- John McDougall, chair of the Edmonton Police Commission, said in an op-ed that the most important duty of the police is "to ensure the public is safe and secure" and said he is confident Chief Dale McFee will "make decisions that ultimately serve to keep Edmontonians safe."
- In a virtual media availability held via YouTube, McFee defended the Edmonton Police Service's handling of the trucker convoy protests and implored community leaders to "turn down the temperature." The chief said EPS is focused on limiting tensions between protestors, residents, and counter-protestors. "Ticketing is great and we realize people have to be held accountable for the noise, but that's not our number one priority," he said.
- Const. Elena Golysheva is on leave while the EPS professional standards branch conducts an investigation into a video she made of herself in uniform supporting the trucker convoy.
- Edmonton police officers are the highest paid in Alberta at $50.89 per hour for officers five years into their careers, reports The Progress Report. This is higher than other major Canadian cities like Montreal ($47.99 per hour), Ottawa ($49.81 per hour), and Vancouver ($45.50 per hour).
- Edmonton Public Schools will spend $6 million to install HEPA filters in classrooms in an attempt to keep COVID-19 numbers down. "HEPA filters will go a long way in terms of increasing our ability to take what we keep calling our 'layered approach' to mitigating the spread of COVID and keeping our classrooms and our kids and our staff as safe as possible," EPSB chair Trisha Estabrooks told Global News.
- Recent changes to provincial tax rules mean at least 64 affordable housing providers in Edmonton would need to pay property taxes as of 2023. A council-directed exemption or grant program to cover the municipal part of the tax burden could cost $5 million annually. Coun. Anne Stevenson plans to bring forward a motion next week to offer an exemption program.
- University of Alberta student Emilia Housch spent 60 hours working on a quilt that visually demonstrates climate change in Edmonton to get her certificate in sustainability. "I wanted to do something cool," Housch told CBC News.
- Edmonton's Bobbi-Jo Green is raising awareness for undiagnosed cardiovascular issues among women. In Alberta, between 2010 and 2020, 300 women were discharged from hospital, but ended up returning after having heart attacks less than a month later.
- Flu vaccination rates are low in Alberta this year, but case counts haven't picked up. So far AHS has detected only 41 cases, while just under 1.2 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.
- The Alberta legislative committee examining safe supply — providing pharmaceutical opioids, heroin, crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, or other substances to people who are addicted to or dependent on these substances — is seeking written submissions, reports Postmedia. Submissions can be made online until March 4. The committee is mandated to produce a report by April 30.
Headlines
By Mack Male and Doug Johnson