Here are some Edmonton-related things I found interesting this week:
- Thursday was the official start of Winter Light 2009, Edmonton’s new winter festival. I wrote about it here, and Todd Babiak wrote a good article in The Journal today.
- Numbers released by Statistics Canada on Friday show that Edmonton has the lowest unemployment rate in the country among major cities at just 3.6 percent.
- Sun Media announced on Tuesday that Edmonton Sun editor-in-chief Graham Dalziel is leaving his post and will not be replaced. Instead, Calgarian Jose Rodriguez will be responsible for all of Sun Media’s properties in Alberta.
- I suppose it’s not a huge surprise, but the City’s new 311 phone service (which cost $10 million by the way) is being abused. They estimate that up to 40% of calls are from people seeking information the service cannot provide.
- The proposed idling bylaw would carry a fine of $250 and would rely on citizen action for enforcement. Combined with the numerous exceptions, I can’t see why anyone would think the bylaw is a good idea.
- Half of Edmonton Police Service employees who responded to a recent survey considered quitting. That’s not good news.
- The latest Edmonton Startup Index was posted by Techvibes on Monday. Nexopia (startup?) continues to lead the pack.
- The City of Edmonton is looking for volunteers for the EXPO 2017 bid. There are four key areas: community engagement, theme development, sponsorship, and site and infrastructure planning. You can learn more at the official website, or you can check out the information session on Thursday, January 15th at 7:30pm in City Hall.
- Pecha Kucha Night 3 is coming up on February 5th, and Next Gen is still looking for presenters. If you’re interested, the submission deadline is January 12th – you can email Christine Causing for more information. It looks like they have selected the Matrix Hotel downtown as the venue (subject to change).
- Another one from Todd Babiak: he calls the Edmonton Transit System pathetic. My tweet about it received a ton of comments, most of them in agreement. In case you missed it – I want an API for ETS.
MasterMaq's Blog 
As much as I think that the Edmonton-Calgary rivalry is stupid (though it can be fun, when played in jest), I really don’t like the idea of an Edmonton newspaper’s EiC being someone who doesn’t even live in the city.
I understand that they’re trying to cut costs, by not hiring a replacement, but it just seems counter-intuitive to have your EiC living and working in a completely different city.
Plus, the guy will now be in charge of 4 papers (though, I suspect that there isn’t much difference between the 2 cities’ versions of 24). Stretching someone thin like that could result in a decline in quality for all the publications in question.