The Pulse: Oct. 4, 2022

While some local restaurants have already eliminated the use of plastic straws, others are worried about the potential impact of Edmonton's proposed bylaw to ban or reduce the use of many single-use items, including plastic bags, cutlery, and Styrofoam containers.

Katy Ingraham, the owner of Fleisch Delikatessen, said cost and accessibility are concerns the restaurant industry will need to grapple with.

Fleisch has not stopped offering any single-use items, but only provides straws when requested. "We use compostable packaging where possible, but it's pricier," Ingraham told Taproot. "Chains and larger restaurant groups will likely be able to adapt and absorb these costs," she said. "Independents not so much."

As momentum for a ban on plastic straws gained steam in recent years, dozens of local restaurants decided to eliminate their use. Workshop Eatery owner and head chef Paul Shufelt said his restaurant was going through more than 150 straws per day when it made the decision to stop using them for the environment.

"They can't be recycled. There is really nothing you can do with them. They just end up in the landfill, or worse, in the lakes or the oceans," he told CBC News in 2018.

Shufelt estimated he would save hundreds of dollars each year with the change.

According to Waste Free Edmonton, research supports the notion that a ban might actually save businesses money. "Restaurants that switch to reusable food service items are estimated to save at least $1,000, even once the cost of washing facilities are included," it said. They also save money by not automatically offering single-use utensils, napkins, and other accessories that customers may not even use.

Restaurants Canada disagrees, suggesting in a news release earlier this year that "the industry will take on an estimated 125% increase in costs" due to the forthcoming federal ban on single-use plastics. "This does not account for the costs associated with the increased demand for such products resulting in supply shortages," it added.

• City council began discussions about a new funding formula for the Edmonton Police Service but ultimately decided it needed more time to understand and ask questions about it. City manager Andre Corbould took responsibility for the delayed release of the reports, which were only posted a few days before the meeting instead of the usual 10 days. "This is 100% my accountability as city manager," he told council. The issue will be discussed again on Friday, Oct. 7, though several councillors suggested it should be delayed further, until after the next Edmonton Police Commission meeting on Oct. 20.
• City council also questioned the Edmonton Police Commission about a perceived conflict of interest after it hired the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance — a non-profit organization whose chair and president is Edmonton police chief Dale McFee — for a report analyzing police funding. "Did no one stop to say, 'This might be problematic in the eyes of the public'?" Coun. Aaron Paquette asked during the meeting. The commission said in a statement that "in order to maintain the integrity of the report, police chiefs did not write, direct, or otherwise influence its contents."
• Edmonton is getting 24 new affordable rental units, including rent-to-own units, that will provide accessible off-reserve housing for members of Paul First Nation. According to Paul First Nation council member Myrna Rabbit, there are more than 500 members living in the city for education or due to a lack of housing on the reserve near Duffield. The provincial and federal governments will provide joint funding of $3 million for the project located at 165 Street and 100 Avenue, with the City of Edmonton providing a $1.5-million grant. Construction is expected to begin later this year.
• The Clareview Community Recreation Centre will be rebranded as the "Jumpstart Community Recreation Centre" after city council voted 8-5 to move ahead with a 10-year sponsorship agreement with Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities. As part of the agreement, both sides will work to improve access to marginalized and vulnerable groups.
• Mayor Amarjeet Sohi appeared on Global News to share his thoughts on the province's recently announced funding for addiction and homelessness in light of the upcoming UCP leadership vote. "The funding announced on Saturday is budgeted for already," said Sohi. "I would be surprised if the province doesn't move ahead on these very basic needs to help struggling Edmontonians get better."
• Lauren Skibinsky, a former constable with the Edmonton Police Service, has been given a 12-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to perjury for false comments made while on trial for forgery, a charge he was originally acquitted of before being incriminated by a new investigation. The sentence means that Skibinsky will have a criminal record, but avoids jail time.
• The province will invest $1 million into a new not-for-profit organization called the Alberta Bureau for International Education, which will exist as an independent board-governed entity at SAIT, for the purpose of showcasing Alberta's post-secondary system to international students and creating international learning opportunities for Albertans.

Six Edmonton-area companies and another with Edmonton roots have been accepted into the second cohort of Plug and Play Alberta's accelerator.

The 17 startups in the sustainability program include three from the Edmonton region:

• Aurora Hydrogen, a company co-founded by Erin Bobicki of the University of Alberta that develops hydrogen production technology and raised a US$10-million Series A funding round in August;
• Electronic Grid Systems, which is developing a charging solution for electric vehicles that helps commercial charging station owners avoid infrastructure upgrades;
• element 4, a Sherwood Park company that produces batteryless, energy-independent sensor technology.

The 22 startups in the sector-agnostic program include two based here and one that started here:

• AlignVR, an offshoot of vrCave that aims to create a better way to hire, train, and coach employees;
• Trust Science, one of Canada's top growing companies, which has a software line called Credit Bureau 2.0 that helps lenders determine the risk for borrowers without a traditional track record;
• Spontivly, an Edmonton-born company now based in Florida, which has created a community management platform that helps organizations measure engagement, growth, and impact in real time.

DrugBank, billed as the source of "the world's most robust drug knowledge," is the only Edmonton company among the 11 startups in the health program. It raised $9 million in April.

The first cohort of the Calgary-based accelerator had two Edmonton representatives: True Angle Medical and 2S Water. The accelerator is one of several brought to Alberta through the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program.

Plug and Play Alberta's Batch 2 Expo will take place on Nov. 29-30 in Banff.

Image: Plug and Play Alberta directors Kevin Dahl and Lindsay Smylie address the crowd at the Expo Day for Batch 1 in July. (Plug and Play Tech Center/YouTube)

Episode 192 of Speaking Municipally takes a look at urban planning committee's decision to consider a couple of options for rapidly expanding Edmonton's bike lane network.

At its Sept. 27 meeting, the committee asked administration to develop plans for two options. One would see 100 km of the district connector network built by 2026 for about $170 million in capital costs and up to $11 million in annual operating costs; the other would build 130 km in neighbourhoods that see lots of cyclists, incurring $130 million in capital costs and up to $9 million in annual operating costs.

The final decision will be part of the 2023-2026 budget deliberations.

The bike lane discussion followed an emotional meeting of community and public services committee on affordable housing, leading some critics to ask why council is considering spending that much money on bike lanes instead of housing. Speaking Municipally co-host Troy Pavlek rejected the premise.

"The idea that this is mutually exclusive with affordable housing came up a lot this week, and is on its face completely absurd," he said. "Yes, we should fund affordable housing. Yes, we should fund the bike plan implementation. And I will add that the entire 100 kilometres of city-connecting infrastructure comes in at a lower bill than a single 50th Street overpass for trains."

Pavlek also questioned why the report included the ongoing operational costs for snow-clearing, street-sweeping, and other maintenance. "When was the last time we built a road and council had to explicitly approve a motion to operate that road and increase the operational funding for that new road?"

"Never," answered co-host Mack Male.

Hear more of their thoughts on bike lane expansion and affordable housing, as well as the police funding formula, the Downtown Recovery Coalition, council's code of conduct, and that photo shoot everyone is talking about on the Sept. 30 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast.