Edmonton election ward profile: Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi

EDMONTON -

Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi — a Blackfoot word that honours traditional grounds where bison were harvested — lies in south-central Edmonton, where parts of Wards 9 and 10 currently sit.

It stretches from 34 Avenue in the north to the city boundary at Highway 19 in the south. It also mostly follows the Whitemud Creek Ravine on the west and Calgary Trail on the east.

Many of the neighbourhoods were represented by councillor Michael Walters who has chosen not to seek reelection, so this area does not have an incumbent on the ballot.

The ward name is pronounced: E-PEE-KO-KA-NEE PIU-TSI-YA.

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Here's a look at Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi's candidates.

RHIANNON HOYLE

Rhiannon Hoyle (rhihoyle.ca)

Rhiannon Hoyle, an Edmonton resident for 29 years since immigrating from Trinidad and Tobago, has a political science degree from the University of Alberta and calls herself a “champion” of her community.

“Public service is my life’s passion. Community building, I was raised with a strong sense of community and the importance of making your place better than when you came, so for over 20 years I’ve served this city as a volunteer,” she said.

She currently sits as a senator at the U of A, has served as the president of her community league and was once the president of the Alberta Party.

Hoyle’s platform promises to cut budget inefficiencies, speed up permits for businesses and explore new ways to increase city revenues.

She wants city police to be more proactive in the community, promises to strike an emergency task force to address the opioid crisis and has committed to publicly releasing her donors list before the vote.

Hoyle’s endorsement list includes former mayor Stephen Mandel, outgoing councillor Micheal Walters and incumbent council candidate Tim Cartmell.

Hoyle said there’s never been a Black woman, or a woman of colour, on Edmonton city council and she’s hoping to change that.

SCOTT JOHNSTON

Scott Johnston (electscottjohnston.ca)

Scott Johnston, with more than 40 years of experience in the radio business, has a voice that will be familiar to many in Edmonton.

He covered city hall for nearly 30 years — and now intends to take a seat amongst the decision-makers.

Johnston describes himself as a centre-conservative, and is promising to “keep taxes low to encourage small business to flourish.”

“I can bring some balanced approaches to a lot of things that are plaguing the city and plaguing taxpayers,” he told CTV News Edmonton when he announced his campaign.

Johnston wants the city to step aside and let developers take the lead in building Blatchford, thinks it needs to control costs for middle-managers and he wants to get Ellerslie Road widened near 141 Street SW.

Johnston has made it clear he does not want to cut the police budget, in a tweet referencing a recent fatal shooting in south Edmonton.

“We can save money in the overall police budget by merging 211 and 911…and that should save money. That’s one way to, in essence, increase the police budget to just make us all feel safe,” he argued.

Johnston’s platform is short and simple, where he promises “business-oriented, community-minded and experienced leadership.”

GLYNNIS LIEB

Glynnis Lieb (glynnislieb.com)

Glynnis Lieb, born in Newfoundland and a mother of six children, describes herself as a “community leader and advocate.”

She’s a social physiologist by trade and is proud to say that she leans left and is politically progressive.

Lieb’s platform is heavy on investing in social services. She wants to hire more frontline city workers, buy more buses and add LRT capacity.

She also promises to lead a charge to provide basic sanitary and support services to encampments of unhoused people and prioritize passing the many recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“We keep electing people with the same backgrounds — business, developers, etc — and we keep prioritizing business deals over people and the development of community in any sense beyond the postal code,” she said.

“If we don’t prioritize social recovery, in addition to economic recovery from this pandemic, we are going to struggle hugely as a city.”

Lieb has never been elected and it’s her first time running. She has volunteered for a number of campaigns, and declared that her politics most align with the Alberta NDP.

JON MORGAN

Jon Morgan (jonmorgan.ca)

Jon Morgan — a community league president, soccer coach and city transit worker — starts his pitch by saying he’s dedicated to “inclusivity and social justice.”

He promises to address the challenges of a mid-pandemic Edmonton in a “positive and progressive” way. He’s served as community league president in both Montrose and Heritage Point.

Morgan is focusing his campaign on addressing homelessness and protecting public services.

“I’m concerned about the privatization of our services. This pandemic has really shown the value of public service, whether that’s healthcare or education, or in the case of the city transit, waste, even recreation,” he said.

Morgan lists more affordable housing, investing in mental health care and supporting supervised injection sites as initiatives he believes in.

“I think we’ve been largely reactive in that respect, expecting frontline services like police and fire and ambulance and transit to deal with challenges that we should be a lot more proactive on,” he said.

JENNIFER RICE

Jennifer Rice (voteforjenniferrice.ca)

Jennifer Rice — a public servant, community league volunteer and former university professor — focuses her platform on improving basic city services.

She lists road maintenance, snow clearing and grass cutting and revisiting garbage collection frequency amongst her top priorities.

Rice promises to keep taxes “under control” and believes economic development is the way to put more money in the city's bank account.

One of the ways she proposes doing that is by fixing the city's slow permitting process — a familiar target amongst mayoral candidates as well.

On her website, Rice also lists more playgrounds, spray parks, ice rinks and basketball courts as top priorities.

JASON CARTER

Carter is also listed as a candidate in this ward, however there’s no contact information for him on the City of Edmonton registry and he did not appear to have an active campaign website.

Read profiles for mayoral candidates and wards on our municipal election page.