The Pulse: Nov. 3, 2022

A collective of businesses seeking to reverse the drug poisoning crisis has launched an ongoing art auction to help fund harm reduction groups.

The auction, organized by Each + Every: Businesses for Harm Reduction, is a way to engage with the arts community and advance conversations around safe supply and compassionate drug policies, said executive director Euan Thomson.

Bidding has now opened on Weather Balloon by West Coast artist Grant Mercs. The piece in ink and acrylic "was inspired by the risks of getting high now in his city of Edmonton, and how that compulsion leads to fatal outcomes."

It is the second piece of art to be put up for auction so far, after CMYK Pain Relief by Adrienne Tollas, which sold for $290. The proceeds will be split between the artists and a fund to support harm reduction groups and initiatives.

"There are a lot of people right now working in Alberta on a volunteer basis doing street outreach and overdose prevention work effectively without a roof over their head," said Thomson. Organizations like 4B Harm Reduction Society, AAWEAR, and Street Cats are doing this work "to alleviate the drug poisoning crisis in a way that goes completely unrecognized by the provincial government" and often without reliable funding, Thomson noted.

"There are people saving lives every day out there. We wanted to find ways that get some more resources into their pockets, while also helping to advance the issue of safe supply in the province," Thomson said, adding that the real solution is for the Alberta government to start replacing the toxic drug supply with regulated versions of the substances people are currently using, which it has refused to consider.

• The Edmonton Valley Zoo is at risk of losing its accreditation with the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its license from the Alberta government, according to a report included in the city's draft 2023-2026 capital budget (page 162), which says the zoo does not currently meet the association's standards and in some cases threatens the safety of animals, staff, and patrons. The zoo is asking for $10.9 million for repairs and upgrades to the enclosures of Lucy the elephant and various other animals, without which it may need to slash parts of the Species Survival Plan, which the report says will damage Edmonton's reputation. Administration has recommended council approve the funds given the urgency.
• City council's decision to pause the municipal census will impact various organizations that use the data, including Edmonton Public Schools, Edmonton Catholic Schools, the Edmonton Police Service, and the Edmonton Social Planning Council, which has already held back on researching certain topics due to a lack of data. The city reported that data from the most recent municipal census, conducted in 2019, was viewed nearly 60,000 times and used by various city departments, but that federal census data is more statistically valid. The most recent federal census is from 2021.
• Edmonton Public School Board trustees voted unanimously to oppose a voucher system for education funding and encouraged the Alberta School Boards Association to do the same. EPSB trustee Julie Kusiek said a voucher system ignores the different learning needs of students and "entrenches the idea that education is a business and students and their parents are consumers." In 2019, United Conservative Party members approved a resolution in favour of a voucher system that would "provide for equal per-student funding regardless of their school choice, free from caveats or conditions." The government has not yet acted on the resolution, but Premier Danielle Smith said at a leadership forum in August that she supports "baby steps" toward a voucher system, specifically modelled after one used in Arizona.
• Trisha Estabrooks, chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, has criticized Premier Danielle Smith's statement on Oct. 29 that the province will not allow any more mask mandates for K-12 school children. "If there's anything we've learned from this pandemic, it's that we need to be nimble, we need to be flexible," Estabrooks said. The remarks follow 41 reported outbreaks of "respiratory illness" at public schools in Edmonton since the start of September and a recent provincial court ruling that the UCP acted "unreasonably" and breached the Public Health Act when it lifted a COVID-19 mask mandate for schools last winter.
• Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis is allowing bars and restaurants to serve alcohol early in the morning for patrons watching the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Liquor sales can start as early as 5:30am from Nov. 21-28 and beginning at 7:30am from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10. Final hours for alcohol service will not change.
• Hillside Estates, a condo in downtown Edmonton, was ordered by a provincial court to take "reasonable steps" to address the noise concerns of a condo owner who launched legal action in 2019. The ruling says the condo corporation refused to look into poor sound insulation between the owner's unit and the lounge, even after she hired an acoustic engineer to examine the wall. "(The) refusal of the (condo board) to at least investigate the issue is oppressive and unfairly disregards the interest of the (owner)," wrote Judge Brian Summers in his decision for the Alberta Court of King's Bench.

Episode 36 of Bloom features an interview with Hillary Sweet, co-founder and CEO of Kidney-Chek, a saliva test that allows pet owners to detect chronic kidney disease in their cats or dogs early enough to get treatment.

Sweet said she and her co-founder Matthew Nickel felt relatively confident about the science side of Kidney-Chek — they both have PhDs in biomedical engineering, after all. But the learning curve has been steeper when it comes to the business side of the business, from incorporation to bookkeeping to packaging to SEO and beyond.

That's where Edmonton's collaborative and generous startup community has come up big.

"Everyone in the entrepreneurship and startup world is so encouraging and so willing to sit down and go for coffee and share their experience," she said. "There's been a number of times where I just needed advice or needed guidance or needed to just go have a beer with someone ... I always leave those events and feel so energized."

Kidney-Chek got going with a bit of fundraising among friends and family, as well as a grant from GreenSTEM, a pilot program to help STEM graduates commercialize science-based innovations. It is also benefiting from the Product Demonstration Program from Alberta Innovates, "which is helping us cover the costs associated with rolling the product out into the retail channel," she said.

Now that the product is in stores, Kidney-Chek is looking to raise $600,000 to bolster sales and marketing capacity and scale up manufacturing.

Learn more about Kidney-Chek's journey, and hear guest host Mack Male's takes on recent news about companies such as Wyvern, Future Fields, and Electronic Grid Systems, in the Nov. 3 episode of Taproot's podcast about innovation in Edmonton.