The Pulse: Nov. 8, 2021

The City of Edmonton is on its way to meeting its goal of implementing 2,500 units of affordable housing, including 600 units of supportive housing, by the end of 2022. But there's still a gap in meeting the needs of Edmontonians who don't have a proper place to live in.

The target is attached to the city's affordable housing investment guidelines, which were developed four years ago to set the expectation that affordable housing is a core part of public infrastructure.

"The pandemic provided a little bit of a delay for us ... but last time I checked we were close to 1,600 total units and we had just completed a third intake for that program, which has a lot of really strong applications," Christel Kjenner, the city's director of affordable housing, said on Episode 154 of Speaking Municipally, Taproot's civic affairs podcast.

She expects that more units will be approved from that intake soon. The city has also already confirmed 400 units of supportive housing, with another 200 "in the pipeline" that are attached to funding Kjenner is hoping will be approved.

While that's a step in the right direction, there's still a substantial gap between what's available and what's needed, Kjenner indicated in the episode, recorded as the city marks Edmonton Housing Month in November.

"Housing plays a very critical role as a foundation for pretty much everything else," added Giri Puligandla, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) - Edmonton Region. "Many of us have the privilege of taking housing for granted and we just have to recognize that there are a lot of people for whom housing is a need."

• Edmonton charities are struggling with increasing food prices, especially as government funding decreases, CBC reported. The rising costs are both increasing demand for charity and making it harder to fulfill those needs.
• A quarter of sidewalk issues took over four months to repair last year, a report from the City of Edmonton indicates. Coun. Andrew Knack hopes to "create a proper life cycle maintenance strategy like we have on almost every other piece of infrastructure."
• Some food truck operators welcomed the opportunity to sell alcohol within entertainment districts if Bill 80 is passed. But it has to be done with safety in mind, Christy Morin of Arts on the Ave told CBC.
• While COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining, hospitals are still over capacity. Physicians caution that lifting restrictions too soon could send the province into a fifth wave.
• Alberta doctors are concerned that depression, anxiety, and eating disorder diagnoses in Alberta youth have increased by 20% in the last four months.

Taproot's civic affairs podcast is presenting a series of short interviews with each councillor to introduce you to who they are and what they want to focus on during their next year in office.

The second such segment in Episode 154 of Speaking Municipally introduces incumbent Aaron Paquette, councillor for Ward Dene.

Paquette, who was first elected to council in 2017, is an award-winning Indigenous artist and author. As a councillor, he sponsored an initiative on food and agribusiness diversification, and he also helped lead initiatives to do with Child-Friendly Edmonton, End Poverty Edmonton, multiculturalism, and literacy, as well as urban isolation and mental health.

"(I'm) all about service to the community. It's something that I grew up with, that was embedded in my teachings all my life and is a absolutely distinct part of my culture, that we are all connected," Paquette told Speaking Municipally.

As Paquette begins his second term, he plans to continue to focus on "issues of security" such as food and housing.

"Some people might say city council shouldn't be focusing on social issues. But people who say that are absolutely and irrefutably wrong," Paquette said. "Every social issue, it tends to be an economic issue. And if we don't get it right, then we find ourselves with wonderful plans and a crumbling social structure."

City council will continue its orientation this week, going over things like delegation of authority, council's governance model, rules of engagement, and more. Its community and public services committee, urban planning committee, emergency advisory committee, and executive committee will also get back to work.

Here are some of the items that will be considered this week:

• Anti-racism grant program recommendations will be considered by the community and public services committee in accordance with Bylaw 18970. According to the report, 52 eligible applications were received in July as part of the program's first intake, and administration recommends disbursing $213,591.25 in grant funding to 16 organizations.
• An amendment to Bylaw 19879 would clarify that communicating acts of harassment based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity includes forms of non-verbal communication like gestures or symbols.
• The latest Edmonton Police Commission report covering Jan. 1 to June. 30, 2021, will be received for information. It lists all non-competitive procurement agreements entered into that involve procurements over $75,000.
• Executive committee will consider recommending to council that the City of Edmonton and Postmedia enter into a sole-source agreement for print advertising services over three years, which would cost up to $3 million.
• Bylaw 19821 would designate the Edmonton Cenotaph as a municipal historic resource.
• Council's community and public services committee will receive information about the ways in which homeowners' associations are engaged in city practices related to parkland projects, enhanced parkland maintenance, and building neighbourly connections, as per an inquiry by Coun. Sarah Hamilton.
• Council's emergency advisory committee will receive a verbal COVID-19 update.

Meetings are streamed live on city council's YouTube channel.

Photo: Edmonton's City Hall, where councillors are starting to get to work. (Mack Male/Flickr)

• Edify's Top 40 Under 40 list highlighted the entrepreneurs, researchers, artists, philanthropists, and innovators that build Edmonton up. You can celebrate the accomplishments of both the 2021 and 2020 recipients at the Winspear Centre on Nov. 8.
• NAIT's Mawji Centre will host a virtual talk called The Art of the Pitch from Arden Tse, investment manager for Yaletown Partners, on Nov. 8.
• The Virtual Effect's monthly event for November is Elevate: Hope, on Nov. 9. Mental health awareness advocate Blake Loates, grief recovery specialist Iman Gatti, and Grief & Trauma Healing Centre founder Ashley Mielke will speak to the value of hope and share stories from their personal journeys.

Remembrance Day:

• In lieu of an indoor ceremony, the city will offer a short ceremony in front of City Hall Plaza's cenotaph.
• The Jewish Federation of Edmonton will host its annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the Edmonton Jewish Cemetery.
• The Beverly Memorial Cenotaph will stream its ceremony live via Facebook.

Photo: The northern lights have decorated Edmonton skies several times this year. (Spencer Vandermeer/Instagram)