Andrew Knack — Alberta Municipalities "Votes 2025" mayoral interview (~1 hr, July 2025)

Auto-caption transcript pulled with yt-dlp --write-auto-sub. Timestamps are from the YouTube auto-captions.

Self-positioning / privilege (00:00–00:55): - "So it starts by being cognizant of the fact that I do have great privilege in this role as a as a 41-year-old middle-aged white male."

Why run (02:35–03:10): - "I'm running for mayor to stand up for everyday Edmontonians. We are hearing over and over again across the city that people are struggling with affordability. They're worried about their safety and they're wondering how we're going to keep up with the incredibly rapid population growth." - "I have a track record of being able to deliver on each of those areas over and over and over again."

Taxes / the "middle ground" (12:40–14:57): - "we did create some challenges by keeping property taxes artificially low throughout the pandemic ... So, we're not going to go back to an austerity budget like we went from 2019 to 2022, but we're also not going to have a budget like we've seen from 2023 to 2026. We've got to find that middle ground." - "freezing property taxes in a city that grew 200,000 people over the last 4 years. That's irresponsible." - "I'm not going to have a 0% property tax. I will not be proposing an austerity budget in the next term of city council because that would be irresponsible." - "you actually do need to spend money to ensure you can maintain an affordable city. There are programs that we offer that serve those in lower incomes and without those programs they actually can't get to employment."

Role of government vs business/nonprofits (15:20–17:20) — asked "do we invest too much... is the municipality doing what businesses can be doing themselves": - "100%. And that's part of why this budget exercise is going to be so important ... you're bringing in the businesses where you're bringing in nonprofits you're finding out where you can get better value where you can be putting dollars that produce better outcomes." - Retells a rec-centre example: "right now you're paying about $32 an hour to offer a knitting course ... If you gave us that $32 an hour, we could ... get a multiplier effect with the dollars." (Frames contracting-out community programs as efficiency.)

Independence / left-right (18:07–20:41): - "you don't accomplish that by bringing everyone under the same banner thinking the same way ... the partisan system is so broken right now that that does not actually encourage real open dialogue." - "All of the motions I've been able to pass have included people who are on the right side of the spectrum, on the left side of the spectrum, in the center." - "you'll put me wherever you want on the political spectrum, but there have been times where there are people who are considered very opposite to me that I would sit down with ... find out we actually have a lot more in common than we thought."

Housing — market vs non-market (28:45–30:37): - "So what does the housing solution look like under a Knack mayoralship? So I think it's a continuation of the work we've already been doing under our land use bylaws." Interviewer: "enough though?" Knack: "No, because that just solves the market side of things. And then there's the non-market housing which ... is primarily provincial jurisdiction." - On supportive housing: "What if we treated it like it was our jurisdiction. What if we just took over? ... We have a housing entity called HomeMed that is arms length ... Why shouldn't they be a supportive housing provider?"

Homelessness as a cost calculation (42:00–45:37) — recounting an AHS study of 43 chronically homeless people: - "Forget the — Let's set aside our hearts for a moment. Let's just look at the money spent." - "the data shows over and over and over again it actually costs less to do the right thing." - On the downtown event-park deal: "the day that we had to vote on that I rode my bike into work that day and I was passing by people sleeping in the dirt ... So the money is there. We just have to prioritize it properly ... putting it into the things that are actual needs ... and not things that are clearly wants."

Bail / violent offenders (45:53–46:24): - "it's the system's broken. There's still too many violent offenders getting back out. they need to be held accountable. Hold the violent offenders accountable."

Police funding formula — HE SUPPORTED IT (46:36–48:30): - "Originally, I had a concern with a standalone police funding formula. I actually wanted to see a community safety and well-being funding formula ... For a variety of reasons, council of the day chose to go forward with just a police funding formula on its own. I did support that funding formula. ... there does need to be some stability." - "I do hope that the next council ... does revisit the notion of a community safety funding formula instead of a police-only funding formula." - "Our crime rate is at the lowest rate in more than a decade in the city. Not now, not everyone feels that in the community."

Original source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQj0wUtUR04 Retrieved: 2026-07-04