The Pulse: July 27, 2021

QuoteToMe has raised $2.5 million in a fully-subscribed series seed round, which is in addition to the $1 million it raised a year ago.

While last year's raise was rooted in angel investments, the most recent funds were secured from venture capital investors — led by Builders VC in San Francisco, which is focused on the construction proptech space, and Blackhorn Ventures in Colorado.

"This will give us the firepower and resources we need to scale," said CEO John Chabluk. "It will be exciting for us to really open up the sales engine, and grow our sales organization. We are looking at a U.S. expansion within the year, and have a pilot project lined up in Knoxville, Tenn."

QuoteToMe aims to help contractors order materials and equipment digitally by centralizing communication and handling quote comparisons which can often result in better pricing. It makes money by charging a small percentage on each transaction. Chabluk explained that the proceeds from the round will primarily be used for sales, marketing, and engineering.

"We are very focused on the procure-to-pay workflow, and that whole workflow starts with a quote," Chabluk said. "This fundraise will help us expand our feature-set to complete that workflow, digitizing the whole process from order requisition to invoice reconciliation."

• The Ontario trucker found guilty of murdering Cindy Gladue, a 36-year-old Metis and Cree woman, in his Edmonton hotel room will be sentenced today. The Crown is asking that Bradley Barton be sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Barton was convicted of manslaughter in February 2020 during a retrial.
• Health experts want to see the province do more to disrupt the toxic drug supply, which is likely at the centre of a recent spike in opioid-related emergency calls. According to Elaine Hyshka, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, drugs are being cut or adulterated to maintain supply while the borders remain shut.
• The Edmonton Oilers extended qualifying offers to forwards Tyler Benson, Cooper Marody and Kailer Yamamoto, as well as goalie Stuart Skinner.
• Flight Lieutenant (ret.) Chris Bellchamber, who served as a special operations pilot in the Second World War and the Cold War, was honoured with a Snowbird fly-over on his 100th birthday Monday.
• Bob Westbury, a prolific champion of Edmonton charities, is traveling to Victoria to retire. Westbury has raised an estimated $100 million for local charities.
• Storyteller, historian and radio personality Tony Cashman now has a plaque in his honour at the park named after him. Cashman is the author of over 15 books and 10 Edmonton Fringe Festival plays.
• Nurses picketed outside the Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert on Monday to draw attention to the proposal to roll back nurses' wages by 3%. Meanwhile, the hospital joined a growing list of healthcare facilities with reduced capacity.
• More families are now eligible for child-care subsidies. Families earning a household income of up to $90,000 can now apply, following a renewal of the province's child-care funding agreement with the federal government.

Edmonton's City Plan includes a goal of planting two million trees on public land between 2020 and 2050. This will require the City of Edmonton to up its annual tree planting average over the past decade by approximately 650%.

This chart shows Edmonton's inventory of publicly owned trees since 1990, the earliest year available in the City of Edmonton's data, as well as two projections showing how many trees the city will have in 2050 if current planting trends continue, and how many it will need to plant to reach its goal.

While the City Plan said Edmonton's total tree population is around 12.8 million, roughly 395,000 of those are publicly owned, meaning if the city reaches its goal, there will be more than five times the number of trees in parks, along boulevards, and in other public locations. It would also mean the city would have to plant an average of 67,000 trees per year, which it plans on doing through the recently created Urban Tree Canopy Expansion project.

Between 2010 and 2020, the City of Edmonton planted around 103,000 trees — or an annual average of 10,300. In 2021, the city has only planted 969 trees as of July 22, representing an annual average of 1,751.

While the city is not currently on track to meet its goal, the Urban Tree Canopy Expansion project only began selecting locations in May, and will not actually begin accelerating the amount of tree planting until next year.

If the City of Edmonton does manage to ramp up its tree planting, it may also have to contend with an encroaching pest. Emerald ash borers, which kill most ash trees they come into contact with, are spreading west through Canada, and were confirmed to have made it as far as Winnipeg in 2017.

Part of the reason for the tree planting goal is to help the City of Edmonton meet the emissions targets laid out in the Community Energy Transition and Action Plan. The total inventory of trees, both public and private, removed an estimated 531 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in 2009, the City Plan estimated, while the Energy Transition Strategy said the two million added trees will have a "moderate" effect on the city's overall emissions.

Urban tree canopies are also known for reducing temperatures on the ground, which in turn reduces heat-related illnesses, makes active transit easier and more comfortable, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions related to the urban heat island effect.

For more on trees in Edmonton, listen to Episode 139 of Speaking Municipally, which features an interview with Shrubscriber founder Dustin Bajer.

Intent Coffee, the cafe that hoped to empower marginalized people in coffee, has closed permanently as of July 23 due to "a financial crisis."

Intent Coffee opened in Southgate Centre in September with such promise. Run by Mavi Tolentino and Reika Herradura, both identifying as queer first-generation Philipinx, Intent Coffee's vision was to "create a positive social and economic impact to the marginalized communities here in so-called Edmonton as well as uplift Indigenous coffee producers in the Philippines."

In preparation for their opening, Tolentino and Herradura were able to successfully crowdfund over $6,000 to cover start-up costs. The initial staff was made up of six people from the queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, with the hope of creating a safe space for queer youth and people of colour.

In a statement posted to Instagram on July 26, the founders disclosed the financial duress they had been under and how their inexperience affected the business.