City Government

The Work We've Done So Far

Symposium, January 2012

On January 20, 2012, 170 Edmontonians gathered at City Hall for a half-day symposium to learn about Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy development, and provide their input into the initiative.

First, they were welcomed by City Councillor Ben Henderson – with a slide show of his fact-finding trip to several successful winter cities in Scandinavia.

Next, Edmontonian and NextGen member Carol Neuman wrapped up all the great things already happening in our city during the winter. Then the real work began. People gathered in small groups to give their ideas and recommendations for the WinterCity Think Tank.

And this is what they came up with:

Principles That Should Guide The WinterCity Strategy

Advice For The Think Tank

Reccomendations For Think Tank As They Develop The Strategy

Ideas For An Exciting Winter City

Kickoff Event, January 2012

What better way to celebrate winter than with a winter party? Hundreds of Edmontonians gathered at City Hall on the evening of January 19, to celebrate and help kick off the development of Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy. They shared their ideas for what would make Edmonton a great winter city – and took in the music, lantern making and free skate rentals.

The highlight was keynote speaker John Furlong, former CEO of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. He had people laughing and he had people holding back tears. But mostly he inspired: talking of the need to believe in Edmonton’s vision of becoming a great winter city and the importance of all Edmontonians being part of the magic to make that happen.

Executive Research Study, February 2011

In 2011, the City of Edmonton's Community Services was charged, under the leadership of Councillor Henderson, with developing a WinterCity Strategy: to recast Edmonton as a livable winter city that gets global recognition and attention for its major winter events.

As part of the research phase, Councillor Henderson and three city administrators travelled to world renowned northern cities in Finland and Norway to identify best practices of world class winter cities.

They visited Oslo, Helsinki, Rovaniemi, Oulu and Kemi, and found several common themes to the success of these winter cities:

Public life: comfort and well-being in city spaces are enhanced through support for walking, biking, staying, meeting and playing in the city in the winter

Public spaces: designing city spaces that are inviting and safe, with consideration of visual and aesthetic elements for people in squares, parks and classic urban districts. Climate is considered in architecture, urban design, transportation and infrastructure planning.

Buildings: use of colour, proportion, spatial quality, façade details and retail life can influence the people’s experiences in a winter city.

Branding and marketing: how northern cities market and brand themselves as winter destinations.

Treatment of light and snow: light and snow can and are used to transform places and spaces in the long winter months

Executive Research Study Findings

The City of Edmonton, with City Councillor Ben Henderson taking the lead, began work on this project in 2010.

Exploration Forum, June 2010

City Councillor Ben Henderson invited people involved in Edmonton's winter events and other community leaders to gauge interest in developing a Winter City Strategy.

The Forum identified several key areas it felt would need to be addressed:

Need for a culture shift to embracing winter, instead of enduring it.
Bring a new vision forward of Edmonton being a world-leading Winter City.
Increase Edmontonian's participation in wintertime festivals, outdoor activities and programs.
Attend to people's leading concerns: snow removal, traffic safety, isolation, sidewalks, etc.
Take a multi-functional approach to the development of Edmonton as a winter city.
Strengthen Downtown.

For more information:

Susan Holdsworth

Project Manager

Title	Community Strategies
Telephone	780-496-3664