The Pulse: July 7, 2021

A group of regional organizations is moving forward with a plan to attract direct international flights to Edmonton International Airport (EIA) using funds from the region's municipalities — despite coming just shy of the initial $15-million goal.

The air services opportunity fund, which is being managed by Edmonton Global, will provide cash incentives and help cover some of the setup and operating costs for airlines that agree to establish direct routes in and out of the airport.

"All the planes are allocated to other routes, either in North America or around the world," said Chris McLeod, Edmonton Global's vice president of global marketing and communications. "We basically have to lure those flights away from other communities, so we need a tool to sit down with the airlines and get them to pay attention."

EIA has been struggling over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic — in part because Edmonton was not selected by the federal government as one of the four ports of entry into Canada. The airport reported $128 million less in revenues in 2020 compared to 2019, and lost 39 of its 52 direct flights.

McLeod added that EIA also lost a number of national connections in the fallout, many of which are currently operating out of Calgary International Airport, which was selected as a port of entry.

Re-establishing some of these flights, as well as attracting new ones, is critical to the region's economy, McLeod said, both because airport activity contributes directly by supporting jobs, and because international flights help create economic opportunities by facilitating the movement of goods and people, which many industries depend on.

"About half the cargo that comes in and out of our region is in the belly of passenger planes," McLeod explained. "When we lost a connection to Europe through (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines), for example, it affected our food and agricultural sectors."

Even the region's flower stores, which rely on imports from countries such as the Netherlands, Ecuador, and Colombia, have been struggling with supply issues over the course of the pandemic.

• Edmonton received a $14.9-million investment from to federal government to build another 68 units of supportive housing. Edmonton's goal is to build 600 units of permanent, supportive housing by the end of 2022.
• Residential school survivors gathered at Poundmaker's Lodge in St. Albert on Tuesday, where the search for unmarked graves is set to begin. The treatment facility is located on the site of the former Edmonton Indian Residential School, which operated between 1924 and 1968.
• Questions are being raised over the promotion and transfer of two Edmonton police officers who are currently under investigation for alleged racial profiling and harassment.
• The city's recreational centres and pools are struggling to fully reopen amid staffing issues. The city is short nearly 400 positions, as it waits for returning staff and recruits new employees.
• The city announced a new $1-million grant program to help festivals and events impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will offer up to $25,000 for large signature festivals and a minimum of $500 for smaller community events.
• Edmonton City Hall will reopen to the public on Aug. 9, when about 1,000 city employees will head back to work after being temporarily laid off for more than a year.
• The city's new waste collection program left 13,000 residents without a pickup last week, due to confusion over routes. The city is working to resolve these issues, reports Global News.
• A group of residents would like to see the University of Alberta's four remaining Ring Houses turned into an art exhibition space, a boutique hotel and a microbrewery. The historical buildings are currently slated to be demolished.

Edmonton-based neurotechnology innovator network NeurAlbertaTech (NAT) is collaborating with the province's academic institutions and industry leaders to host Alberta's first brain-computer interface (BCI) hackathon.

"It looks like it's going to be Canada's biggest BCI hackathon on record," NeurAlbertaTech executive director Eden Redman told Taproot.

natHACKS is a 64-hour event, which will combine workshops and networking opportunities for various skill levels. It's running virtually from July 30-Aug. 2.

"The event will give away over $10,000 in project funding to the winners," said Redman. "We've also partnered with commercial BCI companies to send physical neurotech hardware equipment to 20 teams throughout Canada and the U.S."

There will also be workshops in the lead-up to the event to help participants prepare.

The hackathon is the latest initiative that NeurAlbertaTech has launched to support innovation in the neurotech community in Alberta.

"When we started out, neurotech was still fairly inaccessible (in Alberta). We're trying to organically create collaboration between engineering, computer science, and neuroscience so that we can have a neurotech hub in the province," Redman told Taproot.