- Hundreds of Edmonton Police Service officers, first responders, and Edmontonians lined the streets on March 21 to pay tribute to Const. Brett Ryan and Const. Travis Jordan as their bodies were brought to Serenity Funeral Home. The procession began around noon and followed a five-kilometre route, along which street lights were adorned with blue ribbons to honour the officers. A regimental funeral for Ryan and Jordan is scheduled for March 27 at Rogers Place.
- A health assessment of Lucy the Elephant done by the Edmonton Valley Zoo and the animal advocacy organization Free The Wild concluded that she is not fit to travel, which means the 47-year-old animal will remain at the zoo. Free The Wild also recommended significant changes to Lucy's facilities and care regimen. According to the city, a blood gas analysis test revealed the elephant has severe hypoxemia and hypercapnia and only breathes through her mouth. She also has a large uterine tumour, which is being treated with a vaccine. One of four experts who produced the assessment, Patricia London, disagreed that Lucy is unfit to travel, suggesting she is being "kept more like a pet" than a wild animal and may be experiencing worsened respiratory problems due to the cold, dry environment. Activists have been calling on the city to transfer Lucy to a sanctuary for years, while the zoo says that moving her could be life-threatening.
- Boyle Street Community Services can proceed with plans for a new facility after the city reissued a Class A development permit for the location at 101 Street and 107A Avenue. About 200 supporters of the social services agency gathered outside the future home of okimaw peyesew kamik, which is Cree for King Thunderbird Centre, on March 21 in celebration of the project being given the green light to proceed after the permit had been previously revoked due to land use concerns. The organization has raised 80% of its $28.5-million funding goal through its Build with Boyle campaign. Opponents of the project said in a statement the city is contravening its promise to deconcentrate social services in Chinatown.
- City council's urban planning committee debated amendments to Edmonton's business license bylaw to address privacy concerns raised by adult service industry workers, which includes exotic entertainment workers, body rub practitioners, and escorts. The existing bylaw mandates that businesses keep a list of workers' personal information, including names, birthdates, and phone numbers, while the amendments would require businesses to only track their pseudonyms and licence numbers. Monica Forya with Advocacy Normalizing Sex Work through Education and Resources Society (ANSWERS) says the existing bylaw exposes workers to businesses with nefarious intentions. The amendments will go to a regular council meeting for approval.
- Ex-Alta 2, a cube satellite designed and built by a group of University of Alberta students and faculty called AlbertaSat, was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on March 14 along with two other cube satellites aboard a cargo spacecraft. The new satellite's job is to capture images of wildfires. Ex-Alta 1, which launched in 2017 and ended its mission in 2018, was designed to study space weather. AlbertaSat explained the differences between the two satellites on its website.
- A new Zellers is set to open in Kingsway Mall on March 23 on the upper level of the existing Hudson's Bay store. The grand opening event will include a DJ, prizes, and a Zellers Food Truck.
- According to Rentola, a company that runs a rental home search engine, Edmonton is the best place to be in Canada during a zombie apocalypse. The company compared Statistics Canada data for 35 cities and ranked them across the categories of vulnerability, hideouts, supplies, safety, and mobility.
- The 2023 provincial budget will result in changes to municipal funding structures. The UCP government has adjusted the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) to double operating funding to $60 million for 2023-24, alongside $485 million in capital funding. Starting in 2024, the MSI will be replaced by the new Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF), which sets baseline capital funding at $722 million across all municipalities, including $382 million reserved for Calgary and Edmonton, and will index annual capital funding 1:1 with provincial revenues from the previous three years. The advocacy organization Alberta Municipalities, which conducted an analysis of the 2023 budget, says it leaves municipalities with a lingering infrastructure deficit and that budgeted LGFF funding is far below the 12-year average of past funding streams.
Headlines: March 22, 2023
By Kevin Holowack and Mariam Ibrahim