Recap: Best Bar None 2014

Last week I attended the fifth annual awards ceremony for Best Bar None. This year, 53 local bars, clubs, pubs, and lounges received accreditation, which means they are committed to ensuring their locations are held to the highest levels of safety and quality. While receiving accreditation is an achievement itself, the best of the best in six different categories were also honored with an award.

Best Bar None 2014

The winners for 2014 were (pdf news release here):

You can find the full list of accredited venues here.

Most of the accredited businesses had representatives present at the ceremony, and they all seemed to be having a great time. There was definitely some friendly rivalries going on, especially for the Club category, which The Ranch has won three times in a row now. Another frequent winner in previous years was Hudson’s Canadian Tap House.

Best Bar None 2014
Accredited & awarded businesses in the Club category

I’ve always heard about Best Bar None, but didn’t know much about it until I attended the awards ceremony this year. Here’s the description from their website:

“There’s good, there’s great, and there’s best. Best Bar None is a voluntary program for nightlife venues, designed to keep staff and patrons safe while recognizing excellence in the industry. Working with other establishments, government bodies, and law enforcement, a Best Bar None accredited establishment has taken steps to make sure their business is held to the highest levels of safety and quality. Through rigorous assessment, accreditation and awards, Best Bar None helps make sure your favourite nightlife venues have you covered.”

Becoming accredited means submitting written policies and procedures that cover all mandatory policies, completing mandatory operational forms and checklists, passing an in-person assessment, and completing a questionnaire. Businesses must have a wide range of policies, such as a glass collection policy and a written procedure for premises evacuation in the event of an emergency. For those venues that go above an beyond, there are a series of bonus policies they can submit, such as having a policy to provide surveillance camera images and data to police immediately upon request. During the physical assessment, venues must meet 19 different criteria, with an additional 22 criteria available for bonus points. You can see the complete criteria checklist online here in PDF.

Best Bar None 2014

The program is a partnership between the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC), the City of Edmonton, and the Edmonton Police Service (EPS). Originally created in the U.K., the Alberta Safer Bars Council brought the program to Edmonton for a pilot in 2010. Of the 63 establishments that applied for accreditation that year, 38 were successful. Since being piloted here in Edmonton, the Best Bar None program has since been adopted in Calgary, Grande Prairie, Toronto, and Ottawa, with many other municipalities looking to start their own programs.

At the City of Edmonton, the Best Bar None program is administered by Responsible Hospitality Edmonton. They are stewards of Edmonton’s late-night economy, affectionately known as “the other 9 to 5”. It’s bigger than you might think too, with more than 5,800 full-time equivalent jobs, 235 licensed establishments open after midnight, and an estimated total impact on economic output of $686 million. In addition to their work on Best Bar None, Responsible Hospitality also runs the Public Safety Compliance Team and Street as a Venue programs.

You might think the Best Bar None program is for those in the industry only and not of interest to patrons, but that’s not true. Surveys show that 90% of patrons believe bar managers can do things to make their venues safer and 80% rate safety as being important when considering which locations to attend. I have certainly noticed the sticker on windows more frequently when I walk past establishments now, and it’s helpful to know that those locations have met a minimum standard.

AGLC has produced some new commercials that make this point as well, with their slogan “we’ve got you covered”:

Thanks to AGLC for inviting me to the event, and congratulations to all of the accredited and awarded businesses! You can see the rest of my photos here.

You can follow Best Bar None on Twitter for updates.

Mayor Iveson on Budget 2015, Council’s 2%, City Charter, and more

On Monday, Mayor Iveson held a lunchtime “editorial board” at his office for some local bloggers. He seemed energized and excited to talk about the budget, even though he was in the middle of a day-long public hearing and barely had time to eat. Given the limited time we had available, we didn’t cover as much as I would have liked, but we did get to hear from the mayor on some important budget-related topics. Here are some that I wanted to highlight.

Mayor Don Iveson

Demystifying the Budget

Describing the budget as “by far the most complex piece of governing that we do,” Mayor Iveson said he was pleased with the attempts this year to demystify it for Edmontonians. He cited the new City Budget microsite and the associated PDF primer as two positive examples of a different approach to getting budget information to citizens.

He also mentioned the Reddit AMA with CFO Lorna Rosen. I thought that was a great initiative, but there weren’t as many questions as I expected. I asked Mayor Iveson what the City can do to increase the budget literacy so that people feel empowered to ask more meaningful questions.

“How do you usefully simplify 600 pages of information into a high level, ‘where does the money go?’,” he asked rhetorically. “People have every right to say, ‘where does this money go'” but he noted that it’s certainly not an easy process. One positive example was the Edmonton Insight Community, which serves as an educational tool as much as an input tool. More than 800 Edmontonians spent an average of 24 minutes using the interactive tool that was part of the Edmonton Insight Community survey on the budget.

“I think we could go one step further in the future, with an interactive website,” he added. The mayor envisions being able to put in your tax roll and see how your contribution breaks down by department. He says Edmontonians would be pleasantly surprised to see that the City does indeed spend the bulk of its money on the things that citizens say are important to them.

Progress on Council’s 2%

During the election, Mayor Iveson proposed a new program called “Council’s 2%” that would require City Administration to find about 2% in increased efficiency every year. The goal would be to take the roughly $20 million saved per year and invest that into either infrastructure improvements or other innovative ideas.

The goal this year was to find about $23 million in savings. So how did the City do? “They were able to find tangible changes in the $15.5 million dollar range, which for the first year out, is pretty good,” Mayor Iveson told us. But he made it clear that this work is about more than the figures. “The point is less about the exact dollar, and is about the goal of continuous improvement, and being transparent with the governors and the public about the accomplishments that they’re making.”

It’s a culture change, from what Mayor Iveson calls “pin the tail on the budget” to interactions based on trust. “We trust our staff to do the right thing if they are given the right incentives and given the right recognition for doing the right thing.” Instead of padding the budget because they think Council will just try to cut a few million, the goal is to have Administration put forward the most realistic figures they can. Mayor Iveson explained that a tiny change in assumptions can often translate into millions of dollars in the budget. Over time, that trust could translate into greater acceptance by Council of ideas brought forward by Administration, where as previous Councils would have remained skeptical.

So while the City is off to a good start with Council’s 2%, there’s still a lot of work to be done. “It’s a term-long project to instill that culture,” Mayor Iveson said.

Big City Charter

Everyone knows that Calgary, Edmonton, and the Province have been holding discussions on the idea of a big city charter, but no one seems to know where that effort is going or how successful it’ll be. Mayor Iveson said the question is not whether Edmonton will get anything from the effort, but how much we’ll get. “Getting nothing is a politically unacceptable result,” he told us. “There’s too much political expectation that something must be done.”

The mayor made his case for receiving a bigger piece of the pie. Or as he put it, “some equity in consideration of the fact that we are a hub for northern Alberta.” Though he did talk briefly about the importance of having stable funding for and “line of sight” on big infrastructure projects like LRT expansion and improvements to the Yellowhead, the mayor focused more on working with the Province in his comments.

For instance, he spent quite a bit of time talking about the cost of the Edmonton Police Service. “Policing is a huge area were we can give example after example of the load that Edmonton is carrying for northern Alberta,” he explained. He said EPS deals with national and sometimes international criminal phenomena (like cybercrime) but is funded almost entirely by Edmonton property taxes. Noting the importance of the work, he said “I don’t want to get out of that business, I just want appropriate help.”

Mayor Iveson lamented the fact that Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) funding has not been increased in quite some time, and said “if we don’t deal with some of those things proactively they can become policing challenges, which is the most expensive thing we do.” He talked about preventing people from needing to access health care, as an example, which is a big piece of the provincial budget. “I’m less interested in just getting the Province to just pay for a whole bunch more cops,” he said. “What I’m really interested in is getting the Province to fund FCSS.” It’s about working together on prevention.

That’s the mayor’s takeaway message. “The City Charter isn’t just us with a hand out,” he said, “it’s us with a handshake.”

Neighbourhood Renewal

The 1.5% levy to fund neighbourhood renewal looks like it’ll remain in place for the foreseeable future. Repeating something he has said before, Mayor Iveson told us that “people want lower taxes and they want me to fix their streets – I can’t do both.”

The general sentiment he’s hearing is that people are fine with paying a little bit more in tax now because they see things changing. They see neighbourhoods getting reconstructed, and they see potholes getting filled, they see roads being improved.

“I do worry that in the newer areas there may be less understanding that we are building up a reserve fund,” he admitted. The mayor explained that after 15 years, neighbourhoods will get preventative maintenance, and at 60 years of age, they’ll get rebuilt on time. Thanks to the neighbourhood renewal fund, new neighbourhoods won’t fall into the state of disrepair that some of our mature neighbourhoods have. “It’s actually the old neighbourhoods that got off scot-free over the last 60 years by not contributing to such a fund.”

Though he has previously suggested there might be light at the end of the tunnel for those looking for a tax break, the mayor clarified that comment. “The neighbourhood renewal levy will be fully funded on an ongoing revolving basis as of about 2018,” he told us. So you can count on that 1.5% tax levy for at least the next four years.

Mayor Don Iveson

Final Thoughts

I was very glad to have some time to hear directly from Mayor Iveson on the budget. It’s great to see that he is willing to reach out to bloggers and other social media folks, too. Budget discussions continue at City Hall for the next couple of weeks, and you can find all the relevant information here.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #132

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

capital fm xmas

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

Edmonton Notes for 11/23/2014

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

ARNEA DISTRICT
Arena District by Jason Woodhead

Upcoming Events

PhotoWalk-11
A look at the Walterdale Bridge project, by IndustrialAndrew

Coming up at City Council: November 24-28, 2014

Agendas for upcoming City Council meetings are generally released on Thursday afternoons. I like to take a look to see what Council will be discussing, and I figured I should share that here. Below you’ll find links to the meetings taking place next week, as well as links to and thoughts on some agenda items that caught my eye.

City Council Swearing In 2013-2017

In case you hadn’t heard, it’s budget time!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Council starts the week with a non-statutory public hearing on the proposed 2015 operating, capital, and utilities budgets. The public hearing is scheduled from 9:30am to 9:30pm, and if you’d like to speak, you can register here.

If you haven’t already done so, check out this microsite that the City put together as a primer on the budget. When you’re ready for more detail, you’ll find everything you could possibly want to know about the City’s budget process here. If you’d like to go through some Q&A, check out the AMA that CFO Lorna Rosen did on Reddit last week. And when you’re ready, try to come up with your own budget using the CBC’s interactive tool.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

There is one non-budget-related meeting taking place this week, and that’s the Audit Committee meeting on Tuesday. The Audit Committee is responsible for “providing oversight and consideration of audit matters brought forward by the City Auditor and the External Auditor.” Among other things, the Committee will consider:

The City Streets Audit Report determines if the City is adequately protecting roads as a capital asset (it is) and assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of the Pothole Repair Program (it is consistent with previous years). Here’s a look at how many potholes have been filled over the last 10 years:

potholes

The current average condition of all roads is considered “good”, which is 6.06 on a scale of 1 to 10. Here’s a look at how that number has changed over the years:

pqi

To date in 2014, the Office of the City Auditor has provided 17 reports to Council and the Audit Committee.

Once the Audit Committee meeting has adjourned, a selection committee meeting will be held to select/reappoint the public member of the Audit Committee.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

On Wednesday, the 2015 budget meetings begin. Council is scheduled to discuss the 2015 budget on both Wednesday and Thursday, and also December 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10. If they need more time, they’ll discuss it on December 11 and 12 too.

2015 Drainage Services Utility Operating & Capital Budget

The proposed 2015 operating budget for Drainage Services has revenues of $167 million and expenditures of $127 million. The proposed 2015-2018 capital budget for Drainage Services totals $727 million.

Bylaw 16980 provides for both Sanitary Drainage & Stormwater rate increases of $0.50 per month each for the typical residential customer, to take effect on January 1, 2015.

2015 Waste Management Utility Operating & Capital Budget

The proposed 2015 operating budget for Waste Management Services has revenues of $169 million and expenditures of $172 million. The proposed 2015-2018 capital budget for Waste Management Services totals $121 million.

Bylaw 16982 sets out the proposed increases in the residential monthly waste service fee, and also changes to six facility user rates at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, all of which would take effect on January 1, 2015. The change in monthly waste service fees is $3.35 per single-family home and $2.18 per multi-family unit.

Proposed 2015-2018 Capital Budget

The proposed capital budget includes expenditures of $5.962 billion for tax-supported operations, which includes new tax-supported debt of $321.5 million, new self-supporting tax guaranteed debt of $121.4 million (to be recovered by the Downtown and Quarters CRLs), and a tax increase of 1.5% per year for the period 2015-2018 for the Neighbourhood Renewal Program.

Of the $5.962 billion, $2.830 billion was previously approved and $2.699 billion is new funding. These are big numbers and you’re probably wondering about how much debt Edmonton can carry, so check out this post from last year. Here’s a look at where the money comes from:

sources

Roughly 45% of the funding will go towards infrastructure renewal projects, which are an “investment in existing infrastructure to restore it to its former condition and extend its service life.” The remaining 55% will be spent on growth projects, which are investments in “new assets as well as…projects that add to or enhance components of existing infrastructure assets.”

Some of the major growth projects include: Valley Line LRT ($1.618 billion), Rogers Place and related infrastructure projects ($403.1 million), Blatchford ($561.4 million), and The Quarters ($47.1 million).

Here’s a look at the recommended 2015-2018 allocation by service area:

renewal vs growth

There is obviously a lot more detail in the attached reports, so if you want to dive in, now’s the time!

Thursday, November 27, 2014

The budget meetings continue on Thursday, with Council slated to hear presentations from civic agencies on the proposed capital budget. Starting at 9:30am, they will hear from:

  • Edmonton Police Commission
  • Edmonton Public Library
  • Edmonton Economic Development Corporation
  • Francis Winspear Centre for Music
  • Fort Edmonton Management Company
  • TELUS World of Science

Proposed 2015 Operating Budget

Following those presentations, Council will look at the proposed 2015 operating budget, they’ll have presentations from each of the major departments, like Community Services and Sustainable Development.

The budget discussions will continue over the next three weeks.

That’s it! You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

Recap: DemoCamp Edmonton 26

After missing the 25th DemoCamp (I was there in spirit) I was very much looking forward to last night’s DemoCamp Edmonton 26. I enjoy seeing what other local developers have been up to, and I almost always walk away feeling inspired. It’s also a great way to meet some new folks in the startup scene over beer.

Cam Linke
As always, the event was hosted by Cam Linke

The demos were (in order of appearance):

For this recap, I decided to record some thoughts on each of the demos, which you can listen to on MixCloud:

You can also download the MP3 here.

My favorite demo of the evening was StormBoard. Maybe a little unfair considering how well-established the app is and how seasoned Reg is at presenting, but I thought it was great. Compelling, well-designed, and feature-rich. Give it a try if you haven’t already!

Team Stormboard

Keep an eye on the Startup Edmonton Meetup group for more upcoming tech events. They have also added a listing of all the meetups taking place at Startup to the website.

See you at DemoCamp Edmonton 27!

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #131

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

  • Follow @ShawFireLog on Twitter for updates!
  • Earlier today, the annual Christmas Bureau campaign launch took place, with many members of the media participating in the gingerbread decorating contest. Edmonton’s Child Magazine won “Best of Print”, 95.7 CRUZ FM won “Best of Radio”, This Bird’s Day won “Best of Social Media”, Shaw TV won “Best of TV”, and Global Edmonton won “Shameless Self-Promotion”. Here’s a video about the launch:

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

Edmonton Notes for 11/16/2014

Sharon and I had a wonderful weekend in Jasper at Christmas in November! We were very lucky to be able to attend on behalf of Gastropost. Lots of photos and writing to be done. Thanks Brittney for having us!

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

Before the Big Build
Before the Big Build, by Jeff Wallace

Upcoming Events

Cold day in Edmonton
Cold Day in Edmonton

Coming up at City Council: November 17-21, 2014

Agendas for upcoming City Council meetings are generally released on Thursday afternoons. I like to take a look to see what Council will be discussing, and I figured I should share that here. Below you’ll find links to the meetings taking place next week, as well as links to and thoughts on some agenda items that caught my eye.

City Council Swearing In 2013-2017

A reminder that it’s budget time! If you want to dig into the 2015 budgets, check out this microsite that the City has launched. Also head over to the Edmonton subreddit at 12:30pm on Friday, November 14 for an AMA with CFO Lorna Rosen. City Council will be discussing the budget in detail from November 26 to December 10, with optional meetings scheduled for December 11 and 12 if they need more time.

Monday, November 17, 2014

On Monday, City Council is holding a public hearing. The usual bylaws to allow development will be discussed, but three include amendments to ARPs:

  • An amendment to the Strathcona Area Redevelopment Plan (bylaw 16988), a rezoning to allow for a five storey addition to the exist Crawford Block building (bylaw 16989), and a bylaw to designate the Crawford Block as a Municipal Historic Resource (bylaw 16916). You can learn more about the Crawford Block, which was built in 1912, at the Edmonton City as Museum Project.
  • Rezoning (bylaw 16992) and an amendment to the Boyle Street/McCauley Area Redevelopment Plan (bylaw 16991) to allow for a 4 storey mixed-use development. This is for the property at 9103 111 Avenue in McCauley.
  • Rezoning at 10505 106 Street in Central McDougall (bylaw 16852) and an amendment to the Central McDougall/Queen Mary Park Area Redevelopment Plan (bylaw 16851).

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

On Wednesday, Council will hold its final meeting before the budget meetings take place, which means there is just one “normal” Council meeting left for 2014 (on December 17). Items on the agenda next week include:

Corporate Measures and Targets Follow-up

With this item, Administration is recommending 26 measures and targets for the 12 outcomes in The Way Ahead. There are both new and revised measures and targets compared to the 23 provisionally approved in June, based on feedback from Council. You can learn more about the 12 outcomes here.

The measures are things like “% of new residential units in mature areas”, “transit ridership per capita”, “ecological footprint in hecatre/capita”, or “City of Edmonton credit rating”. Each measure has a corresponding target and measurement frequency. The idea is to provide Council with information to aid in their decision-making. These aren’t the only things the City measures of course, as the report says the City tracks “hundreds of different types of performance measures.”

None of the recommended targets go beyond 2018 because that’s the end date of the current The Way Ahead. Once approved, an updated document will be made available, and Administration will begin to report back to Council on the outcome measures and targets.

Approval of Expropriation for the Southeast to West LRT (Valley Line) Stage 1, Phase 2

Administration is recommending that Council approve the expropriation of land required for the Valley Line LRT under the Expropriation Act. This approval will enable them to proceed with finalizing the expropriations, which needs to happen before construction can begin.

There are 17 properties being expropriated. Some are located near five corners in The Quarters, some are near Cloverdale Road and Strathearn Drive, some are along 83 Street between 76 Avenue and 77 Avenue, and some are further south. The largest property is #10 which is about 0.519 ha and is currently a parking lot owned by the Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre. Seven of the properties are residences.

Construction of the Valley Line LRT is scheduled to begin in 2016, with preparation of the lands required continuing through 2015.

Committee Recommendations

There’s also approval of recommendations made from the Utility Committee, Executive Committee, and Community Services Committee, including:

Some other items that Council will be looking at include:

  • Edmonton Police Commission – Interviews and Appointment
  • Terms of Reference – Commonwealth Games Bid Oversight Committee
  • Jerry Forbes Centre Multi-tenant Project Update

That’s it! You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

What will happen to Rexall Place?

With a new downtown arena, what will happen to Rexall Place?

It’s a question that has been asked many times over the last few years, and one which remains unanswered. But that could finally change next spring.

On Halloween, Northlands publicly announced the formation of its Arena Strategy Committee. Comprised of 17 members of the community, the committee is tasked with delivering a recommendation on the future of Rexall Place to the Northlands board by April 15, 2015. Here’s what Northlands’ new President & CEO Tim Reid had to say about the news:

“The opening of Rogers Place will change the competitive market place for Rexall Place. We need a short and long-term plan that meets Northlands’ objectives while identifying and assessing viable opportunities for the future use of Rexall Place and its site.”

That’s a very different message than the one delivered in March 2008 when then-Northlands-board-chair Jerry Bouma ruled out the possibility of keeping Rexall Place open if a new arena was built. “We can’t have two competing large-scale facilities,” he said at the time. A few years later, City Manager Simon Farbrother also suggested that Edmonton cannot sustain two arenas. Most people I have talked to feel the same way.

We have seen a similar scenario play out before. Eight years after Northlands Coliseum opened in 1974, the Edmonton Gardens was demolished. The situation is different today, of course – Rexall Place is one of the busiest arenas in the world whereas the Gardens was condemned at one point – but you can’t help but wonder, is that the fate of Rexall Place too?

Northlands, it seems, isn’t as sure as it once was. And it has struck this committee to help remove that uncertainty.

Rexall Place Planet
Rexall Place Planet by Kurt Bauschardt

Here are the committee members, with the “area of expertise” they represent in brackets (copied from the press release for posterity):

  • Mrs. Laura Gadowsky, Chair, Northlands Board of Directors (who is an ex officio member of all committees)
  • Mr. Harold Kingston, First Vice Chair, Northlands Board of Directors
  • Mr. Burke Perry, Second Vice Chair, Northlands Board of Directors
  • Mr. Andrew Ross, Arena Strategy Committee Chair, Northlands Board of Directors
  • Mr. Gerry Yuen, Northlands Board of Governors
  • Mayor Don Iveson, City of Edmonton
  • Mr. Dave Quest, MLA, Government of Alberta
  • Mr. Tom Ruth, President & CEO, Edmonton Airports (Industry and Commerce)
  • Mr. Dave Mowat, President & CEO, ATB Financial (Audit and Finance)
  • Mr. Brad Ferguson, President & CEO, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (Economic Development)
  • Ms. Jerri Cairns, Vice Chair, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors (Industry and Commerce)
  • Mr. Ashif Mawji, Founder & CEO, NPO Zero (Audit and Finance)
  • Mr. Len Rhodes, President & CEO, Edmonton Eskimos Football Club (Sports and Entertainment)
  • Mr. Stephen Petasky, President & Founder, Luxus Group (Industry and Commerce)
  • Mr. Ray Block, Vice President of Administration and CFO, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Arts, Culture and Education)
  • Mr. Mack D. Male, Blogger of MasterMaq’s Blog and software developer/entrepreneur (Youth and Community Groups)
  • Ms. Geraldine Bidulock, Private Business Owner (Rural)

When I offered my help to Tim in his new role as President & CEO of Northlands, I had no idea that I would hear from him so soon. I am honored to have been asked to work with such a diverse and impressive group of community leaders. I know this is a big commitment, and I’m looking forward to making a big contribution.

The committee will further split into at least two subcommittees: one focused on examining other buildings in other cities, and one focused on public engagement. I will be very active on the public engagement side of things. We’ll be working with RC Strategies on that. Our committee will work to gather information and to encourage dialogue.

I am approaching this challenge with an open mind. As a committee, we don’t have an outcome in mind. Instead, we want to understand the range of possible outcomes, evaluate the pros and cons of each, gather input from the public on them, and ultimately try to come to some sort of decision about which is the best one for Edmonton.

So what happens when we’ve come to a decision? Our committee will deliver a recommendation to the Northlands board of directors in early April. The plan is for that recommendation to be made public on April 15. What happens next? We’re not sure. The board could adopt the recommendation, they could reject it, or they could let it sit. Northlands will hold its AGM at the end of April, so potentially one third of the board membership could be changing. The current board may simply decide to let the new board deal with our recommendation. We’ll have to see.

Stay tuned for details on the public consultation opportunities we’ll be facilitating. There will be opportunities to share your thoughts on the future of Rexall Place both in person and online. Of course, I want to hear from you directly and as soon as possible – feel free to leave a comment below or to get in touch. I’ll do my best to blog updates here as appropriate. It’s going to be an interesting few months.