi and I have known each other as Don and Naheed since before either of us got elected. Obviously as a friend I'm happy to see him successful and happy to see him return to the big city mayors' table. He's an important ally along with 20 other mayors of Canada's largest cities."

"He and I have tag-teamed the province effectively over the past four years on everything ranging from the city charter, to transit, to affordable housing. We're very well aligned on those issues, so we won't skip a beat this way."

Rejects 'narrative of division'

Ivesonwas asked about Edmontonians who live in the suburbs, where new councillors were elected after running on issues specific to their wards. Based on his door knocking in the suburbs, Edmontonians seemhappy with the work the city is doing in those neighbourhoods, he said.

"As I've said all the way along since nomination day, any narrative of division I roundly reject. I think the numbers back that upas well. People will exploit that. This day and age it's becoming more and more common in our politics, and I challenge that and will continue to challenge that in our council as well if that pops up."

Beaumont-Edmonton relations

John Stewart is Beaumont's newly elected mayor. The relationship between Edmonton and Beaumont is contentiousas themunicipalities are embroiled ina tussle over six square kilometres oflandseparatingthem. Both argue they have the best plan for the land straddling 50thStreet.

The land was recently annexed by thetown of almost 20,000 people for commercial and residential development, but Edmonton has since applied to annex the land for itself.

Despite this, Iveson is still confident he and Stewart can work together.

"I'm optimistic that we'll find a solution there. Really, they're technical issues. They're not personality issues. I think if we start from a technical basis and set that right tone for collaboration, we can achieve the same results with Beaumont we've achieved with other neighbours where we have a much deeper history of distrust that we've overcome."

New council meets next Tuesday

A swearing-in ceremony will be held Oct. 24. It will be followed by a meeting to decide membership of council committees. Their first council meeting is expected to be Nov. 1.