{"id":731034,"date":"2026-06-12T02:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731034\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T02:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:25:13","slug":"calls-for-a-more-business-friendly-edmonton-as-economic-development-strategy-released-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731034\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for a more business-friendly Edmonton as economic development strategy released – Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Edmonton businesses are calling for more practical solutions as they weigh in on a new economic development strategy for the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They say they don\u2019t feel like the city is currently business-friendly and that needs to change.<\/p>\n

In the 124th High Street area, Urban Diner has been serving food and drinks to customers for over 20 years, but they say in recent years it\u2019s getting harder to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no more fun to have a business here, that\u2019s what it is \u2014 it\u2019s no more fun,\u201d said Cryille Koppert, chef and owner of Urban Diner and Partake.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to stay alive, that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do here, and that\u2019s getting tougher and tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koppert owns two restaurants located in High Street near 124th Street and 102nd Avenue. The owners say with all the construction in the area year after year, they\u2019re seeing 40 per cent less traffic and it\u2019s become harder to attract customers.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our business, there\u2019s a lot of passion,\u201d Koppert said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t do it for the money, really. You want to make a living, but if you can\u2019t make a living, it\u2019s really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:42
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton consider parking changes like no more first 15 minutes free\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the city unveiled a new four-year economic development strategy, the \u201cEdmonton Advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

One of the goals is to address the perception of Edmonton as \u201cbusiness-unfriendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koppert said it isn\u2019t just a perception \u2014 he feels it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven coming and talking to us, or whatever, there\u2019s nothing like that. City doesn\u2019t do that \u2014 city\u2019s just on its own and they like (you) to figure it out yourself,\u201d said Koppert.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s three strategic pillars in the new plan are: enabling a strong business environment, marketing the Edmonton Advantage, and driving investment.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is encouraged by the plan and priorities put forward by city council, but notes it\u2019s tough to please everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, every business needs something different, and that\u2019s what\u2019s tricky about this economic action plan, is that it does need to address so many different things and so many different struggles and barriers are facing,\u201d said Heather Thomson, vice-president of economy and engagement with the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Economy
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to see this, and we\u2019ve been hearing from our members, how do we grow as a business here in Edmonton? How do we make more money? How do we expand?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis plan is a really important step.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Thomson hoped to see a bigger commitment from the city to cleanliness and beautification around Edmonton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that when places feel clean, and they are clean, they are actually quite safer, and so this is something that we want to see. I think that would hit a lot of economic boxes if we were able to put some serious time and investment into this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at different business environments across the globe, we see that this has a meaningful impact to the overall economic landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

These priorities are all part of conversations that will be ongoing with the city over the next four years, and Koppert hopes his business is at the table, too.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like them to sit with us and talk to us and see what we can do and how can we make things better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:59
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton bar forced to tear down patio to accommodate city construction\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Edmonton businesses are calling for more practical solutions as they weigh in on a new economic development…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,46,23752,263226,248047,110696],"class_list":["post-731034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-businesses","tag-edmonton-chamber-of-commerce","tag-edmonton-city-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}