Headlines: Nov. 2, 2022

  • Boyle Street Community Services announced that, without any government assistance, it has raised 75% of the fundraising goal for its new facility to be located at 100 Street and 107A Avenue. The facility was also gifted the name okimaw peyesew kamik ("King Thunderbird Centre") by Elder Cliff Cardinal during a ceremony. Major donors include the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation ($10 million), Capital Power ($2 million), Pat and Diana Priestner ($1 million), and Station Lands ($1 million), a joint venture of Qualico and Ledcor. Boyle Street is inviting the public through its Build with Boyle website to help raise the remaining 25%.
  • Marginalized people and households are experiencing the harms of the tight residential rental market in Edmonton. A recent city assessment said one in four households currently pays higher rent than they can afford or live in crowded or unsafe conditions. One third of those households are Indigenous, and half of them are led by women. "When there's such a shortage of accommodations and rental spaces, landlords can cherry-pick," said social justice advocate Mark Cherrington. "You just have to look downtown and see tent city or walk downtown and see all the people wandering about with no access to shelter."
  • In a piece for CBC First Person, local writer and avid traveller Davin Tikkala said Edmonton's LRT is the scariest train he's ever been on and described one frightening experience on the LRT in March. "The willingness of our city to let passengers fend for themselves as incidents pile up — documented and otherwise — suggests an indifference that is not part of the Edmonton that I want to call home," wrote Tikkala.
  • @yegwxnerdery shared a look back at Edmonton's weather for October 2022. According to the analysis, the average high of 15.5°C ranked as the 5th warmest since 1880. Monthly highs were mostly above average, with six days recorded as the warmest in 30 years.
  • Megan Clark, co-owner of Studio B Fitness YEG, told Global News that boutique fitness centres have been hit especially hard by inflation. GYMVMT had a different experience. Its membership is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. "What we have seen is people will make decisions on their prioritized spending elsewhere, and will have prioritized fitness at a much higher level," said sales director Dennis Gardner.
  • Advance voting has opened for the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection, set for Nov. 8, which will determine whether Premier Danielle Smith has a seat in the legislature. She is running against NDP candidate Gwendoline Dirk and Alberta Party leader and former Brooks mayor Barry Morishita. Analysts have suggested that the conservative Brooks-Medicine Hat riding is a "safe seat" for Smith, who lives three hours away in the riding of Livingstone-Macleod.