The Critical Compass Podcast - Fixing Edmonton w⧸City Council Candidate Jason Bale

00:00:00.000 you know the intent of that part that keep in the open mind is to hear feedback from the public

00:00:04.560 because we are a democracy and you know that's one of the downsides of democracy is that

00:00:09.940 you know what it's a majority rule if the majority thinks this bad idea is something that we should

00:00:14.560 do oh well right i mean but whether it's council members or the city or even other orders of

00:00:21.380 government uh i think they recognize that piece that well people don't know so i just got to

00:00:26.740 have to explain this harder and it's like well no if you think of it as an elevator pitch right

00:00:34.240 with businesses if you can't get your idea out by the end of the elevator ride then then oh well

00:00:39.100 you've missed your opportunity so it's the same thing i mean there's there's we put so much burden

00:00:43.540 on residents to have to go read these reports the zoning bylaw i think it was 1057 pages or so i mean

00:00:50.480 who's honestly going to read that it took me a while to read through it uh and i didn't read it

00:00:56.180 in time for the public hearing and i'm generally interested in this so to find somebody that's

00:01:00.540 generally not interested in this stuff like that's why we elect representatives so that we don't have

00:01:05.220 to do this

00:01:05.880 welcome back to the critical compass i'm james this is mike and we've got jason bale who's running for

00:01:28.460 city council here in edmonton now jason and i sat down or we chatted about a month ago

00:01:35.100 and i wanted to extend that conversation based on what we we had it seems like there's a lot of

00:01:42.180 frustrations right now in well how the city is run let it be roads let it be services let it be

00:01:50.680 all these kind of pet projects that are using some of the money that people maybe feel should be

00:01:56.980 allocated somewhere else and these frustrations they i think they speak to a truth and it's not

00:02:03.520 only edmonton and we do have listeners uh across alberta even canada wide and i feel like what is

00:02:11.640 true for edmonton is not it's not unique here so i think there's some valuable insights today in

00:02:19.440 learning kind of uh what your observations are um kind of what what has shaped kind of your experience

00:02:28.340 and what you're running like what kind of ideas you're running on and what do you plan to do if

00:02:34.020 elected to city council so if you want to give us a little bit of an intro uh

00:02:39.980 sure so uh i think uh you nailed it i'm jason bale i'm running for city council and

00:02:46.180 ward gario uh sorry gar e heo it's one of those tricky ones to pronounce uh quickly but um

00:02:53.280 uh yeah and so if you're not familiar with the area it's uh approximately 50th street to gateway

00:02:59.300 boulevard and white mud to city limits it extends a bit beyond that but that's a good general main road

00:03:06.420 uh marker and uh i'm running because you know i've worked at city hall before i've seen how the

00:03:12.320 sausage is made and uh quite frankly i think we can do better and that's what i'm running to try

00:03:18.300 and accomplish my my first question is then like well how do we even determine what like what a good

00:03:26.140 outcome for a city like what is a well-managed city anyways like what what metric would we use to even

00:03:33.920 um decide that and like how how do you how do we go about like implementing change sure so i think the

00:03:44.200 the best metric for that is honestly the elections um you know when we see 33 voter turnout we don't

00:03:50.640 really get a sample size people aren't you know driving out to the polls with with excitement you know

00:03:56.260 and um whereas when we look at federal and provincial you know the turnout's a bit higher uh still not

00:04:03.420 quite where i'd like to see it uh but i think that's one metric for for success of uh you know

00:04:09.460 we want i want to give people uh something to vote for rather than something to vote against

00:04:14.540 and i mean and some people are still going to want to vote against things and that is entirely their

00:04:19.600 prerogative um but uh you know in my mind i like to vote for something not against something

00:04:25.680 uh as far as how we we accomplish that i think it it ultimately comes down to the the kind of

00:04:31.980 conversations that city hall is having whether it's budget conversations or committee meetings

00:04:37.900 or zoning hearings or whatever i think the when council members get that five minutes to speak

00:04:44.020 it that kind of gives you some insight into the direction of the city

00:04:48.520 uh jason what was it that like what was the what was the last straw for you what was you know what

00:04:57.440 what were you doing before you got into politics or getting getting into wanting to think about

00:05:02.660 running for politics and what was it that sort of the last straw that just said you know what

00:05:07.900 screw it i'm getting it i'm running for counselor what was it that did it for you so for me i was a um

00:05:13.940 in a past life i was a training coordinator for a casino and uh i i had lost my job in in the second

00:05:21.160 round of layoffs and uh then you know my wife and i we talked about it and we're like you know what

00:05:26.220 i'm just gonna be a homemaker then for the kids and uh and so i was doing that for a while but

00:05:31.300 one thing with being a homemaker is that you have a lot of time on your hands um to observe news and

00:05:38.200 you know what's going on with paw patrol and uh all sorts of things but you you're having more

00:05:44.320 conversations you're out on play dates and talking with other parents so uh that's when i started first

00:05:49.460 really like paying attention to to what was going on in more of the minute details uh previously like

00:05:56.240 i've always been a voter my grandparents used to drag me to the polls and say we don't care who

00:06:00.280 you're voting for you check something on that ballot uh so but it was that 2015 2016 kind of mark

00:06:08.080 and that was when i ran for the ward 12 by-election with 32 candidates and i was like i can do better i

00:06:13.420 think we need to to be more fiscally responsible i'm going to run my campaign on a hundred dollars to

00:06:17.620 demonstrate fiscal responsibility and i got 37 votes so that didn't work out but uh but from that i

00:06:24.660 not a bad spend to vote ratio though and you know it's funny because the the journalists at the time

00:06:30.220 they were talking about who how much each campaign spent for how many votes but they uh they put off

00:06:36.920 a marker for for candidates who got over a hundred votes right yeah of course so i was like well yeah i

00:06:43.120 got the best vote uh spend ratio and yeah okay a couple of others got good and they you know got

00:06:48.780 third second place but uh but yeah so excuse me and so from there uh in 2017 i approached uh city

00:06:58.020 councillor mike nickel and said hey you know i ran i don't know what i did wrong do you mind if i come

00:07:03.100 join your campaign and maybe i can learn some things and you know maybe i can help you out because

00:07:07.420 actually i was not a lot of people know this and not even mike uh but i was actually planning to run

00:07:12.800 against mike but then i looked up his voting record and i was like i would have voted the exact same way

00:07:17.880 in every one of these situations so why do i want to run against that why don't i you know reach out for

00:07:23.700 with a helping hand instead and uh and so you know as an incumbent you always get those offers of

00:07:30.020 people coming to you oh let me help you in your campaign and so mike was yep yep come along here's the

00:07:34.260 information and but then i stuck with him through the year and then he hired me into his uh his office

00:07:40.540 for the 2017 to 2021 term right yeah so you kind of mentioned that uh there's a certain amount of

00:07:49.420 apathy uh especially when it comes to municipal um the municipal side where people direct a lot of

00:07:56.900 their anger towards the federal and or provincial um but as mike and i have explored more of this

00:08:03.460 and we've had more conversations we're starting to realize that there's a lot of change that can

00:08:09.760 happen at the municipal level and it feels like some of these issues are the ones that do affect

00:08:16.660 somebody's day-to-day life a little bit more directly um and the rate of change if something's

00:08:23.980 implemented you see it right away like a road being under like a whole bunch of roads being under

00:08:30.100 construction that changes your commute that changes the way that you move around city that changes how

00:08:37.020 you how the city feels um your property taxes that's something somebody really cares about uh and

00:08:44.680 good transportation safety these are all things that you it's impossible to ignore and i i feel like

00:08:54.340 well first of all how do you like how do you address the apathy side of things is that like

00:09:02.560 is there an engagement piece and like what do we do to kind of get that turned around so i think you

00:09:08.620 kind of nailed it there with that engagement piece and over the years the city's approach to public

00:09:14.600 engagement has become more show and tell rather than a two-way conversation and this was one of the

00:09:20.180 things that i noticed actually during covid with michael's park there was some first place housing

00:09:24.640 going in now first place housing the program intent is not bad i actually don't disagree with it

00:09:30.700 it didn't achieve the outcomes it was looking for uh and it's it was taking away green space from the

00:09:37.540 community so why are we taking away this this desired green space to put in something that does that we

00:09:43.340 know doesn't work and great during covid they were trying to to hold or to use covid as a reason to

00:09:52.440 not do public engagement and so i drafted them a nasty letter and i signed mike's name to it and i made

00:09:59.460 him read it and made him ink it and um but it was like look when it came to the lrt uh construction

00:10:06.920 you didn't listen to the to the residents of michael park michael's park when it came to the

00:10:11.580 christopher's pub development when they wanted four eight now 12 stories you didn't listen to them

00:10:16.880 when you asked them about first place housing you said do you want one or two units and they said well

00:10:20.920 we don't want any nice and then you came back and said well you get three complexes then when it was the

00:10:26.400 uh the public engagement for the the epcor drainage in the area and the dry ponds you were asking them

00:10:33.000 you know what's important to them they prioritize green space and then you still put in these um these

00:10:38.000 programs when you asked them about transit service they said yes transit's important to us then you

00:10:42.420 took off all the transit off of the uh 76th street there so they're not engaging because it doesn't

00:10:49.600 matter what they say you're not listening to them and you're demonstrating that day-to-day and that needs

00:10:55.500 to change uh so uh and in the letter i said absolutely absolutely not are you skipping this uh

00:11:03.460 um public engagement you will find a way to do it virtually you will postpone it you will do

00:11:08.280 something or we will make a motion to make you do it so do you think jason that uh i don't really

00:11:16.220 know a whole lot about what you're just talking about as far as community engagement goes but

00:11:20.380 do you think that uh like what are the what are the barriers there like is it something where um the

00:11:27.240 city has a plan and they kind of already know what they're going to do and they're just doing this

00:11:31.240 as lip service or is there are there competing interests that come in like if they you know

00:11:35.220 they'll they'll they'll do the the engagement in earnest but when the answer comes back and

00:11:40.100 something that might go against what you know a contractor might envision the contractors you know

00:11:46.560 desire overrides the community like what what is the barrier there so i think it's a little bit of

00:11:51.140 both uh for example the the speed limit reductions that's a one that everyone knows about that they

00:11:56.440 went down to 40 so when that result came the survey question went out do you want residential roadway

00:12:02.440 speed limits to be 50 40 or 30 and most the it was pretty evenly split three ways but the winner was

00:12:11.720 50 kilometers an hour and they interpreted that as most people don't want 50 kilometers an hour so

00:12:17.500 let's compromise at 40 uh you know they knew what they wanted and then they just found a way to

00:12:22.320 to interpret the results so uh and then there's other times where they they have a leading question

00:12:27.840 where they um you know on a uh on a scale to one on to pineapple on pizza how much do you love lrt

00:12:36.560 and then people say well pineapple on pizza because some people love it some people don't

00:12:41.280 and then the city will say oh pineapple on pizza one therefore more lrt you know it's because we're

00:12:48.400 interpreting that as a good thing right so i right it's a matter of uh of uh just

00:12:56.320 wording the questions in such a way that you shockingly you always get to the answer that you

00:13:00.400 want yeah on a scale of nine to ten how much do you love photo radar kind of thing yeah you can

00:13:07.600 definitely manipulate the perception of an answer based on how it's how it's structured and um

00:13:14.560 um one thing i've kind of been paying attention or trying to like observe is it seems like there's

00:13:24.240 the universities obviously set the tone for a lot of these principles but when it comes to urban design

00:13:31.760 and the way that well these are the correct principles of what works for a city and i feel

00:13:37.200 like some of those principles are europe centric or they're not cold weather centric they they they're

00:13:46.480 this utopian vision of a city it's often like these principles of here's what's this this this is what

00:13:55.040 makes good design and we looked at uh we looked at amsterdam and we looked at a few places in the states and

00:14:01.920 we took the best of all these places and here's what we're going to do for edmonton and it feels

00:14:08.320 like when you get these ideas floating around and especially sometimes you get this kind of hubris

00:14:14.720 around well we know what's best and obviously the citizens don't know they don't understand these

00:14:20.160 principles and they they've never lived in these other cities so they don't know how good it could be

00:14:25.760 it's almost like there's an arrogance that prevents that back and forth dialogue

00:14:34.000 so i i think you're you're exactly right i mean there's i watch a lot of council meetings right i

00:14:40.000 don't watch every one of them i try but it's it's pretty mind-numbing because one of the phrases too

00:14:45.200 that comes up often is this is good urban design this is not good urban design and i'm sitting there

00:14:51.680 thinking it's a public hearing it's a statutory public hearing at that so you're you're legally

00:14:57.120 obligated to keep an open mind so um so you should be at you know the intent of that part that keep in

00:15:05.520 the open mind is to hear feedback from the public because we are a democracy and you know that's one

00:15:11.200 of the downsides of democracy is that you know what it's a majority rule if the majority thinks this

00:15:16.640 bad idea is something that we should do oh well right i mean but we accept that trade-off

00:15:23.600 because the other alternatives to democracy are much worse so but and i think that uh a lot of

00:15:32.480 whether it's council members or the city or even other orders of government uh i think they recognize

00:15:38.640 that piece that well people don't know so i just got to have to explain this harder and it's like well no if

00:15:45.120 you think of it as an elevator pitch right with businesses if you can't get your idea out by the

00:15:51.120 end of the elevator ride then then oh well you've missed your opportunity so it's the same thing i

00:15:55.760 mean there's there's we put so much burden on residents to have to go read these reports the

00:16:01.280 zoning bylaw i think it was 1057 pages or so i mean who's honestly going to read that it took me

00:16:07.680 a while to read through it uh and i didn't read it in time for the public hearing uh so

00:16:14.640 and i'm generally interested in this so to find somebody that's generally not interested in this

00:16:18.800 stuff like that's why we elect representatives so that we don't have to do this and they should

00:16:22.880 be respecting that and uh so i think yeah there's there's a huge burden on that that learning curve and

00:16:30.080 the the city needs to get better at it and politicians need to do less of well no you

00:16:36.640 don't understand let me just explain it harder um do you think that there's a um in your experience

00:16:44.080 then in these sort of uh meetings in this sort of this sort of world uh is there like a

00:16:52.080 like a pervasive sort of arrogance that kind of uh uh is in these in these meeting rooms like do

00:16:58.880 do you feel like if you can i'm sort of asking you just to speak on behalf of these people but

00:17:04.320 do you feel like they feel that they're just kind of smarter than everyone and everyone needs to sort

00:17:09.280 of just get with the program or is there something else maybe at play so not always but i think

00:17:14.640 occasionally you're going to find an item where somebody uh uh like if there's an item that's relevant

00:17:21.840 to their background such as urban if they were an urban planner then they're going to be very hard on that

00:17:26.880 um that well this is good urban design therefore i know better than you because i'm actually

00:17:32.640 experienced in this field and so on so maybe you get some of that uh i'm struggling to think of any

00:17:39.760 examples off the top of my head but uh and that may may or may not be one it was just more relevant

00:17:44.160 because we were just talking about it but but i think that you're going to have these these

00:17:50.080 and you kind of expect that too right like the mayor is a former transit driver so you would expect

00:17:54.720 him to know transit the file inside and out so may maybe there's some arrogance there maybe not i

00:18:04.240 i don't know in that case um specifically but uh but that's what i would guess that's something i've

00:18:10.000 maybe seen in the past that files that certain council members are passionate about they they feel

00:18:14.560 they know every answer about it and they're going to push hard for it and there's no change in their

00:18:19.120 mind but um mostly those matters are not ones that they're they're required to be open to persuasion on

00:18:29.200 yeah and and i feel like part of that is um you've got other ideas that kind of sit in the background of

00:18:37.040 well these are ideas that are both kind of more globally talked about let it be like well we have to be a

00:18:46.480 green city well we need to save the environment and you get these kind of the tone set top down

00:18:55.200 and then it feels like a lot of both even small towns and larger cities like edmonton are

00:19:02.400 they're picking up on these ideas and implementing it but i'm wondering i'm like i'm just a citizen like i

00:19:11.840 i don't have any specific expertise in this but it feels like should that be should the ecological

00:19:19.520 side be a priority if basic services are are lacking um if if like we look at calgary and they want to

00:19:32.000 they're doing all this all these developments but not they they they've known about their pipes they've

00:19:40.160 known that there's been issues and then it hit a critical obviously with the the major leak and

00:19:47.360 months of no water for how however many thousands of citizens like why why should the eco even be like

00:19:58.240 why is that even part of the the discussion if we can't even do the base level things right

00:20:04.000 sure so i think there's a um there's a point where it's we have to be conscious about it i'm a bit of

00:20:11.440 environmentalist myself i've participated in capital city cleanup for years and i just i go out and i i

00:20:16.320 clean up a section of the community and um and that's not under my name that's under somebody else's

00:20:22.160 name and then i just excitedly join the team every year and uh but that's not something that i tend to go

00:20:27.440 about that's something i like to do for the integrity of doing it and and that's me just trying to do my part

00:20:32.800 right i used to put on social media about it but i've since stopped um uh another one i do is is

00:20:39.840 metal detecting and i clean up a lot of trash while i do that in the uh the playground like yeah i know

00:20:46.000 that a slurpy cup isn't going to set off my metal detector but i can see it i'm walking beside it i've

00:20:51.440 got a garbage bag i might as well pick it up and uh so i do a lot of environmental cleanup that way

00:20:58.240 but then on the other side too when we're talking about trees like there's a way that we can

00:21:03.440 provide good service while being conscious about the environment so one example is the uh a lot of

00:21:10.240 some of these houses in uh in the ward i'm running for they back onto the henday and when you're coming

00:21:15.760 off 50th street and 66th street and going onto the henday they get a lot of noise that just travels across

00:21:21.680 the field and ricochets off their house and it is frustrating so one of the solutions would be well

00:21:29.920 why don't we let them build a higher fence you know instead of cutting them off at six feet why can't

00:21:34.560 we let them go to 12 feet if they want if they're backing onto the highway why not and the city says no

00:21:40.880 no we can't do that and so and then one of the ideas uh presented by mike and the previous council was

00:21:47.600 well why don't we plant a whole bunch of trees there and eventually they'll grow to mature trees

00:21:52.720 and they'll catch a lot of that sound and it'll be a natural barrier we're environmentally conscious

00:21:57.440 we're planting more trees and we're addressing the sound issues so you know i like that idea um

00:22:03.840 and and so when we're talking about environment there's a way to use the environmental uh

00:22:10.080 to be conscious about the environment for the benefit of other things too so yeah i think that's

00:22:15.840 pretty like that kind of stuff that you're talking about is it's fairly uncontroversial even for

00:22:20.560 you know people who uh you know you can you can say what you want about you know um climate change

00:22:27.920 and net zero initiatives and things like that what you're talking about i mean i don't know anyone who

00:22:32.960 thinks that we should be putting more garbage on the ground or you know like like that's a good thing

00:22:37.680 we should be dumping less things into waterways and picking up more plastic and trash from the ground

00:22:42.640 i think that um what we see and and i don't i don't know if i could point to specific examples you

00:22:48.800 probably would know this more than me but i think when we see people in municipal or or even provincial

00:22:54.480 politics for that matter talking about um you know global initiatives for you know um reducing

00:23:01.360 carbon and you know kind of nebulous sort of uh uh um broad you know undefinable things like this

00:23:09.200 with regard to municipal politics i i think that sort of sounds like to to people like me and james

00:23:15.920 it probably sounds a little bit wishy-washy a little bit like we're trying to check off like

00:23:20.000 progressive boxes rather than doing real things uh do you do you think that that's a problem in

00:23:25.920 in our council right now like do you think we have um i don't know if you want to call it a globally

00:23:31.440 minded uh uh maybe a lip service sort of council rather than one focusing on real issues so uh i think

00:23:40.880 there's there's some you know degree of of uh global issues that that can be addressed with at the

00:23:47.680 the municipal level for example on the the uh net zero claim uh that the that we're trying to go

00:23:54.720 towards as a city so city has a carbon budget they're not doing great on the metrics turns out

00:23:59.840 private sectors doing it a lot better than government so who would have thought but um but one of the

00:24:05.360 options is like the zoning bylaw for example they they allowed up to three stories with um up to eight

00:24:12.160 units with no appeal process no um public hearing requirement no nothing like that for the residents

00:24:21.120 so now if i've got a single story bungalow and i put up solar panels and then a developer comes and

00:24:27.360 buys my neighbor's house and puts up three stories and covers my son well now like why where's my incentive

00:24:35.040 to do that and i actually did it for my grandmother's house i looked at the uh putting solar panels up uh

00:24:40.960 there uh to try and increase the value of her her retirement home a little bit there give her a

00:24:44.880 little bit more of a nest egg and it was going to cost about um i don't remember the cost but it

00:24:52.960 there was a map i forget that the web address but it was just it was great map where it shows your son

00:24:59.200 uh exposure and her roof was able to get four and a half times the energy of the average usage in the

00:25:06.960 neighborhood so i'm thinking yeah you're going to get you know rebates on your your um your electricity

00:25:13.200 bill this is going to be great but because of the administrative fees and how long that would uh

00:25:18.640 actually take for her to pay that off it was about 20 years before she breaks even and after 25 years

00:25:26.000 the panels need to be replaced so it's a very long time to get a return on that investment and over the

00:25:34.160 course of that time somebody could put up a big development and ruin your son and then there

00:25:39.440 goes your investment so i think council needs to be more friendly to that kind of stuff more

00:25:44.000 opportunity friendly like we're going to give you the opportunity to excuse me we're going to give you

00:25:50.480 the opportunity to put solar panels on your roof and if you do we're going to help protect your

00:25:54.640 investment by making sure that that you're not going to get covered by a large development and

00:25:59.760 interesting they went the opposite direction i guess you're into the the area of like how many

00:26:07.120 of these things should be mandatory and how much should citizens be empowered to make good choices

00:26:14.720 and anytime things are made mandatory i'm a little bit skeptical because then you're like well who

00:26:20.400 decides like when was it decided that well like should every house have a should you be forced to have

00:26:29.440 solar panels in every house like i wouldn't like it may make sense solar panel factory yeah like

00:26:36.160 it may make sense in certain cases but anytime there's more of a top-down push uh that's a

00:26:43.120 different thing and then you run into cases where it may seem like a good idea on paper and then you

00:26:51.360 you well i i i know people who've worked in the oil field and they've they've needed like um data

00:27:00.560 loggers and other equipment and they go to a company like a well-established company in the the states

00:27:08.000 and they say yeah we're rated for cold weather we're rated for minus 20 and they're like are you kidding

00:27:13.520 me like that's not cold weather things work a little bit differently in edmonton in january than

00:27:19.600 they do in other places i think you look at our fleet of electric buses and that doesn't feel like

00:27:27.040 feels like even on the net zero side of things even if you're trying to reduce carbon there are better uses

00:27:35.200 than just buses and like put that same amount of money into something else even directly on the eco

00:27:42.080 focus and we we could have just with that little bit of insight and understanding of how brutal

00:27:50.240 winters are for for some of these battery systems like we we could have had a different outcome there

00:27:55.120 so and i think that's a shining example of like where some of these frustrations from the citizen level

00:28:00.560 come from because they see these big things they see this waste of money and then they see council

00:28:07.280 like saying well we need more money we need a bigger budget or we need to raise property taxes when they

00:28:14.080 haven't really demonstrated that the money was well spent in the first place well and i think you bring

00:28:21.520 up a good point with the uh the electric buses there because we used to have electro electric buses a long

00:28:26.320 time ago and they used to be connected to power lines and that technology worked maybe it wasn't

00:28:33.040 ideal it was uh hard to to adjust the routes right i i get that but for a lot of our crosstown routes

00:28:40.240 that we know are not going to change they are popular they were in the previous uh bus network they've

00:28:46.560 made it through to this bus network because they're so popular i don't see why we can't put up lines for

00:28:51.280 those uh so but instead you know they want to experiment with these this you know electric

00:28:58.080 buses like you said and uh maybe it was a good idea on paper and and you know i wish that they would

00:29:06.160 just say to the address it like that like hey we made a mistake there is nothing wrong with admitting

00:29:12.880 you made a mistake i've done it many times i've admitted i've made a mistake um and so i wish that they

00:29:20.400 would be more thoughtful that way or oh we tested electric buses which i think are generally a good

00:29:27.280 idea if we can do it properly like i mentioned with the uh the old lines but when when we do it with

00:29:34.640 this way with these these batteries that froze and then we got no accountability because the company

00:29:39.040 went out of business it gives more credence to the people who are saying no i never want this because

00:29:47.200 it's green i'm just going to be defiant and now we validated them a little bit so so i think we need

00:29:52.480 to be a little bit careful about the kind of approach that we may take and make sure that it's going to

00:29:57.200 work when we're trying new ideas or admit hey this didn't work but you know what we we lost the battle

00:30:03.360 we're going to win the war on this issue so yeah that accountability part is the uh is the the one i'd say

00:30:11.200 a lot of people have a have a um they don't have much experience hearing that from politicians so

00:30:16.160 that's that's really nice to hear from you um that kind of leads me into my next question uh let's uh

00:30:22.080 let's predict the future here and we'll say that you get elected for your award you're edmonton city

00:30:27.280 counselor how do you how do you envision your first term going what are some of the uh like what are you

00:30:34.000 some of your main points that you want to uh that you want to see uh at least being discussed uh when

00:30:39.280 when you get the opportunity to put in front of council sure so the first issue that's going to

00:30:43.600 be on the next council's uh docket is the budget we're gonna have about five weeks or so from

00:30:49.920 election time to budget and i think two or three of those weeks are going to be spent training so

00:30:54.720 there's not going to be a lot of time to make any meaningful change and that's why the outgoing

00:30:59.760 council does the first year budget for the incoming council it's a long-standing tradition i don't have

00:31:05.280 a problem with that practice what i do have a problem with is that they're giving us a 6.8 tax

00:31:11.600 increase next year and the the next council only has five weeks really two weeks to kind of address

00:31:18.400 it so i'm going through that budget now i'm well i've been going through it for a while and i'd like

00:31:25.440 to see a zero in the first year i don't know if we'll get there but um i'm gonna have to count on

00:31:31.360 whoever else is is elected to maybe bring forward some some better optimization of where we're

00:31:36.640 spending money and other ways to kind of reduce that so but zero percent is my target whether or

00:31:44.640 not we get there i think it's a different story but that's in an ideal world that's that's what i get

00:31:49.680 and then the next year after that is about setting the tone and setting up for the the four-year budget

00:31:56.480 and and that one i i think that uh it's going to be interesting because it's the first one where

00:32:02.720 we're doing zero-based budgeting and we build it from the ground up of okay what's important yep

00:32:07.760 throw that in throw that in so i'm hoping we get to see a line-by-line analysis of every budget of

00:32:13.440 every department um it was actually one of the things i at as another event tonight and um that was

00:32:19.600 one of the things that came up and they said well i don't think a line-by-line budget is practical for

00:32:24.080 council to look at and i said you know what that's my problem not yours so if i'm asking for a line

00:32:28.960 by line budget you give it to me you don't think it's going to work let me fail yeah right and so

00:32:34.800 but but don't try and prevent me from getting that information so so yeah let you determine what uh

00:32:42.480 what what is relevant what's not yeah and you know what maybe i'm wrong maybe i look at the line by

00:32:47.120 line budget and i'm like wow there's so many things here which is part of the problem really

00:32:52.720 but yeah i'm sure that's i'm sure that's a rabbit hole where you start looking and we're like well

00:33:00.160 this is a big item that's a big item that's a small item what does this even mean what's this code under

00:33:05.920 that like i i feel like when there's so much happening a lot can be the accountability gets

00:33:12.080 watered down when there's so many little things happening it all adds up so and then how do you make

00:33:19.200 a determination on like well okay this is twenty thousand dollars spent on this well oh it's only

00:33:25.280 twenty thousand it's not into the millions so it's kind of like forgotten about but you have a hundred

00:33:31.760 of these twenty thousand dollar spends and that's gonna have a larger impact so at least um pro like

00:33:41.600 asking for the information asking for that clarity asking for that transparency that's that's a huge thing

00:33:46.400 and i don't think there's enough of that so yeah and actually you know it's funny because you say

00:33:50.720 like these twenty thousand dollar items and they they go forgotten i can assure you they do not get

00:33:55.520 forgotten but some of them do so i was talking with a resident that works for the city and they said

00:34:01.440 yeah they were making cutbacks and they took our water cooler away and i'm sitting there thinking no no

00:34:07.120 no that is not cool that one infuriates me because when i was uh working for a counselor there

00:34:14.080 when i went to the staff christmas party we had a harpist playing in the background not just a boom

00:34:20.080 box with christmas music or holiday music they had a harpist that they hired to come in and play i'm like

00:34:27.280 really like you guys just went through budget process you just got crucified for how uh frivolous

00:34:34.160 you're spending and then you order a harpist to play while you're not ideal yeah while you eat

00:34:39.440 prosciutto and cheeses i've never even heard of um you know it's just it's insane and then at the same

00:34:46.800 time we're taking away water coolers for frontline workers no not cool yeah that's wild that's i i remember

00:34:55.040 hearing uh in another life i worked for uh i worked in insurance for for a major bank and uh

00:35:01.200 uh they ended up um they ended up offshoring a lot of us essentially is is how the story ends

00:35:08.480 but uh there was a there was like um you could sort of see the science i was i was younger and i didn't

00:35:13.760 really see it but like one of my colleagues who had been involved in this bank in a different

00:35:18.000 department for years said you know when they start to uh when you start to see like less pens and

00:35:23.840 notepads and another sort of these small freebies lying around when those seem when those start going

00:35:28.640 away that's when you got to watch out because that's that's when you know that somebody is

00:35:32.560 is checking off a budget somewhere and seeing where they can penny pinch and that's a that's a

00:35:36.960 a bad omen yep and you know they they did it at city hall too they moved council from

00:35:44.240 paper agendas uh for all their reports to digital agendas now i don't know about you guys but when

00:35:49.600 i'm reading a thousand pages of something i want a physical paper copy i want to put a bookmark in it i

00:35:54.000 want to uh put tabs on the uh the note and um or yeah on the side of the thing i want to you know

00:36:01.280 make notes on there and doing it digitally i think there's there's too much opportunity to miss something

00:36:08.000 and you know that's me right other people may feel differently other people might want to throw it on a

00:36:13.680 kindle but i don't know if council reports are kindle friendly but well and that's now that i think

00:36:19.360 about that'd actually be a kind of a cool idea there's a new uh a new uh uh election uh election

00:36:26.080 line item for you well and and that's that's the dichotomy is you have certain overspending in some

00:36:32.800 areas that is ineffective and ultimately wasted and no no admitting that it was a waste or that it failed or

00:36:41.680 we were wrong about this and because money was not used well in that case it has to be saved in

00:36:49.920 other places so ultimately like you only have so much to work with and maybe that comes out of like

00:36:56.960 well the kind of work experience of certain key uh city of edmonton employees maybe that comes from

00:37:03.360 like well these resident like a resident in one area doesn't have what they need like it comes out of

00:37:10.480 somewhere or it comes with just higher property taxes or just like funneling money from somewhere

00:37:17.840 and that's where yeah like without without the honesty aspect or without the transparency and i guess

00:37:27.600 without the with maybe a little less hubris um i i feel like we'll we'll get better it would be better

00:37:39.120 for everybody like what what what does the most level of good happen like what what do we need to do to

00:37:45.760 make the most amount of good for edmontonians and yeah i would love to see more of um more of this

00:37:54.560 transparency so if you can lead the charge on that then all the power to you i am one of my first motions

00:38:01.200 i intend to make if elected is i want a line by line um uh every budget of every department in the

00:38:10.400 city uh i want to see every line of every budget of every department and uh that because i i think

00:38:17.360 there is some waste and i think that we've spent what at least two decades now of city council telling

00:38:24.000 the administration go find savings go find savings and are you guys fans of the office yeah so in

00:38:33.040 season one when they're they're looking at downsizing and you have oscar kevin and um angela and they're

00:38:42.000 the accountants and they're like oh well there's one department that has three people doing the work of

00:38:46.560 two and they're like well we're not making the cut here that's what i think imagine a lot is happening

00:38:51.920 in the city and people are like okay well the savings is to get rid of my job but i'm not doing

00:38:56.560 that i like where i'm at yeah so so that's why like where i think we're at the point where

00:39:02.080 administrations found all the savings that they're willing to bring to council and now council needs

00:39:07.280 to come in and say look you didn't do it like we've been asking you for 20 years so we're gonna do

00:39:12.880 it now i'm sorry but you had your opportunity yeah the the private sector has more of a mechanism

00:39:18.800 for downsizing certain departments than public sectors i feel like um as soon as a new department's

00:39:25.520 created they will just they will justify their own existence to all ends by whatever means by whatever

00:39:34.400 means and that could be just like painting a nice picture about what like even just like talking about

00:39:43.040 what you're doing rather than like oh we actually made an impact they're like well we measured

00:39:48.480 something and here's this number of something and we increase this number and i'm like well

00:39:54.480 does that number matter is that a good metric of measurement are you just blowing steam at this

00:40:00.800 point like i've got a great way jason when you're when you're in council uh of saving a whole bunch of

00:40:07.440 money is you can you can tell whoever has been responsible for tearing up and repaving 149th

00:40:14.160 street two and a half times over the last five years just stop doing that maybe yeah i mean yeah

00:40:20.320 that's ultimately uh a full council responsibility but i would uh recommend talking to your counselor

00:40:25.520 about that and see how they respond um yeah i'll i'll look out for that for their response uh what

00:40:32.160 so it seems like uh your kind of your uh focus your your main uh interest is in related to economics

00:40:41.360 is is in budget is in transparency that's awesome um what if you if you had your way like what do you

00:40:49.200 have any sort of little passion projects any sort of little like things that are speak to you personally

00:40:54.160 that you'd like to kind of you know say that you hey you slashed you know 15 off the budget you're

00:40:59.840 a hero amongst amongst counselors they're giving you a little bit of hey what are you interested

00:41:04.160 in what would you like to do what what would your what might that be that you'd like to see for the

00:41:08.720 city oh i don't even know at this point i mean there's some things that i'm working on that uh you

00:41:13.920 know as i'm engaging with residents um you know what's uh what i'd like to see but also it like at the

00:41:20.800 end of the day it's it's about the constituents and uh that's so i i don't think that me celebrating

00:41:28.000 hey let's spend some more money on this i don't know if it's going to work right that's kind of

00:41:32.960 uh antithetical to the approach that i'm looking at but um but there are some things that i'm working

00:41:38.560 on uh not quite ready to to release and they're not public ready yet but you know i'd encourage

00:41:43.840 people to to pay attention to the campaign as it uh progresses and we'll uh we'll start coming out

00:41:48.800 with more stuff you know i mentioned previously i'd like to see zero percent um you know i'd like to

00:41:54.080 to be able to explain before um electors go to the ballot box where i see that that you know 6.8

00:42:01.680 percent in uh in spending where is that savings coming from so how are we getting there right i

00:42:08.720 expect to you know be put before the the electors and justify that right and now maybe maybe zero percent

00:42:15.120 you know too too ambitious maybe two percent where we get to right but but my campaign's working on

00:42:20.320 looking for where those are based on our conversations with the residents what are you

00:42:26.560 noticing sorry james i'm asking back-to-back questions here no go for it what are you noticing

00:42:31.680 compared to your first time running to now um what are you noticing anything different about how um

00:42:38.800 you know this is you i think you meant it was a 2015 you ran for the first time uh 2016.

00:42:43.920 2016 so so now i mean that's you know nine years later uh post-covid world are you seeing any sort

00:42:52.240 of uh is there is there a difference in how people are responding to your campaign is there a difference

00:42:57.040 in how you're approaching how you campaign now versus then yeah so i'm hitting a lot more doors than uh

00:43:04.240 now than i've hit or that i hit then uh you know before i i tried i went out to doors uh i didn't hit

00:43:10.560 the whole riding i didn't hit anywhere close to the whole ride i just kind of did pockets but now

00:43:14.960 i'm making sure that we hit every door in every neighborhood i want to hear from everybody and um

00:43:21.360 so there's there's that that uh i'm hearing from a lot more people but also i know a lot more about

00:43:29.680 what i'm talking about now like back in 2016 like i knew stuff but today me looks back at then me and

00:43:37.280 says you didn't know anything um so there's a bit of a difference in that that like when when

00:43:42.240 people tell me about their issues i understand exactly which policy they're talking about which

00:43:46.960 bylaw they're talking about so so it it helps me that way uh to be able to hold that conversation

00:43:53.600 with them and um you know when somebody says uh uh i don't there there was one resident that i spoke

00:44:02.160 to that on their their organic waste bin they don't like that there's not a latch to shut uh the the

00:44:10.480 organic spin and keep it sealed while they're transporting it and i'm like you know what i'm

00:44:14.640 not hearing a lot about that it's such a simple thing though you know i'm curious i'm you know i've

00:44:21.040 wrote it down it's something that i intend to you know at least fire off an email on is hey you know

00:44:25.360 have we looked into this like is this possible because it seems simple enough but uh but back in

00:44:31.920 2016 i wouldn't have known that what he was talking about because uh you know yeah we didn't have the

00:44:37.920 bins back then but uh also um i think i was living in um uh multi-year housing not uh not single attached

00:44:48.560 right so yeah the waste bins there like we're just now in in the multi-resident multi-dwelling

00:44:55.920 structures uh just starting to get though that waste separation and the city's passive aggressive

00:45:02.400 notes oops you put you and your resident your your neighbors put in too much it's like no you're not

00:45:08.560 picking it up fast uh uh quick enough what do you find uh how do you find your uptake is like when you

00:45:15.440 do that door-to-door stuff when you when you're knocking on people's doors like do you do you are

00:45:19.360 people into it are they a little bit it's unusual it's unusual nowadays to have somebody come to your

00:45:25.920 door and want to speak to you you know what i mean like it's this it's not a nor it's not an everyday

00:45:29.760 thing as it was maybe you know 20 years ago yeah so 2016 and even you know 2017 where i was working

00:45:35.280 on mike's campaign there where i locked a lot more doors than on my 2016 campaign um you know even then

00:45:41.600 like i i said oh yeah you know i'm not doing that house because it says no uh agents solicitors

00:45:46.080 peddlers they're like no no they just don't want door-to-door vacuum and energy sales go talk to them

00:45:51.200 most of them want to hear about politics so i'm like okay so i go up to the door and yeah very very

00:45:56.720 welcoming uh not everybody right and so unfortunately because most people with those placards uh do want

00:46:06.400 still want political information most people with a no flyers please just don't want sales flyers but

00:46:12.320 they still want political information so um so what stops me at a door if it says no politics okay i

00:46:20.560 won't hit that door i'll respect their wishes but uh but otherwise like i'm knocking the door and now

00:46:26.080 i am starting to see a lot more people not home um or not answer their door or they'll get mad that i'm

00:46:33.040 at their door and um and some of them have the sign so i do kind of see their perspective on that

00:46:39.440 like okay yeah you know this is just unfortunate like that those are gonna happen you know sorry to

00:46:44.800 bother you have a good night um but also we're seeing more people home during the day too because

00:46:50.320 of all the work from home so now i can you know um like some of the the numbers that i'm seeing of how

00:46:56.640 many people are home are are quite fantastic so yeah and also seems like um between the wards you'll

00:47:06.880 naturally get a different mix of people all with different interests and i've wondered sometimes how

00:47:14.080 much when you have like a downtown centric kind of uh almost where they're they're thinking very much

00:47:22.400 vertically they're thinking like well we need to build up and they're kind of these ideas are more

00:47:28.720 of a well like the people that these that the ideas really resonate with are the ones who are

00:47:37.760 sometimes the ones who want more of those changes um and maybe not are they're not the people who are

00:47:45.680 in kind of the sprawling areas or in more of the like millwoods is very those are there's a lot of

00:47:55.440 like detached homes there's a lot of neighborhoods um those neighborhoods are also what 30 years old

00:48:01.760 now so there's certain demographics there's like how do you balance out um i'm wondering just as a

00:48:09.680 general sense like how do you balance out the wishes of some people in one area in one ward with

00:48:14.240 the the the wishes of the others and i guess that's each counselor bringing bring their ideas from

00:48:19.760 their constituents to the table but uh it feels like sometimes there is a just like in provincial

00:48:27.280 we see a push-pull between urban and rural we also see a push-pull in kind of more of the vertically

00:48:35.600 it's like the dense the high density kind of uh ways of setting up a city versus kind of the lower density

00:48:42.720 and what works in one doesn't always work in the other uh so maybe maybe that's where blanket zoning

00:48:51.840 gets into issues of like well you're some people are going to be unhappy if uh if certain zonings

00:48:59.040 can devalue their house or can affect what's there so mm-hmm so um i think

00:49:08.000 that that's one of the things and that's where it comes into zoning hearings like not a lot of people

00:49:13.520 realize this but half of all council meetings are zoning statutory public hearings for typically for

00:49:19.840 zoning that's not half of all meetings that they have because they have the committee meetings as well

00:49:24.480 but half of all council meetings uh where there's all 13 of them there um is uh um are statutory public

00:49:31.680 hearings mostly for zoning so with the zoning bylaw renewal changes that they made uh like i get

00:49:38.080 where they're coming from they want to densify and that's fine the if they that's their goal

00:49:43.840 but i think they got to be a little bit more targeted about it and that's why i wrote a blog

00:49:47.920 recently that was based on my engagement with some of the residents down in greenview there where

00:49:52.800 they're getting a 10 story or not sorry not 10 story 10 unit development uh no public hearing

00:49:59.840 no appeal process no requirement for the developer to provide parking on site uh they've tried reaching

00:50:06.400 out to the city they've tried reaching out to the incumbent they've tried reaching out to the

00:50:09.440 developer and it's just going ahead full steam so i put out a blog of look these are the the changes

00:50:16.560 that i would make to the zoning bylaw that would have prevented this kind of thing and hopefully uh

00:50:22.000 uh what i'd like to do is uh if elected get that matter back to a public hearing if it passes it

00:50:30.080 passes that's fine but i i think that the people need their day to be able to say why it's best for

00:50:35.680 their community because at the end of the day that's who knows best is the residents uh i think

00:50:41.120 it's incredibly arrogant to go into a community and say you know what i love what you got going here

00:50:45.760 but i could do it better no i'm not from around here you know what's best for you i want to respect

00:50:51.200 that so uh and i don't think council's doing that like with these zoning changes where they tried to

00:50:56.400 up zone everything and expedite more not quite high not even quite missing middle just upscaled because

00:51:04.080 it's eight units that can go in without public hearing now i did mention 10 units for this one in

00:51:08.960 greenview it's because it's a corner lot uh so the the regulations are a bit different but generally

00:51:15.280 it's going to be eight units um that's what you can get and no requirement for on-site parking so this

00:51:20.560 area that's very walkable right along the golf course there like it if you have not walked uh grandling

00:51:26.480 crescent in the summertime i highly recommend it like it is just it is a beautiful walk and uh and now as

00:51:34.800 we we put these vehicles on the street we can reasonably expect roughly 1.5 vehicles per unit

00:51:41.120 uh as kind of like an average for edmonton they're gonna put five um uh stalls of on-site parking plus

00:51:50.320 two accessible parking so let's assume that they all get used up and there's only eight cars on the

00:51:55.680 street well that's eight cars on the street that weren't there before like that is a lot for one lot

00:52:01.840 um and i i think it's gonna uh you know negatively impact the community i think it's gonna impact

00:52:07.600 their safety with the walkability because now you can't see all the pedestrians through the cars uh

00:52:13.120 like right now everybody parks on the streets you walk through not everybody parks on the streets sorry

00:52:17.440 but most people park like in their their driveways and there's still a couple of cars on the streets and

00:52:23.600 so i'd like to to maintain that safety aspect of visibility between driver and pedestrian

00:52:30.160 uh i think that's when road conditions are at their safest when everybody knows what's going on

00:52:36.640 and what the other person is doing um and and we just don't get that when we put in visibility

00:52:42.160 blockages such as vehicles parked on roadways what is the you briefly mentioned it earlier um

00:52:51.600 what is the process like if you're a resident in an area where a where a an eight unit is coming up

00:52:57.200 if you wanted to um be heard at city council uh you know expressing concerns of this is this a

00:53:04.320 uh is it a difficult thing for uh for a citizen to do like do you have to organize this with your

00:53:09.280 with your representative can you show up is there specific times for such things so currently uh with

00:53:14.800 for an eight unit uh there is no process for that you can email your counselor and they will likely

00:53:19.680 email you back sorry you know my hands are tied because i tied them um but generally speaking

00:53:27.120 let's say it's you know a 20 unit development or an eight story development or something like that

00:53:32.560 uh they'll they'll issue uh i think it's 60 meter radius um around the development to all the houses a

00:53:40.240 letter it kind of tells you what's going on i don't think 60 meters is enough i think we gotta

00:53:46.080 kind of look at like maybe do we go 200 meters uh do we go 100 like how far do we actually go and uh i

00:53:54.160 i think 60 meters is very minimal though because really you're talking about like six houses down

00:53:58.400 the street um which really isn't much so but yeah that notice will go out uh the public hearing agendas

00:54:05.840 get posted every three weeks out from the public hearing uh so if you're pay attention you can see

00:54:12.800 find that if you didn't get a uh a letter in the mail and then you can attend and now at a statutory

00:54:19.920 public hearing you register to speak at a committee meeting you request to speak and they're very

00:54:25.760 different things so like public hearing they have to hear you as long as you're talking about the

00:54:31.600 item in question committee they allow you to speak and committee is usually where they allow it council

00:54:38.640 meetings the history is supposed to be if you had an opportunity at committee you don't get to speak at

00:54:45.200 council but i think this council's taking the approach of well because people don't typically

00:54:50.800 speak at council we're not going to let people speak at council uh i think that was a an incorrect

00:54:56.800 interpretation of the bylaw that um for public engagement but and you know what this council will

00:55:04.160 maybe have to justify that to the residents yeah these are all things that are not helping with this apathy

00:55:09.840 piece i did i did hear once that uh i don't know if it was the u of a but they it was a university in

00:55:17.760 there they planned a meeting to discuss student apathy which was canceled due to low turnout

00:55:27.120 oh i have any of its finest yeah yeah well james do you have any uh more boring political questions uh

00:55:34.480 to ask james or can we ask him a personal question or two no i think we covered the boring and

00:55:39.520 non-boring political questions too um no we can we can shift gears yeah well jason um i always like to

00:55:48.240 i always wonder what uh what are you what are um our politicians interested in in their personal time

00:55:54.320 do you have any hobbies or are you into any sports or anything like that uh sports not something like

00:56:00.800 i watch hockey and stuff uh i actually used to be an international level gymnast in uh in junior high

00:56:07.600 in high school um found out there was no money in that career path and i was like well i wasted all

00:56:14.560 this time getting good like yeah i can do a standing back flip but nobody cares um uh no people care that

00:56:20.960 was a really cool party trick but uh uh but yeah i know not so much sports anymore um uh i i love video

00:56:28.960 games huge uh video game nerd oh yeah i uh mostly you know blizzard suite like world of warcraft uh

00:56:37.680 overwatch but uh i'm trying to expand beyond that i find myself playing a lot of

00:56:42.800 older games i know final fantasy pixel remaster came out and i'm like i'm like oh yeah this is gonna be

00:56:48.480 great but then i looked and i'm like wait this isn't like the premiere version you don't have the

00:56:52.560 bonus dungeons you don't have all this other content that was added in other versions of the game and

00:56:57.120 you want me to pay a hundred dollars for it no i have other versions of the game i have the better

00:57:02.320 versions of these games i'm gonna go through those instead so like some of these games like

00:57:07.200 final fantasy 6 i must have bought that game like four or five different times and different versions

00:57:11.760 platforms yeah yeah yeah it's just it's so good but i don't want to play the the boring version of it

00:57:19.040 right okay yeah agreed yeah so so yeah that's something i do uh you know we were talking earlier about uh

00:57:25.200 uh coding and language and actually i started to learn c-sharp coding a little bit with the

00:57:30.160 intent to kind of build my own game and um and that's you know that's one of the things i find

00:57:35.680 fascinating with with ai coming is that because like i don't have the skills to do these uh a lot of the

00:57:42.560 art for a video game like i am i am very analytical person i am not an artistic person uh so like i i will

00:57:50.080 handle all that coding but i do not want to do the art to it so if i can get ai to build the art for a

00:57:56.000 game now i don't need to hire a development team to build me a game so yeah there's even ways of uh

00:58:02.400 well somebody can even take a just standard phone and do photo scans and create a point cloud out of

00:58:10.400 that and that gives you a certain like at a you get a photo realistic 3d model that at a distance but

00:58:17.440 you go up close and you see the limitations of that point cloud and ai is really good at some of these

00:58:22.880 like like brute force mundane like highly technical like math tricks it's able to interpolate that into

00:58:33.120 something so i've always wondered um

00:58:38.720 not to get back into boring political stuff

00:58:41.040 so if we're talking about video games now james with the right tools can ai be an accountability

00:58:49.680 piece in government in budgets in like i've wondered if you can funnel things through a

00:59:00.640 see i'm not sure because ai has to has to be initially programmed with with information i'm

00:59:06.960 looking at the potential of ai is like you could program ai to to know everything about faroon

00:59:13.680 which if you're a dungeons and dragons nerd that's you know one of the worlds that you can play you can

00:59:18.160 punch in all of that history and you can have ai be a dungeon master for people because that's

00:59:24.640 trying to find a dungeon master is like trying to be a musician and find a drummer like it's just

00:59:29.120 nearly impossible or a harpist they exist sorry or a harpist yeah or or um or being on a hockey team

00:59:37.840 and trying to find a goalie like goalies are hard to find for a pickup game uh you know out in the

00:59:42.720 the community leagues right so uh like they're just it's it's yeah would excel at like a rule-based

00:59:49.120 well like you you have the structure like a dungeon masters they're going based on the pre-established

00:59:56.480 well you have the the lore the rule set and here's the framework and you can program something

01:00:02.720 to exist within that framework and then ai just creates creative choices based on well we know

01:00:10.000 these are names so we're going to generate a new name for an npc that we come across and

01:00:15.120 like it's it would do exceptionally well kind of in that area yeah and that's kind of the functionality

01:00:22.400 that i see ai is to enhance your personal life a little bit um and you know the the with generative

01:00:30.240 ai too like i'm a dnd nerd as well uh i've been playing for 20 years a little more than that maybe

01:00:40.560 and um i actually used to have a card that that it was a like a wallet card for that said i officially

01:00:48.720 played dungeons and dragons it was my rpg uh pa number or something like that and it was uh

01:00:54.400 i used to flash that thing all the time like yeah i i not only play dnd i officially play dnd

01:01:00.240 so but yeah i love tabletop rpgs and uh and and so i think there's that functionality but also i get

01:01:06.080 extremely frustrated with dnd cinema i i think that they're they're taking a very incorrect approach to

01:01:12.800 it like the best dnd movie there's been so far is um it's called wrath of the dragon god not a lot of

01:01:20.160 people knew about it but there was so many like like just nods to the community of like hey we got

01:01:26.560 you on this like there's a ring and he he kind of pushes it forward and a ram's head pops out and

01:01:32.080 fans are like oh it's ring of the ram it's so good but the the other uh normal people would be

01:01:38.720 i'm sorry not not to normies yeah normies not nerds um i i am a self-proud nerd but uh yeah like

01:01:49.040 the average person isn't going to get that reference and and it's just pure nod to the community the

01:01:55.040 other one that i like is the gamers which is you know they have a series of them and it's they never

01:02:00.080 had the license they had to kind of operate their series out of the open game license but i thought

01:02:04.960 they did a wonderful job it was incredibly funny um but the gamers and the gamers 2 darkness rising

01:02:12.960 and there was a third one but i don't know if that was when they started getting into like magic the

01:02:16.560 gathering kind of nerd stuff but which i also like to play on occasion um but sorry where i was going

01:02:23.520 with that with ai there so i i don't like the way dnd cinema's gone i would like to see adventures

01:02:30.880 that we've played through in the past in previous editions so temple of elemental evil for example

01:02:36.240 hugely popular adventure among the uh the gaming community what i would like to see is break that

01:02:41.840 down into a mini series and just a limited mini series and you know that's what i want to watch

01:02:49.120 but with generative ai one of these days it's going to be possible to just put in the prompts and make

01:02:56.000 that uh mini series and i'm looking forward to that day when the average person can yep i can make a

01:03:04.160 cinema that's you know would have cost 10 million dollars five years ago the the fan films are going

01:03:10.960 to be amazing well there's already there's already some like lightsaber battles some star wars fan films

01:03:19.120 that have better choreography than some of the some of the new disney that have come out so i i think

01:03:25.360 it speaks to a truth of like when you have very passionate people in a field doing the things

01:03:30.880 you will always get a result far be far better because of that passion because of that deep

01:03:39.120 understanding than somebody stepping into a space and like adopting or pretending they care about this

01:03:47.520 thing yeah yeah and i like the idea of uh gamer nerds who are interested in world building

01:03:55.040 getting into politics i think that's i i like that that trajectory um maybe as a as just kind of a

01:04:01.760 final point here we've had you for for an hour here just to just to uh wrap her up here and respect

01:04:06.240 your time um on your website it says um you've lived in millwoods for 35 years what's your what's

01:04:11.680 your favorite thing about living in millwoods that's a long time to live in one community

01:04:16.880 so for me it's the the small town feel with big city amenities uh we got millwoods town center nearby

01:04:23.760 uh you know i remember one of my friends growing up uh just outside the back of his house his house

01:04:28.800 backed onto 34th street and we used to go out there and look and it was just farmland for as far as we

01:04:35.600 could see and now we go over there and we see that it's it's just houses for as far as we can see and

01:04:42.080 uh and so it's been nice to watch the community grow and you know it's i don't know like i haven't really

01:04:49.440 lived anywhere else it's actually so i was doing this calculation earlier i think it's uh 36 or 37

01:04:54.880 years that i've been in the community so that's why i left it as i've lived in the millwoods for over 35

01:04:59.920 years but um and the riding is split right down no woods i've lived on both sides of it so that's why

01:05:06.560 i kind of broadened it a little bit you know i've lived on both sides of 50th street but but yeah it's

01:05:11.920 really it's that small town feel with the big city amenities it used to have some safety concerns a long

01:05:18.320 time ago uh back yeah back when the the only police station was across from the professional

01:05:24.320 building and they were only open nine to five and it was like yeah there's there's lots of crime here

01:05:29.680 but then they built the new um well not new anymore but that uh that southeast division and crime virtually

01:05:36.880 disappeared overnight people were like no cops are right there i'm not gonna you know have cause any

01:05:42.800 problems here and now unfortunately it's coming back because i think there's a uh a narrative that

01:05:48.480 council is the council and the city is kind of portraying that sends a message i don't know

01:05:53.520 what they're trying to send but the message being received is that government doesn't support the

01:05:57.600 police and so people don't feel safe criminals feel empowered and i i think the next council needs to

01:06:04.480 come in and send a new message kind of like what millwood's experienced right there's a new police

01:06:08.720 division it sent a message shut up crime i don't know if you've seen super or not but um the terrific

01:06:15.760 movie and that was his catch line shut up crime so uh i'd like to see something like that coming in

01:06:21.520 and um but yeah it's it's it's really it's it's that like i said the the feel of the community

01:06:29.440 and my wife so she she grew up in like rural alberta and downtown and when she moved to mo woods she was

01:06:38.080 you know hesitant at first but now that she's here she's like i don't want to live anywhere else like i would

01:06:42.880 go back to rural because acreages are awesome but uh no i'm not going back downtown i'm not going to

01:06:49.120 high density neighborhoods and i don't want to live in apartments anymore i want to live in singles

01:06:52.800 attached and um you know i i like going out and uh mowing the lawn shoveling the walk and planting

01:07:01.200 trees or whatever and running into your neighbors and saying hi right it's that kind of stuff

01:07:08.320 awesome that's great yeah i'm sure there was one more thing i had to mention on the uh the personal

01:07:14.800 life things because i i promised my buddies i would um sumo grand sumo right now is going on in japan

01:07:21.520 uh it's a 15 day tournament for sumo wrestling it looks like kimbo's and is gonna gonna take it i'm

01:07:26.960 now two days behind but uh but that's another hobby of mine is every two months there's a grand sumo

01:07:31.760 tournament we watch that that's awesome i didn't know that's a thing that people did yeah well we

01:07:37.600 get um uh an english translation of the highlights so we don't watch a whole day of sumo we watch

01:07:43.200 everything in about all the highlights in about half an hour and and oh man it is so good that'd be

01:07:48.880 quite the marathon of watching to to see it all yeah well yeah it's about eight hours and one guy that

01:07:56.400 that we watch with he actually lives in japan and um and so he would he's gone to the tournaments and

01:08:02.640 he's taught told us about them and whatnot we're like man that's so cool we gotta we gotta go out

01:08:07.360 there and meet up and do that but like we're spread out between canada and us and um uh nakana he i think

01:08:16.880 he was in europe at one point but now he's he lives in japan and um yeah i don't think we have anybody

01:08:24.480 else outside but like like just all across canada and north america it's it's great have you ever been

01:08:30.640 to japan i haven't uh so i mentioned earlier that i was a uh international gymnast uh i only actually

01:08:36.320 competed at that level i've never actually owned a passport never left canada um but uh um

01:08:44.000 yeah so sydney 2000 that was the first time that trampoline was at um at the olympics and that was

01:08:49.760 one of my events trampoline and tumbling and matthew turgeon was there and the last turn and then

01:08:54.320 that was when i found out that there's no money in it like yeah you can get an olympic gold medal but

01:08:58.240 like he got the first bronze and uh and then the next big tournament that i or uh competition that

01:09:06.080 i was at he was also at and he was only one level above me so um i'm like well you know if that's all

01:09:12.800 the future i've got to look forward to in this like that's not that's not a sustainable career for

01:09:17.440 me so you know an athlete's an athlete maybe i can play baseball right or you know if you want

01:09:25.200 to go where the money's at just go into municipal politics no there's no money there and uh uh

01:09:32.480 especially the council pay is one thing that i'm hearing a lot about people don't feel happy with

01:09:37.680 that so you know that's something that i'm gonna i plan to work with the residents to address because

01:09:42.880 you know i think they're valid uh yeah like the average salary in edmonton individual salary i

01:09:50.000 think is about 55 000 the average household salary is about 104 000 or so so when we have counselors

01:09:57.040 starting at 126 they make more than the average to income household i think people are feel justified

01:10:05.680 and are probably justified and look why aren't shut up and make my life better like why aren't you um

01:10:10.880 um why aren't you making things better why are you making things harder for me like make my life

01:10:15.520 better that's what i elect you to do so and why am i paying you to to not make my life better right it's

01:10:23.280 like there's some some justification of that because like an employer saying why am i paying you to not

01:10:28.640 be productive um it's the same kind of thing because the the constituents are the employer well i did want

01:10:36.800 to give you a prop that question on the salaries is on your website as well and like um that that was

01:10:43.840 good to see that you have a survey it's quite comprehensive a lot of different issues and and

01:10:51.040 i think yeah i think that demonstrates your willingness to like get us get your finger on

01:10:56.080 the pulse of like what are people in your ward interested in what are what are their stances

01:11:02.960 like what is the will of the people that you would be representing so um and actually we i meant to

01:11:10.080 talk about this earlier with the website there but when we were talking about the public engagement

01:11:14.160 we spent a lot of time on that survey to phrase the questions to make sure that they were as neutral

01:11:20.160 as possible uh everything is phrased in a positive context x issue is a good thing i agree with that

01:11:26.400 statement right so um or how much do you agree with that statement everything we we tried to make it

01:11:32.640 into the same context as best we could and we spent a lot of time working on that yeah and it's a it's a

01:11:39.040 five-part leichardt scale too we're um we're i don't know if you do you know who peter bogosian is

01:11:44.160 no he's a he's like a uh contemporary philosopher who uh he does uh we're big fans of him he does a uh

01:11:52.480 he has a youtube channel and he does uh he goes out in public and he he'll he'll put a claim

01:11:57.280 essentially like on a on a sandwich board you know and he'll he'll ask people to uh if they want

01:12:01.840 to you know debate this claim and and so he he has a leichardt scale that he draws out on the sidewalk

01:12:06.880 of you know from strongly disagree to strongly agree it's like a it's a seven point scale and so

01:12:12.400 they'll talk about a claim and they'll try and get people's uh uh you know basically sort of socratic

01:12:17.520 method people's beliefs and to see how strongly or or or not strongly they believe in certain

01:12:22.640 things so it's always nice to see uh uh people employing that you know because there there are

01:12:27.200 so there's so much nuance in these issues that sometimes you sometimes you don't really want

01:12:31.120 to have a strong opinion on something and you want to kind of be presented with well i don't know

01:12:36.320 enough about this so convince me why i'm wrong about this you know and and see and that's why too i left

01:12:41.920 that open section uh because maybe there's something i missed and it's great that i'm

01:12:46.240 seeing a lot of people uh put stuff in that um you know one person was asking actually about the the

01:12:52.320 police funding question so to clarify if uh if somebody fills out the survey and says that they

01:12:59.040 strongly disagree with uh police funding being fair we interpret that unless you provide additional

01:13:04.880 context as you you feel that maybe some of the police funding could have gone uh should go into

01:13:11.920 other programs or but in generally you you think that the police budget is too high uh that's how we

01:13:18.080 interpret that if you strongly agree then we assume that you agree with the funding formula so that's in

01:13:24.000 place which is exactly what the police asked for so that was a question that i did get as somebody added

01:13:28.720 that context uh so i did want to kind of clarify that that um if you if you think the police deserve

01:13:35.120 more money and you put strongly agree i need that additional context because i i otherwise we're

01:13:40.560 going to assume that you generally feel that the police budget needs to to decrease i think it's

01:13:46.320 fairly fair assumption yeah we'll link below to all this as well so yeah um okay awesome well uh

01:13:53.920 james did you have anything else you wanted to ask jason no i think that's uh i think we've covered uh

01:13:58.960 a lot it was great to to finally actually sit down and and kind of cover these things more formally we

01:14:05.920 really appreciate you doing this man um is there is there anything we didn't ask you that you felt

01:14:10.720 that we should have to maybe close it off anything you wanted to to add or that you wish you could

01:14:15.040 have expanded on or that we asked you um maybe not uh expand on but there is something i'd like to

01:14:24.000 reiterate there uh i did release a blog recently about uh the the zoning changes and every change

01:14:30.080 that's in there that i would propose um you know by the end of this year if elected i'd put that

01:14:36.160 motion forward uh for changes to the zoning bylaw uh because i think it is important for that the

01:14:42.480 residents like that this policy was made in engagement with the residents that that were close to the

01:14:47.600 issue that uh uh you know where were the the pinch points where did they miss their opportunities how

01:14:52.560 do we fix that to prevent other communities from experiencing the same thing so this is a you know

01:14:58.160 grassroots policy proposal that uh um that was entirely made with with engaging with the residents

01:15:05.760 and that's the way that that i intend to govern that's the way i intend to continue to run my campaign is

01:15:10.800 that that constant engagement coming up with solutions with the community and um uh and you

01:15:17.280 know it's it's a really important issue to the the people that are uh having to deal with this this

01:15:22.960 development in their community without having a chance to to voice their opinion on it and so you

01:15:29.200 know i just want to to kind of reiterate that that's uh something that's really important to me is

01:15:34.560 that i feel that they get there they should have their day to voice their their concerns and or

01:15:40.160 voice their support um so you know i'm not going to come in and and bring out the band hammer and

01:15:47.040 get rid of the development but i would like to force it to a public hearing and you know what if uh

01:15:52.880 if it doesn't pass a public hearing and developer has to demolish it oh well you should have engaged

01:15:57.440 with the community better in the first place um if you know what it passes you know i'm sorry residents

01:16:02.560 but it passed we're gonna we're gonna continue with it but at least they get that opportunity and

01:16:07.760 that's what i want to recognize awesome awesome yeah well hey man again super appreciate your time

01:16:14.320 um we're you know we're still new to this so so you know you you kind of coming on here and throwing

01:16:20.320 us a bone and giving us a shot to interview that that's great we really appreciate we hope we can

01:16:24.480 we can do it again in the future when you're uh officially elected uh to city council so um yeah

01:16:30.640 thanks again well we will link to all your socials uh your blog your website um and so anyone

01:16:35.600 else who's watching can can take the survey for themselves and and uh and see what you're all

01:16:39.360 about so um yeah right on appreciate it man all right thanks for having me guys it's been fun

01:16:44.560 thanks a lot cheers

The Critical Compass Podcast - February 02, 2025

Fixing Edmonton w⧸City Council Candidate Jason Bale ｜ A Critical Compass Discussion

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