Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Edmonton surpassed Calgary in active cases of COVID-19 in this week. Currently, 242 of Alberta’s 520 active cases are in the Edmonton zone. #WearAMaskYEG
• City Council voted unanimously to remove minimum parking requirements from the Zoning Bylaw, making Edmonton the first major Canadian municipality to do so. "Effective July 2, 2020, developers, homeowners and businesses will be able to decide how much on-site parking to provide on their properties based on their particular operations, activities or lifestyle."
• Edmonton public school trustee Cheryl Johner has resigned after she suggested that refugee students could sometimes be violent. "All they’ve known is violence," she said during a board meeting on Tuesday. "The safety of students is critically important — that other students feel safe as they go to their own school." She suggested school resource officers "act as a deterrent." EPSB chair Trisha Estabrooks called Johner’s remarks racist and said "it’s wrong, and it’s completely unacceptable." At that EPSB meeting, trustees voted unanimously to commission an independent study of the efficacy of the school resource officer program. A motion to immediately remove officers from schools was narrowly defeated.
• We spoke about Johner’s remarks and resignation on Episode 90 of Speaking Municipally.
• The Oliver Community League (OCL) has launched the "Uncover Oliver" campaign which calls on the City of Edmonton to initiate "an inclusive co-creation process to discover a new community name" for the neighbourhood currently known as Oliver. Mayor Don Iveson called the OCL’s calls-to-action "thoughtful" and committed to "do our best to facilitate these tangible steps for reconciliation and anti-racism."
• The City of Edmonton said it will be mowing and trimming grass and weeds more often starting in July in response to frustration over its previous decision to reduce maintenance frequency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Edmonton International Airport said the number of passengers departing has risen from a low of 300 per day in April to about 1,000 per day now. Face masks are now required to enter the building. CEO Tom Ruth said it’ll likely be three years before the airport fully recovers economically from COVID-19. Some good news though: Plant Plus, which manufactures plastic alternatives using plant fibre technology, is establishing a production and distribution facility at EIA.
• City Council unanimously approved the proposed conversion of the former dormitory building at the Exhibition Lands into bridge housing at a cost of $600,000. The building is expected to be move-in ready by the end of the year.
• Councillor Scott McKeen intends to ask his colleagues to revisit the e-bike rebate program calling it "a little tone-deaf in the context of a pandemic."
• Poplar fuzz is piling up along river valley paths and in parks across the city though the amount of fluff seen this year "is actually comparable to what we see most seasons," said Katelynne Webb, community forest leader at the City of Edmonton. “It’s a really healthy and natural process for our urban forest.”
• A Connor McDavid rookie card has sold for a record US$135,811 at an auction recently.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Upcoming Events (June 29-July 5)

The vast majority of upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. If you’re unsure, just stay home – especially if you’re feeling sick.

• July 1: Canada Day

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Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Edmonton has now surpassed Calgary in active cases of COVID-19 with 238 of Alberta’s 534 active cases in the Edmonton zone. There were just 44 active cases in the Edmonton zone at the start of June.
• The public hearing on policing will continue on Monday and Wednesday as about half of the registered speakers are still awaiting their turn. Some speakers have called for an overhaul of the City’s anti-racism advisory committee.
• City Council agreed to pick Indigenous names for the new wards that will be in place for the 2021 election. They’ve asked for the names to be ready in early September.
• A number of construction projects are on time or ahead of schedule, though the Valley Line LRT is still delayed, reports CBC.
• Recreation facilities will start to reopen in Edmonton on July 2 though the City warns "there will be necessary and significant changes to how the public will use the facilities and the overall operations."
• Timed ticket sales were brisk as the Valley Zoo reopened to visitors at 50% capacity on June 15.
• The first seven spray parks opened this weekend, and the City says all 25 across Edmonton will open in the next two weeks. Locations will be cleaned bi-weekly.
• Edmonton’s Bündok and Biera made Daily Hive’s list of Canada’s 100 best restaurants of 2020.
• Journal columnist Keith Gerein speculated on what may happen in the 2021 civic election. "Should Iveson decide to seek a third term, he would be the presumptive favourite and would undoubtedly scare off some would-be contenders — though the race is still likely to be more competitive than the landslides Iveson won in 2013 and 2017."
• "Edmonton has everything going for it but location, location, location," reports Sportsnet regarding the NHL hub city bid. "We know, Edmontonians don’t want to hear this."
• WestJet announced its July schedule, with all routes originating in Edmonton bound for Canadian destinations.
• The Polaris Prize long list includes two Edmonton bands: nêhiyawak and Wares.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Upcoming Events (June 22-28)

The vast majority of upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. If you’re unsure, just stay home – especially if you’re feeling sick.

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Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• City Council considered a multi-pronged motion on Wednesday that could lead to a $16.3 million reduction to the Edmonton Police budget in 2021, reports the Edmonton Journal. Police chief Dale McFee defended the current level of funding for the service in relation to the workload.
• “We’ve hired diversity in an extremely aggressive manner,” said police chief Dale McFee cautioning that budget cuts would hurt efforts to increase the diversity of the police force. “When you hire in a collective agreement … if you reduce your numbers, it’s last in, first out.”
• The Downtown Business Association has accepted the resignation of executive director Ian O’Donnell, effective immediately. "I fully and completely apologize for using ‘ALM’, a term that is associated with hate and racism. I was wrong to use it and am sorry for the hurt that it has caused," wrote O’Donnell.
• Troy and I spoke with Sahr Saffa on Episode 89 of Speaking Municipally. I found his perspective on the events of the past couple of weeks incredibly thought-provoking.
• This week, City Council unanimously approved a short-term housing plan that will turn a former jockey dormitory on the Northlands site into temporary bridge housing, reports the Edmonton Journal. "I’m done asking for other people to step up and help and I’m not going to use the provincial government’s abdication of leadership within their jurisdiction on this anymore, to justify the city waiting to make substantial change around supportive housing towards the goal of ending homelessness," said Mayor Don Iveson.
• Council also approved the Edmonton Economic Recovery Grant policy. The intake period for phase 1 is expected to open on Monday, June 15. Businesses can apply for matching microgrants of up to $5,000.
• The City of Edmonton has laid off another 60 employees this week in positions ranging from administrative to information technology to planning, reports CBC News.
• Alberta moved to Stage 2 of the Province’s relaunch plan on Friday. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
• The City of Edmonton is distributing 500,000 masks at four transit centres and three LRT stations starting Monday, June 15. Free masks will be handed out, upon request, daily between 7am and 7pm. Transit fares and front-door boarding will resume on Monday, June 15 as well.
• "The reopening of facilities is very complex and given the financial impacts of the pandemic, some services will not return this season," said David Aitken, chair of the City’s COVID-19 task team, in response to the provincial launch update. The funicular is reopening on Monday, June 15 with operation from 7am to 9pm and ridership limited to two people at a time, and the Valley Zoo also reopens on Monday, June 15 with additional signage, timed tickets, and capacity limited to 1,500 people.
• The Edmonton Public School Board is cutting 611 full-time positions and suggested more cuts are still to come, reports the Edmonton Journal. “When you continue to squeeze, what’s affected are the classrooms,” said board chair Trisha Estabrooks.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Upcoming Events (June 15-21)

The vast majority of upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. If you’re unsure, just stay home – especially if you’re feeling sick.

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More than 10,000 people showed up at the Alberta legislature on Friday night to declare that Black Lives Matter and to peacefully protest racism, white supremacy, and police brutality. They marched into the night, with constant cheers and horns heard throughout downtown.

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• "Edmonton is not immune to racism," wrote Mayor Don Iveson in a statement on anti-racism protests. "Racism exists, and does persist, here in Edmonton – and we must remain committed to fight racism, but this starts with acknowledging it."
• In a video posted to social media, Edmonton police chief Dale McFee addressed the death of George Floyd calling it "criminal" and said "there needs to be accountability."
• A form letter from Black Lives Matter Edmonton that calls on City Council to divest from policing and invest in community has been signed more than 7,500 times.
• After 11 weeks, the Emergency Advisory Committee decided not to renew the State of Local Emergency (SOLE) on Thursday afternoon. "Choosing not to renew the SOLE is as a result of the low number of active cases and hospitalizations, and the City’s ability to manage the current state without the declaration in place," reads the news release.
• City Council voted 8-5 to prioritize the Capital Line South LRT extension ahead of Metro Line North. "We are decades behind schedule of building out LRT in the city or mass transit," said Councillor Andrew Knack. "We need proper mass transit to all parts of the city — that is what is needed in large urban centres like Edmonton." His motion to continue pressing the provincial and federal governments for predictable funding was approved.
• The City of Edmonton has launched a series of environmental rebate programs to encourage energy efficient upgrades and electric transportation. Edmontonians can save up to $4,000 towards the installation of a solar electric system, and 30% of the cost of an e-bike, to a maximum of $750.
• The city has delivered 350 pop-up garden plots to 29 sites this year to help residents start gardening, reports CBC News. "The city is providing the planter boxes and soil to each selected site while gardeners must supply their own plants, seeds and tools."
• "A public opinion poll from the Alberta government indicates 79% of those polled support Edmonton hosting some Stanley Cup playoff games under conditions approved by the chief medical officer of health," reports Global News. In Edmonton itself, 57% of respondents strongly support the idea while 21% somewhat support it.
• Three Antonov AN-124 planes, among the largest in the world, arrived at the Edmonton International Airport as cargo charters this week. “We look forward to welcoming back more passengers in the future but until that time cargo flights are bringing needed traffic and activity to EIA and the entire Edmonton region,” said EIA president and CEO Tom Ruth in a news release. “We plan to keep building on the relationships we’re establishing for many years to come, to the benefit of our entire region.”
• Bird and Lime deployed hundreds of e-scooters in the city this week. They’re supposed to be corralled and cleaned daily. There are lots on and around 104 Street and I’m a bit surprised at how many people are riding them already. Roll Scooters, which had been planning to launch in Edmonton this spring, told the Edmonton Journal that COVID-19 forced it to change plans. They’re hoping to launch later this summer.
• Parking fees in EPark zones and City-owned parkades will be reinstated on Monday, June 8. Hourly rates in approximately 80% of EPark zones will be reduced.
• The Art Gallery of Alberta will reopen to the public on June 11 with access via pre-booked tickets.
• Laser City, which was forced to close in mid-March, has launched an online Minecraft day camp that runs for two hours a day.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

This week, Speaking Municipally surpassed 50,000 downloads! Thanks to everyone who has supported our show. Check out Episode 88 for more on what happened this week.

Upcoming Events (June 8-14)

The vast majority of upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. If you’re unsure, just stay home – especially if you’re feeling sick.

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