- The city has announced a new Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy, a seven-pillared plan for building a safe and inclusive city. "Our goal is to make Edmonton the safest city in Canada by 2030," said city manager Andre Corbould. Administration recommends $8.4 million in funding held back from the police budget to implement the plan if council approves it in the coming weeks.
- City council has approved an additional $860,000 in one-time funding to respond to encampments this year, after spending about $2.7 million on the issue in 2021. The money will go toward cleanup efforts, evening and weekend support, additional park rangers, and dedicated resources for known hot spots like Dawson Park and Kinnaird Ravine. Coun. Anne Stevenson, who brought forward the motion, acknowledged the money is "completely inadequate in terms of meeting the needs of folks who are living in encampments right now."
- The Old Strathcona Farmers' Market is hoping to modernize its building early next year. The market has engaged Clark Builders to provide a cost estimate for the work and is now starting the process of finding funding. "We want to open up Friday and Saturdays, we want to activate the building seven days a week with a general store, a food kiosk out front, so the community can use it for corporate, social and community events, make the building active," market manager Keith Persaud told CTV News.
- The Oilers will face elimination in tonight's game against Los Angeles without defenseman Darnell Nurse who has been suspended for one game for headbutting the Kings' Phillip Danault during the second period of Game 4. Edmonton will look for a better start to the game, forward Leon Daisaitl said. "We've got to come out with our skating legs underneath us. We haven't had that the last couple of games really, not any games really in the series."
- The city has put a spotlight on the professional women — including lawyers, communications experts, business leaders, engineers, and realtors — who are pivotal to the Valley Line West LRT project. Engineer Jacqueline Miller estimates that women make up at least 50% of the project team.
- A provincial court has found northwest Edmonton's Church in the Vine and one of its pastors, Tracy Fortin, guilty of violating the Public Health Act six times. The church and Fortin obstructed public health officers repeatedly while holding worship services in defiance of social distancing rules in 2021. A sentencing hearing will be held on May 25.
- Edmonton-Griesbach MP Blake Desjarlais is demanding answers from the oil and gas industry on whether companies will pay the $253 million in unpaid property taxes that oil companies owed to small Alberta municipalities at the end of 2021, a figure identified by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. "It's absolutely unfair to the men and the women who work in these communities and their families to be shackled to companies that don't want to pay their fair share, pay for their communities, pay for the basic programs and benefits that every worker deserves," said Desjarlais.
- The federal Conservative Party's leadership debate in Edmonton on May 11 was "an unorthodox, wide-ranging debate," CBC reports, "with detours on the topics of binge-worthy TV shows and the candidates' current reading lists."
Headlines
By Kevin Holowack and Mack Male