- The City of Edmonton's extreme weather response has been extended to Dec. 2. The response includes overnight shelter shuttles and expanded shelter service capacity, including overnight spaces at Al Rashid Mosque. City facilities and libraries are open during regular hours to provide respite.
- City council's executive committee reviewed a report from Colliers Project Leaders on factors influencing the cost of building fire halls and recreation centres, which found these projects are more expensive and take longer to build in Edmonton than in surrounding areas. The cost drivers include the pandemic, sustainability goals, and the complexity of bylaws and regulations, the report says.
- A dozen Edmonton community leagues are running their own community sandboxes this winter, as the number offered by the City of Edmonton drops. This year, the City plans to offer sand at 100 centralized distribution sites and 11 "large bin" locations, compared to the more than 770 it used to offer.
- The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and industry lobby groups NAIOP Edmonton and BILD Edmonton Metro held a joint press conference about the city's financial stability and property taxes. The chamber is asking city council to set its core service priorities, lower the proposed 8% tax increase, and invest in revitalizing downtown. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the business community should prioritize its requests, noting council has invested in downtown cleaning, but that the recent Downtown Investment Plan asks for an additional $427 million that the City doesn't have.
- This week, 180 Edmonton-based members of the Canadian Armed Forces departed to join an ongoing NATO mission in Latvia, which began after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. About 1,900 Canadian soldiers are being deployed to Central and Eastern Europe as part of Operation Reassurance, currently Canada's largest overseas military mission. The operation involves Canada's only tank regiment, led by Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona's Horse.
- Claire Theaker-Brown, founder of the Edmonton belt company Unbelts, spoke to The Gateway about her efforts to make her products "undupeable" after counterfeit versions appeared online. Theaker-Brown used an Edmonton Action Plan Grant to create a new line using old stock and materials sourced from the Edmonton region, demonstrating the area's supply-chain resilience, she said.
- Splitsville Entertainment, a Canadian bowling alley chain, is opening its first Edmonton location in 2025 at Christy's Corner, a shopping area by the intersection of St. Albert Trail and 137 Avenue. It will have 21 lanes, an arcade, and other entertainment. Splitsville has opened four locations in Calgary in recent years and is hoping to make a similar mark in Edmonton, said president Pat Haggerty.
- After missing the last two games due to an undisclosed injury, Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman will join the team on an upcoming three-game road trip, and may return to play, said coach Kris Knoblauch. The team plays the Utah Hockey Club on Nov. 29, the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 30, and the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 3.
- Alberta is seeing an "alarming" trend of abandoned health records and misuses of health information, as well as "snooping" employees, according to a privacy commissioner report into breaches of the Health Information Act. In 2023-2024, health record-keepers reported 448 breaches, including two employees who submitted 500 false COVID-19 vaccination records to the public information system, and a case where patient health records were found near a dumpster, Postmedia reported.
Headlines: Nov. 29, 2024
By Kevin Holowack