- The City of Edmonton announced that its 311 non-emergency phone line will no longer operate on Sundays starting March 2, citing budget challenges. The City said 311 call volumes were lower on Sundays, but the change may slightly increase wait times on other days.
- The City of Edmonton's 2025/2026 waste collection calendars are now available on the City's website and the WasteWise app. The calendar shows collection dates until April 2026. The City finished its transition to paperless calendars in 2024.
- Five more Alberta union locals representing education support staff have voted to strike. South of Edmonton, 570 union workers in the Black Gold School Division voted 95% in favour of job action, while 400 workers in the Parkland School Division west of Edmonton voted 91% in favour. In Calgary, 800 custodial and maintenance staff with the public school board and 350 with the Catholic school board also voted to strike. The workers join the roughly 4,000 education support staff in Edmonton, Sturgeon County, and Fort McMurray who have been on strike since January.
- Edmonton Public Schools has reintroduced police officers into six high schools through the school resource officer (SRO) program, after the board of trustees voted in April 2024 to reintroduce the program, which was suspended in 2020 amidst concerns about how it affects students of colour. The school division says the program was redesigned with the Edmonton Police Service based on feedback and will first be implemented in Jasper Place, M. E. LaZerte, Ross Sheppard, Eastglen, Harry Ainlay, and Queen Elizabeth high schools.
- Christenson Group of Companies, an Edmonton-based retirement home developer, owes about $75 million to former residents across nine different buildings, and more than 200 seniors and their families are waiting to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars they paid as part of a life lease model. Last year, the province added regulations for life leases, including a time frame for housing operators to repay former life lease residents, but because the rules don't apply retroactively, they don't cover many Christenson Group life leases.
- The federal government is investing $6.7 million into four Edmonton companies through PrairiesCan's business scale-up and productivity program to help them bring "innovative solutions" to market. The recipients are Levven Electronics, CARE Group, Demir Engineering, and Grengine.
- In a statement, Edmonton Global CEO Malcolm Bruce urged the Edmonton region to take action to improve resilience against trade disruptions, with the 30-day pause on U.S. tariffs offering only a "temporary reprieve." The region must increase proactive diplomacy to the U.S., strengthen trade within Canada, expand its international partnerships, and invest in key sectors like hydrogen, carbon capture, food production, and advanced manufacturing, Bruce wrote.
- The Edmonton Elks signed five veteran CFL players during free agency, including defensive back Tyrell Ford, who had 51 tackles last season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and was second in the league for interceptions. He is also the twin brother of Elks starting quarterback Tre Ford. The team also signed defensive linemen Jake Ceresna, Robbie Smith and Jared Brinkman, and offensive lineman David Beard.
- Provincial data from 2023 shows First Nations people in Alberta have an average lifespan 19 years lower than other Albertans. Lifespan disparity has worsened since 2021, a trend driven by COVID-19, which had a mortality rate that was 4.5 times higher among Indigenous people, and unintentional opioid poisoning deaths, which are eight times higher among Indigenous people, CTV News reported. "There are many experiences and realities that lead to shorter Indigenous lives, but each reason is, in some part, connected to the violence of colonialism," said Jessica Kolopenuk at the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine and dentistry.
- CBC's The Fifth Estate reported on a "shadow war" against libraries and books across Canada led by right-wing organizers and grassroots groups, which since 2021 have increasingly held public demonstrations and challenged books with 2SLGBTQ+ themes and content. The episode of The Fifth Estate focuses on Valleyview, Alberta, where a library is "caught in the crosshairs of an international movement." Take Back Alberta, which is trying to create change by "seizing control of the low hanging fruit of democracy" like school and library boards, is explicitly hostile toward 2SLGBTQ+ books and content, CBC reported.
- Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos has filed a $1.7-million lawsuit alleging that the provincial government engaged in a kickback scheme involving inflated health contracts and retaliated against her for investigating the issue. The lawsuit claims she was pressured by government officials, including Premier Danielle Smith's staff, to shut down internal probes and fire government critics before being abruptly terminated in January 2025.
- While in Washington with other Canadian premiers, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spoke to reporters about allegations of conflicts of interest within Alberta Health Services, saying she hasn't seen "any indication of wrongdoing," and "if there is, then we have to clean it up." Alberta's auditor general launched an investigation last week in the wake of a Globe and Mail report alleging political interference in the provincial health authority. The Alberta NDP called on Smith to reconvene the legislature immediately to address the allegations.
Headlines: Feb. 13, 2025
By Kevin Holowack