The Pulse: June 29, 2021

West Edmonton Mall is getting ready to launch what's being billed as the largest virtual reality attraction in North America — it's called Virtual Land.

Mall super-fan Matthew Dutczak of the Best Edmonton Mall fan site had the chance to tour the attraction and announced it on his Youtube channel last week.

"(It) intends to blend the experience of spending a day at an amusement park and an arcade. Instead of riding amusement rides like one might do at Galaxyland, guests would travel between virtual reality games," he said.

Digital Alberta board member Kris Hodgson-Bright, who is also a full-time instructor at Lethbridge College, explained that "entertainment is the first place virtual reality really dazzled" but there may be more opportunities to use VR technology in other sectors.

"Virtual reality provides an incredible opportunity to find solutions to a multitude of sectors including architecture, healthcare, trades and criminal justice training and more," he said.

• EPCOR has called on residents in the southeast part of the city to cut back non-essential water use, as the areas surrounding Edmonton implement water restrictions.
• The Edmonton Catholic School Board voted unanimously on Monday to remove Grandin name from a downtown elementary school and to remove a mural paying tribute to the bishop, who was instrumental in establishing the residential school system. The board will spend the next few months determining the process for renaming the school.
• City council's executive committee voted to adopt an Urban Reserve Strategy. Urban reserves can help increase economic development opportunities and connectivity for First Nations, says the city's news release.
• McDougall United Church, one of Edmonton's oldest churches, is requesting proposals for developing the land around its building. The land is zoned for high-density development, so a successful proposal would incorporate the church into a multi-use downtown development.
• The city is launching a third round of capital grants for affordable housing developments. Since 2020, the city has invested $13.8 million in 283 new affordable housing units through the Affordable Housing Investment Program.
• Fort Edmonton Park reopens on Thursday after three years of renovations. A new signature exhibit called the Indigenous Peoples Experience offers a look into First Nations and Métis cultures and history in the Edmonton area and is the first of its kind in Canada.
• Amazon is planning to open a new robot-enabled warehouse in Parkland County, west of Edmonton. It would be the first robotics fulfillment centre in the province and create more than 1,000 full- and part-time jobs.
• A freedom of information request reveals that while the University of Alberta's funding was slashed by 19%, other post-secondary schools were left relatively unscathed. The Council of Post-Secondary Presidents of Alberta has approached the government for explanations on the uneven funding cuts.

Since the start of 2020, the number of urban hen keeping licenses handed out by the City of Edmonton has almost tripled.

The city's urban hens program allows residents to build backyard coops to raise and keep chickens for meat or eggs, or as pets. Since the program started in 2015, the city has issued 125 licenses — 74 of them after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This chart shows the number of licenses issued each month, using City of Edmonton data. The data starts in 2016, when the city decided to extend a one-year pilot, and raise the cap on total licenses issued per year from 19 to 50.

Urban chickens saw a bump in popularity in the spring of 2019, just after the cap on licenses was lifted, opening up the program to anyone who applied. However, people spending more time at home over the course of the pandemic has appeared to fuel an interest in self-sufficient, home-grown food systems more generally, including hens.

"We don't track specifically why people are requesting licenses to raise hens within the city, so we cannot confirm that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact," Jim Stang, a spokesperson for the City of Edmonton told Taproot. "But anecdotal evidence would indicate things such as urban gardening, urban agriculture, baking and other activities of this nature have experienced an increase during the pandemic."

Seed sellers and researchers in the city have also noted a rising trend in backyard agriculture, both as a relaxing hobby and a way to combat food insecurity, which has been increasing over the course of the pandemic as well.

The city began encouraging urban agriculture in 2012, when its food and agriculture strategy, fresh, was approved by city council. The strategy helped launch the urban hens program, as well as launch the urban beekeeping program, and re-tool zoning bylaws to enable more community gardens.

"Municipal governments have begun to recognize the enormous opportunity provided by a more thoughtful consideration of food and its relationship to local community development," says the strategy.

At least two local food-based businesses will require patrons to continue to mask up even as the local requirement to do so expires on July 1.

Kind Ice Cream will require masks until at least mid-July in order to protect its staff.

"While we're eager to see the eventual return to normal, we plan on taking extra precautions while we see how things evolve following reopening and in order to give our team a bit of extra time to get their second doses," the shop posted on Twitter. "Our staff feeling safe at work is our biggest priority as we roll into these next several weeks."

Earth's General Store will also be asking customers to continue masking, regardless of vaccination status.

"This extra period of time will allow all of our staff to be fully vaccinated AND the full two-week period after vaccination is observed," the store posted on Facebook. "If you are fully vaccinated – good for you, and thank you – but you will still need to wear a mask while being in the store and practice social distancing."