The Pulse: Nov. 10, 2021

When Simon Boersma defeated incumbent Barry Turner to become mayor of Morinville earlier this fall, it marked a new beginning for the town as the longtime businessman takes the reins on council.

Boersma, who owns Pleasant Homes, spoke during the campaign about both amalgamation and regionalization as options for the town.

He initially approached town council in January 2020 about amalgamating with Sturgeon County, Bon Accord, Gibbons, Legal, and Redwater to become a specialized municipality, pointing to benefits including reduced administrative costs and an improved residential/non-residential tax split.

Boersma promised that, if elected, he'd look into amalgamation as well as exploring city status.

"The reason that I studied (those options) is because it was brought up by the past council," he told Taproot. "We have approached the 10,000-resident mark to become a city and when we look at those items, I think we need to look at all options that are on the table, and that's why we brought it forward right off the bat."

The third option is for Morinville to keep its status as a town.

Boersma declined to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of any of the options in detail, citing upcoming work with strategic planning. Discussions about the strategic plan will begin at the end of the month, but he wasn't sure if a firm decision on any of the three possibilities would be made as part of that process.

"We have some big decisions to make. We're looking at a long-term future for our community. I'm only one of the members, at the end of the day, as a vote," he said.

• City council voted unanimously to extend the mask bylaw, with no automatic triggers for repeal. The bylaw, which requires anyone in an indoor public space to wear a face covering, was set to expire Dec. 31.
• Shell Canada announced it will build a 58-megawatt solar farm to power the Scotford Refinery in partnership with Silicon Ranch. The project is expected to begin construction by the end of the year.
• The federal government announced a $1.35-million investment to enable C-FER Technologies to upgrade one of its Edmonton facilities for testing hydrogen fuel infrastructure, equipment, and technologies.
• Alberta needs to build on the strong foundation of video game companies by offering incentives and policies to attract more development, Digital Alberta's Scott Nye told Postmedia. He noted that a report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada shows that Alberta has only 4% of the country's video game jobs despite having 11% of the population.
• The provincial government is facing criticism for its plan to sell a portion of its existing affordable housing to fund 25,000 new units. Officials would not provide CTV with details on how many units would be sold, when, and for how much.
• Carla Smiley, a trustee who resigned from the Edmonton Catholic School Board at the end of October, appeared before the Edmonton Public School Board on Nov. 9 to speak against the staff vaccine mandate.
• The Heritage Valley park and ride in south Edmonton was expected to see 2,000 to 2,500 riders per day, but a year after opening, the service is only seeing an average of 388 rides per day, Global News reported.

Mental wellness company DiveThru has raised $800,000 in a pre-seed round, founder Sophie Gray announced in a LinkedIn post.

While Gray was thrilled to share the news about the raise, which officially closed in August, she said she faced numerous challenges and setbacks along the way. She decided to share her experience in hopes that it would help other entrepreneurs going through the process while explaining the reality of what goes into raising a funding round.

"It took me eight months to close this round, hours of cold emailing and asking for introductions, so many 'nos' I lost count, and many painful decisions to ensure we kept the lights on," Gray wrote.

"I cried in my shower a number of times, lost hours of sleep, and would lay on the floor in my office completely unsure of what to do next."

Some of the difficult decisions included freezing spending and laying off team members because it wasn't possible to renew the grants that were used to pay for those positions.

"As the founder ... it's your responsibility to sacrifice for the greater good of the company," Gray told Taproot. Even with the cuts, the company still has 20 full-time employees.

Gray said DiveThru plans to use the funds to develop product-market fit, as it builds on its mental wellness offerings including podcasts, articles, newsletters, and online programs. As part of that strategy, the company just launched a subscription service and will be aiming to show investors that users are coming back to the products, finding them valuable, and will opt to pay for premium resources.