The UDI Edmonton Metro has rebranded itself.

The UDI Edmonton Metro has rebranded as BILD Edmonton Metro.

BILD Edmonton Metro is a merger of the UDI Edmonton Metro and the Canadian Homebuilders Association Edmonton Region, an amalgamation of industry influence over the city.


By Sasha Izard
May 5, 2026

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The Urban Development Institute (UDI) in British Columbia, has been the focus of many of my articles. There are however, other UDI’s in Canada. One of those that has appeared on my radar over the years is the UDI Edmonton Metro, which I’ve written about on occasion in various articles on CRD Watch.

What caught my eye about the UDI Edmonton Metro was that it had a whole webpage dedicated to “Influence”.

As I wrote previously:

“The UDI Edmonton Metro has also been incredibly explicit at their targeting of municipalities and their planning departments on their website.  The following was a screenshot of http://www.udiedmontonmetro.com/influence taken within the last 2 years. That webpage was later taken down and replaced.  I guess they realized that the reference to influence was too explicit.  They later redirected to a new page called “Our Impact” Our Impact – Urban Development Institute Edmonton Metro.  The Link to “Our Impact” on their front page can be seen in the 2nd screenshot below:”


“Influence

Advocacy is a key pillar of our organization. We advocate to municipal and elected officials to establish policies and programs that promote efficient, cost-effective and smartly-planned development across the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. We advocate with UDI membership, Board, committees, in addition to industry partners and allied organizations. Read our position letters.

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District Planning

Edmonton’s District Planning involves two main components – District General Policy and 115 District Plans. Together, they will incorporate policies from”


“Urban Development Institute
Edmonton Metro

Impact

We advocate to municipal and elected officials for better community building that enables a broad diversity of choice, maintains our affordability advantage, and actively attracts talent and investment to our region.”

“Note: The target of their influence and “advocacy” (The UDI files its lobbying activities with the BC Lobbyists Registry frequently as “advocating”): is District Planning, including municipal and elected officials.”

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Now, the UDI Edmonton Metro has rebranded as BILD Edmonton.

Its former website UDIEdmonton.com now redirects to: BILDEdmonton.com Home – BILD Edmonton Metro


Home – BILD Edmonton Metro

Different name, but scroll down and its the same old story:




Linked Impact webpage:

Impact – BILD Edmonton Metro


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The first archive.org snapshot of the UDI Edmonton Metro page comes from Mid 2024: BILD Edmonton Metro



Attached was the following press release from a month earlier about the new organization: Wayback Machine



“Over the coming months, BILD Edmonton Metro’s Transition Board and CEO, will develop a strategic plan and new events and initiatives for its members and the broader city building community. The Transition Board would like to thank the membership and association staff of UDI – Edmonton Metro and CHBA – Edmonton Region for their active participation and invaluable contributions during the amalgamation process.”

Toward the end of that year in 2024, the UDI in British Columbia also had an amalgamation of sorts. It pulled down all of its branch websites, redirecting and replacing them with a single unified UDI.org.


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Resources:

Snapshot of the UDI Edmonton Metro’s LinkedIn Page at the time of writing:


Archived Snapshot of the UDI Edmonton Metro’s LinkedIn page from 2024:

UDI-Edmonton Metro | LinkedIn

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See also:

“Innovative and Disruptive Thinking”: Impact Canada, a Federal Government Nudge Unit tied to the Prime Minister’s Office, was engaged in a several hundred million dollar program seeking ways to remove barriers to housing supply. – CRD Watch Homepage

Note to the above: the UDI used the terms Influence and Impact interchangeably.

UDI “Areas of Focus” in Focus – CRD Watch Homepage

Public Release of the Urban Development Institute (UDI)’s hidden members directory dated to the beginning of 2024. The directory contains dozens of government branches that are hiding their memberships in the registered lobbying organization for development and real estate interests from the public. – CRD Watch Homepage

Too much heat: The UDI pulls down its list of backroom committees that meet with the Government of British Columbia and Local Governments – CRD Watch Homepage



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