Edmonton Notes for September 11, 2016

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Rogers Place officially opened this week with a ceremony on Thursday evening and a public open house on Saturday. You can see the full video of the ribbon cutting here and here’s a collection of photos from the official opening. Here’s a statement from PCL Construction and here is the City of Edmonton’s news release.
• Critics mostly seem impressed by the new arena and the surrounding development still to come, but a lot remains to be seen about the impact the arena will have. There’s uncertainty about what the new Edmonton will mean for 104 Street and the rest of downtown.
• Also unveiled Thursday was Alex Janvier’s Tsą tsą ke k’e – “Iron Foot Place” – a 45-foot diameter circular mosaic set in the floor of Ford Hall (formerly known as the winter garden). It looks spectacular! Here’s the news release.
• Here’s a look at the new food and beverage options that will be available at Rogers Place. At the open house, chocolate bars and bottles of water were priced at $5 each.
• The new $32 million Grand Villa Edmonton Casino also opened this week in ICE District.
• The City of Edmonton is one of only two cities in Canada to become a champion city for the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Program. “By joining the UN Women Safe Cities Initiative, Edmonton is part of the global movement to change harmful social norms and attitudes that discriminate and tolerate violence against women,” said Mayor Don Iveson.
• Employment in the Edmonton region fell by 8,500 jobs in August 2016 which means the Edmonton CMA’s unemployment rate increased from 7.7% in July to 8.0% in August (Calgary is at 9.0%).
• Paula Simons on Edmonton’s proposed Suicide Prevention Strategy: “The strategy is a remarkably idealistic and aspirational document…but while it’s long on soaring rhetoric, it’s short on concrete, specific proposals that might actually save lives.”
• The University of Alberta is getting $132 million in upgrades over the next two years thanks to newly announced federal and provincial funding. “The federal government is providing $56.3 million from its post-secondary institutions strategic investment fund while the provincial government is contributing $26.5 million. The private sector and the U of A are together adding $48 million.” Here’s more on the funding at ExpressNews.
• The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta has endorsed the concept of safe-injection sites in Edmonton. Vancouver is currently the only Canadian city where safe-injection sites are operating.
• There’s an opening on the Edmonton Police Commission, with tenure starting in January 2017. The deadline to apply is September 25.
• The Capital Region Board’s updated Growth Plan will go to vote on October 13.
• The official portrait of former Premier Alison Redford was hung at the legislature on Thursday without any ceremony.
• From Vintage Edmonton: William Hawrelak for Mayor Handbill (1974).
• Here is the second part of ECAMP’s feature on Edmonton’s Italian community. It covers the period of 1921 to 1945.
• The deadline to nominate someone for the 2016 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Awards is September 20.
• A memorial service was held today at the Firefighters Memorial Plaza in Old Strathcona to mark the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

Ford Hall, photo by Kurt Bauschardt

Upcoming Events

• The Edmonton premiere of Catching the Sun!, a film about solar energy, takes place on Tuesday at the Garneau Theatre.
• Dark Matters returns on Thursday to the TELUS World of Science with a focus on the science of science fiction.
• Head over to Hall D at the Shaw Conference Centre on Thursday for the Balcony Harvest Party in support of the High School Culinary Challenge.
• Western Canada Fashion Week gets underway on Thursday and runs through September 24 at the ATB Financial Arts Barns in Old Strathcona.
• Edmonton is hosting the FISE World Series this weekend at Hawrelak Park. The event features 400+ riders and is free to attend. They have quite the lineup of food trucks too!
• Vignettes takes place on Friday at the former Sobey’s location on 104 Street. The event “is an interdisciplinary competition that invites teams of local designers, woodworkers, visual artists and contractors to bring their best in collaboration, creation, and competition in a challenging and innovative way.”
• MacEwan is hosting tours of its urban beekeeping project for the next few weeks – the first is on Friday during lunch.
• A meeting for the Edmonton Soccer Project takes place Friday night at the Mill Woods library.
• Keith Urban will play the first concert at Rogers Place on Friday evening. Dolly Parton will play the second concert, on Saturday evening.
• The City is hosting another Big Bin Event this weekend at Commonwealth Stadium. Bring your household items that can’t be set out for regular waste collection.
• Rogers Place is hosting a viewing party for Team North America vs. Team Finland on Sunday. Tickets are $5 and go on sale Wednesday at 10am.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.