- The Healthy Streets Operations Centre in Edmonton's Chinatown, which started as a pilot project in 2022, will close at the end of this year, Postmedia reported. Council voted to put $15.2 million towards the two-year pilot, but has since taken no action to continue it. Some teams, including community safety teams with police officers and paramedics, will continue working in the area. Coun. Anne Stevenson said the centre offered a "mixed bag of outcomes," while several community members said it helped them feel safe.
- The Edmonton Public School Board is expecting an additional $22.4 million for the 2024-2025 school year, after the province announced in July it would increase funding across school divisions by $215 million. Most of the money will go toward students needing extra support. Supt. Darrel Robertson said the additional funding is welcomed but only half of what the division should receive, while trustee Saadiq Sumar said there remains a fundamental problem with the province's funding formula for schools.
- Edmonton Police Service Chief Dale McFee appeared on CBC's Edmonton AM to talk about Edmonton's winter encampment strategy. In the interview, McFee signalled there would be no changes to the police service's approach to encampment removals, which ramped up last winter. Last month, a coalition of 10 agencies released an open letter calling for encampment removals to be halted, with data from Homeward Trust showing a 47% increase in people experiencing homelessness between January and June 2024.
- The City of Edmonton spent nearly $225,000 to fence off encampment sites in the first nine months of 2024, compared to $3,400 in all of 2023, according to the media project Progress Report. Of the funds spent this year, $107,000 came from an Alberta government grant to buy fencing. In a statement to Progress Report, the City of Edmonton said the fencing is "a crucial part of our work to maintain safety during and after encampment resolutions."
- Coun. Tim Cartmell appeared on Global News at Noon to talk about what's next for transit safety after Edmonton city council voted not to proceed with a pilot project for fare gates at some stations. Cartmell pointed to his subsequent motion for administration to examine the effects of reallocating the LRT Commissionaire budget to transit police officers or other security interventions.
- City council's executive committee received a report on the City of Edmonton's fiscal gap, why it exists, and options to address it. The report says there is no single cause for Edmonton's financial challenges, which are the result of policy decisions and factors beyond the City's control. Suggestions in the report to address the gap include increasing the non-residential tax base, prioritizing and evaluating projects and revenue streams, and divesting capital assets. Meanwhile, Coun. Tim Cartmell published a blog criticizing Mayor Amarjeet Sohi's website campaign for provincial funding, calling it a distraction from necessary collaboration.
- Edmonton's housing market is experiencing tight supply, with a 13% decline in residential sales from August to September, and a 12% decrease in supply across the Greater Edmonton Area this year compared to last, according to the REALTORS Association of Edmonton. Some realtors say the pattern could continue driving up home prices, but others suggest the market is balanced.
- YEG Youth Connect, an annual event to help connect vulnerable youth with services, is taking place Oct. 10 from 11am to 4pm at the Boyle Street Plaza YMCA. About 200 to 300 young people between the ages of 13 and 19 are expected to attend the event, where they can access help with employment, mental health, housing, food, haircuts, clothing, and cultural connections.
- Edmonton Centre MP and Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault was tasked with leading the federal government's share of rebuilding Jasper after a July wildfire destroyed one-third of the townsite. Boissonnault is the only representative from Alberta in the federal cabinet.
- Healthcare advocates say long surgery wait times caused by post-pandemic backlogs, workforce issues, and population growth haven't been addressed by the Alberta government. Many healthcare workers have left Alberta, and others have moved to private surgical centres as part of the province's Alberta Surgical Initiative, which has diverted resources from the public system and failed to improve surgical wait times, according to a 2023 report by the Parkland Institute. Government data shows the proportion of surgeries being done at for-profit facilities grew from 16.2% in 2022-2023 to 20.5% in 2023-2024, while 4,800 fewer surgeries were performed in the public system.
Headlines: Oct. 10, 2024
By Kevin Holowack