Hello, My name is Mohammad Ali Kamal and this is a brief intro of my Journey.
We acknowledge today that we are on Treaty 6 Territory, a traditional meeting ground for many Indigenous peoples, including the Cree, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Métis and other Indigenous peoples.
After living in Canada for over 30 years, I have undergone many experiences, shaping me into the person I am today. I started working for Standard Parking, and became a manager within a year. By the end of 1994, I was a Senior Manager of controls and audits. Then at around 1996, I became the first Senior Manager to take on their first P3 project, which was building a 800 space Parkade for the then Oshawa General Hospital, which is now Lakeridge Health. I also went on to build Parkades for Toronto General Hospital and North York General Hospital. Each project was worth around 10 to 30 million.
In early March of 2002, I was relocated to Calgary and became the Operations Manager for Western Canada.
Moving forward, in October 2004 I moved into Duggan, Edmonton. In 2006 I attended Duggan community league’s AGM. During the AGM, I asked the previous president Roger Plouffe a budget question, and somehow ended up as a board member, and went on to become the league’s president. All in all, I served the Duggan community league for 16 years before I moved to Windermere. I am glad I asked the question because otherwise I would not have come to know Roger or Gerlad or Brad or Diane, Lisha or the 2 Michaels, Abdul Waheed, the Greenway family. I can go on for a bit; I started to compile a list and it’s over 300 people.
In 2008, I took a golden handshake from Standard Parking and went back to school to finish my second degree in management from the University of Lethbridge.
During my time in Duggan in 2007, we were the first community league to have a group of 50 Bhutanese Families relocated from Nepal. These families lived in camps in Nepal for most of their lives. Once in Edmonton, we were able to mobilise resources and got these Bhutanese families fully integrated into the Canadian Mosaic. Currently not a single family lives in subsidised housing, they are all successful in their own fields and are proud owners of business and services.
On the fiscal side of volunteering. I will go back to Duggan, as a community league President I was instrumental in its budget preparation, just as an overview, a community league that is landlocked, meaning it can not grow. With 2200 resident families, I left the league with a surplus of over $150,000. This will keep the league in black and ride through post covid.
I have been hosting a Duggan Mother’s Day soccer tournament for the past 14 years. It is the biggest and one of the oldest community-based soccer tournaments of Canada as per CSA. All other tournaments are either run and managed by zone or regional soccer associations. We are the only major tournament that is volunteer based. Just to give you the perspective, a tournament that starts Friday at 6pm and must end Sunday at 5pm. In 2017 we had 207 teams and played 328 games on 32 fields across South Edmonton. This year we started the tournament again after 2 years of COVID hiatus. I took time off from the nomination campaign (End of April till May 10) to ensure that the tournament is back on and that the youth are back on the field.
In 2014 Dr. Uzma Khan (my spouse) and I started Shifa Medical Clinic located on Gateway Blvd. Since then, we have grown with 14+ physicians, and we are open 6 days a week. The clinic is part of the University of Alberta teaching program for residents and interns. Besides that, we also collaborated with the Harry Ainlay high school mentorship program where students from grades 11 and 12 can experience a clinic work environment.
I have been an NDP member since 2014. I had the pleasure of volunteering with Richard Feehan (Current MLA of Rutherford Riding) and was part of the team that worked towards his 2 successful elections.
Edmonton SW Windermere is at a crossroads with 4 potential candidates. As a member it is incumbent upon you to research your candidates on the following criteria:
- How long have they been a part of the Alberta NDP?
- Do they reside in the riding?
- What is their volunteer experience?
- What is their work experience?
- Are there different commendations from several governing bodies?
Since I have already talked about the first 4 items, I will take a little time to talk about item 5.
I was awarded a long term volunteer award by EMSA in 2019.
Also in 2019, I was recognised by soccer Canada and our Olympic Gold Medalist of Canada Women national team Desiree Scott came to Edmonton and awarded us $18,000 for our work with youth soccer
I was recognized by Councillor Michael Walters and the city of Edmonton in 2016 for my various community drive initiatives.
Besides all this I am currently Treasurer for the Alberta Association of Clinic Managers, this is my 4th year as their treasurer.
In July 2021, we moved from Duggan to Windermere. Late October I had a meeting with Richard Feehan and he urged me to seek nomination for SW Edmonton. This was something different, I had to ensure that my family (Uzma, 2 boys (Omar and Ahmad) and a daughter Amna)) were all on board with this. Once I had their blessings, I got myself in the race.
In conclusion, I have always worked towards the betterment of the community and given the chance, I will work tirelessly to represent SW Edmonton and to work on Getting the Hospital, high school, transit improvement, and access improvement to various programs and facilities that are in dire need for SW Edmonton.