The Pulse: Nov. 3, 2022

Here's what you need to know about Edmonton today.

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Essentials

  • -4°C: Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 late in the afternoon. High minus 4. Wind chill minus 20 in the morning and minus 9 in the afternoon. UV index 1 or low. (forecast)
  • Teal: The High Level Bridge will be lit colour for teal for Light the World in Teal/Alzheimer's awareness. (details)
  • 383: Edmonton police received 383 collision reports between 8am and 5pm on Nov. 2 after the first snowfall of the season, including one cement truck rollover. (details)
  • 7pm: The Edmonton Oilers (7-3-0) play the New Jersey Devils (7-3-0) at Rogers Place. (details)

A drawing in black ink called Weather Balloon, roughly in the shape of a poppy seed pod, floating in the sky

Each + Every turns to art to help fund harm reduction


By Brett McKay

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.

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Headlines: Nov. 3, 2022


By Kevin Holowack

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Cover art for Taproot Edmonton's Bloom, brought to you by Edmonton Unlimited

Community support energizes Kidney-Chek co-founder


By Karen Unland

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.

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