The Pulse: March 23, 2021

The Edmonton Independent Hospitality Community (EIHC) and the Alberta Hospitality Association (AHA) have released open letters calling on the provincial government to prioritize hospitality workers in the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

“Without mandatory rated PPE for hospitality workers in Alberta, the increased risk of being indoors with unmasked patrons for prolonged periods of time poses a significant risk that can not be overstated,” the EIHC stated in its letter.

During her briefing on March 22, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, shared instances of restaurants being the site of outbreaks.

“We have seen, for example, very rapid spread in some restaurants where individuals had the variant, were infectious, went to multiple restaurants and spread the virus very quickly in multiple locations in one night,” Hinshaw said.

• Alberta will not move to Step 3 of its reopening plan, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced on March 22. "Hospitalizations must be on a clear downward trajectory if we are to enter any new step," he said. "Today, while hospitalizations are indeed below 300, they've risen in recent days." There are 280 people in hospital in Alberta due to COVID-19, including 48 in intensive care.
• City council's executive committee has recommended that business license fees be cut in half for the next year. Most businesses would save $122 on their annual renewal because most business licenses cost $244, reports Global News.
• Monday night's game between the Oilers and Canadiens was postponed, "making it the first contest in the all-Canadian North Division to be shut down due to COVID-19 concerns," reports CBC News. Two Montreal forwards were placed on the NHL's COVID protocol list.
• Edmonton Transit riders can now use the Transit app to preview trips using the new bus network that launches on April 25. The City of Edmonton says it is still working on getting the information into Google Maps.
• The Association of Academic Staff at the University of Alberta (AASUA) has launched Protect our Future, a campaign to protest provincial funding cuts at the U of A.
• Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching bail and was fined $1,500. He was released without conditions, and a judge said the 35 days Coates had spent in custody would count as credit for the entire fine, reports CBC News.

Things don't always go exactly as planned for the City of Edmonton — sometimes for the better.

For example, the city reported an operating budget surplus of $40.2 million in 2020, according to a preliminary report presented to council on March 15.

As this chart shows, revenues still took a dive last year, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but so did expenses — which ended up being much lower than was predicted in the adjusted budget council approved in spring 2020.

This bucks the trend of the previous two years. Year-end operating revenues turned out to be far lower than originally budgeted, and expenses were only slightly lower, resulting in a deficit of $52.1 million in 2019, and $29.1 million in 2018, according to the city's annual financial reports.

The reports for both those years credit "lower than budgeted net income from Epcor," as the primary reason for the deficit. The 2019 report goes into more detail, saying this was due to higher income tax expenses, and low water consumption thanks to relatively low temperatures and high precipitation. Both reports also credit fewer than expected land sales as a reason for the deficits.

Before that, the city had a surplus for three years in a row.

Epcor appears to have widely varying effects on the City of Edmonton's finances. In 2015, revenues were $198.1 million over budget, and the 2015 annual report credits unusually high income from the utilities company, as well as high investment earnings, as the two main reasons for the difference.

Alberta Enterprise has announced a US$15 million investment into Inovia Capital Growth Fund II to help technology companies in Alberta scale. Inovia Capital, which was co-founded in 2007 by Calgarian Shawn Abbott, has now raised US$450 million for its second growth-stage fund.

Kristina Williams, CEO of Alberta Enterprise Corporation (AEC), told Taproot that the investment will bring more than just money to the province.

"When you're trying to build a company at that earlier stage, there's a lot of things you need to know, and if you can have an investor on board that can help you navigate some of those pitfalls... it can help you get that growth for the company much faster," she said.

Williams said AEC, which does not invest in companies directly, is looking to attract and invest in venture capital funds that create access to money, markets, mentorship, and management talent, to help tech companies in Alberta grow.

"Inovia is now considered one of the top funds in North America," Williams said. "The bench strength that a fund like that can bring to Alberta — you can't put a monetary value on that."