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Headlines: April 11, 2025

· The Pulse
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  • The City of Edmonton is asking residents to be extremely cautious around the North Saskatchewan River and other bodies of water this spring. Over the past five years, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services has responded to an average of 111 calls per year related to water and ice safety. So far in 2025, crews have already responded to 40 calls and are seeing a “significant increase” in people and animals on ice surfaces. The City’s website has more information about water and ice safety.
  • The City of Edmonton reached a new collective agreement with CUPE Local 30, after city council voted on April 9 to accept the agreement union members ratified in March. The four-year agreement includes a 3.25% wage increase for 2024, a 2.75% increase for 2025, a $1-per-hour increase in 2026, and a 3% increase in 2027, along with enhanced benefits, the City said.
  • On April 9, Elections Canada published its finalized list of candidates in the federal election on April 28. Due to riding boundary changes, Edmonton now has nine ridings. Some Edmontonians are in new ridings and may need to vote at a different polling location than they did in 2021. Advance voting is set for April 18 to 21. Information on how to vote is available online.
  • The federal riding of Edmonton Centre, which has flipped between Liberals and Conservatives since it was formed in 2004, is expected to be a close race between Liberal candidate Eleanor Olszewski, Conservative candidate Sayid Ahmed, and NDP candidate Trisha Estabrooks. The riding is “hotly contested” because it contains Edmonton’s downtown and inner city, which lean progressive, as well as Glenora, Crestwood, and other communities that lean conservative, Postmedia reported. Estabrooks spoke to Alberta Primetime about how she hopes to gain ground for the NDP.
  • Edmonton Public Schools trustees heard that funding problems will persist, even though the province’s latest budget moves away from its weighted-moving-average funding formula. Because the province also eliminated the Supplemental Enrolment Growth Grant, the division will still only receive a 0.1% funding increase for next school year, CBC reported.
  • Edmonton Public Schools trustees heard from advocate Sarah Doll with Hold My Hand Alberta, who presented a petition signed by 500 families, educators, and students calling on the division to cease the construction of new “seclusion rooms” that hold students with disabilities “against their will.” Doll said the school division committed to phasing out the rooms in 2019, but use has since increased. Superintendent Darrel Robertson said the division is now building “sensory spaces” that help kids regulate and have no locking mechanism.
  • The Plaza 34 strip mall at 34 Avenue and 92 Street was badly damaged by a fire, which was reported around 12:30am on April 9 and brought under control around 2:10am. Police say 25 units were destroyed, resulting in millions of dollars in damage, but no one was injured. Police are investigating the fire as arson.
  • The City Farms program, which operated out of the Old Man Creek Nursery and grew produce for Edmonton’s Food Bank, was discontinued due to budget cuts. The program launched in 2020 and, over four years, donated more than 250,000 pounds of produce to the food bank. Tamisan Bencz-Knight with the food bank said the organization is exploring options to keep a version of City Farms running.
  • Researcher Matt Ormandy appeared on the Keep Moving podcast on CJSR to discuss the settler colonial history of golf clubs and golf courses in Edmonton’s river valley, the displacement of racialized and working-class communities to build Commonwealth Stadium, and city council’s recent decision to support a private nordic spa development in the river valley.
  • Play ‘N’ Fun Daycare in Edmonton’s Chappelle neighbourhood was put on probation due to safety concerns. Provincial data shows the daycare received 41 non-compliance notices since November 2023, including for staffing, supervision issues, and the use of physical restraint, confinement, or isolation.
  • The short story My Father’s Soil by Edmonton writer Zeina Sleiman is among the five works shortlisted for the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize. The winner, to be announced April 17, will receive $6,000 and a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
  • The Canadian Hydrogen Convention will return to Edmonton for its fourth year from April 22 to 24 at the Edmonton Convention Centre. The convention is co-hosted by Edmonton Global and Air Products, and expects to draw more than 10,000 attendees to “explore, develop, and strengthen opportunities in domestic and international hydrogen markets,” a release says.
  • Edmonton-based journalist Jana Pruden earned a nomination for the 2025 Landsberg Award for her podcast series In Her Defence: 50th Street, produced with Kasia Mychajlowycz for The Globe and Mail. The series investigates the life and still-unsolved death of Indigenous woman Amber Tuccaro. Judges praised Pruden for her powerful storytelling and ongoing commitment to reporting on gender-based violence.
  • Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who was out with an injury for eight games, returned on April 9 and contributed three assists to his team’s 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues. Goaltender Stuart Skinner is expected to return on April 11 after missing seven games due to a head injury. With four games left in the regular season, the Oilers haven’t yet secured a playoff spot, and Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Trent Frederic, Evander Kane, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are injured or sick.
  • St. Albert business representatives attended the St. Albert Economic Development Business Breakfast on April 3, where discussion focused on tariffs, affordability, and St. Albert’s rapid growth. The city’s population has grown 5.72% in the past five years, reaching more than 70,000.
  • University of Alberta professor Jared Wesley published an opinion piece in The Tyee criticizing Premier Danielle Smith and former Reform Party leader Preston Manning for pursuing “grievance politics” instead of national coalition-building. Wesley cited Smith’s push to withdraw from the CPP, her “open invitation to separatists” to call for a referendum on Alberta sovereignty, and her reliance on political threats, which can do “long-term damage” to the federation and conservative parties.
  • The UCP government’s Bill 39, which was tabled in March and is now in its second reading, will result in $10 million in cuts to community law clinics and Indigenous legal services, said Alberta Law Foundation director Byron Chan. The bill cuts the province’s contributions to Legal Aid Alberta and shifts the burden to the law foundation, and gives the province the power to veto the foundation’s grants over $250,000, Chan said. Two UCP-appointed board members of the foundation resigned in protest, the foundation said.