Councillor Henderson, from City Hall

I’d like to thank you all heartily for the various kinds of support you gave me during the recent election campaign.  Whether you gave of your time and skills, put up a sign, made a donation, or just offered your feedback, it was all essential in getting me to City Hall today.  As you know I have been an advocate in the community for many years, and had determined that the most effective way to serve those voices was to get in there myself and speak up on City Council.  With your help we have succeeded.  Thank you once again.

Now, the work begins.  It’s been a short two weeks since I’ve moved into City Hall, and already the round of pressing Council business and the number of meetings are accelerating.   Already, I see important issues for this ward emerging: planning for balanced, sustainable city-wide growth; ensuring community involvement in this planning; supporting initiatives which will enhance our overall quality of life; always considering protection of our environment first; developing our public transportation system; providing more and varied affordable housing opportunities, and supporting our attractive River Valley system. I fully support the Mayor’s initiatives, particularly regarding planning, and I am committed to seeing that we have a good consultation process in place around planning decisions.

I believe that Edmonton's long-term prosperity is linked to making sure that Edmonton is a city that people want to live in. This means creating neighbourhoods that continue to attract people, responding to the immediate pressures of growth without damaging the very communities we’re encouraging, and taking a leadership role in protecting our environment. I think it requires rethinking how this city grows and how we get around in our city. It means we must continue to provide the many things we expect in a great multicultural city like this, such as parks, the arts, recreation opportunities, festivals, and sports facilities, while looking into and planning for the future.  As well, I’ll be working on one of our new initiatives, to create a “winter city” that is as dynamic and attractive as the city we have in the summer.