Knack on P3s — "shouldn't shy away" from private partnerships

Original source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/knack-says-council-shouldnt-shy-away-from-private-partnerships-on-public-projects/ Also (his stated line): https://www.mayorknack.ca/priorities ; https://andrewknack.ca/vision-for-edmonton Retrieved: 2026-07-04

CTV News, Nov 18, 2025 (Knack's first weeks as Mayor): headline "Knack says council 'shouldn't shy away' from private partnerships on public projects." Edmonton's new council "agreed to consider partnering with private sector partners to build public projects," aimed at "underfunded projects." The article names no specific project and quotes no union reaction.

Alongside this, Knack's own campaign framing was protective on the service side: he "won't cut or privatize the services that make Edmonton strong" (vision/priorities pages), while being "open to exploring public-private housing partnerships to build affordable homes."

Honesty note: this is a nuance, not a contradiction to flatten. Knack draws a line between privatizing existing city services (which he says he opposes) and P3s to build new capital projects (which he embraces). P3s remain a documented mechanism for shifting public infrastructure risk/returns to private capital, so his openness to them is fairly set beside the pro-worker brand — but do NOT report it as "Knack wants to privatize city services," which the record does not support.