The Pulse: Dec. 6, 2022

City council has approved a repayment strategy that would see the Edmonton Police Service pay down its outstanding budget deficit within three years, but the details of how that will be achieved are being kept private for now.

The EPS Operating Reserve, established in 2018 alongside the funding formula to manage operational surpluses and deficits in the police budget, currently has a negative balance of $2.895 million, though EPS is projecting that will shrink to $854,000 by the end of 2022.

During the meeting, Coun. Erin Rutherford indicated the private report outlined a strategy that reduced the original deficit, but that the strategy ended in October when city council approved the new funding formula for 2023. As part of that decision, responsibility for salary settlements was transferred from EPS to the city.

"At a high level, when they thought they might be responsible, they had a strategy to put money aside," Rutherford explained to Taproot following the meeting. "Now, since the city is responsible, that money can go to the reserve."

During the meeting, Rutherford sought to understand why that strategy isn't ongoing given that the reserve remains in deficit.

Rob Davidson, a member of the delegation from EPS, responded that no plan or strategy was stopped at the time of the funding formula decision. "We still proceed with opportunities in our budget ... to create a favourable situation at year-end," he said. "We still anticipate changes will happen from Q3 to year-end; could be positive, could be negative."

"In the report, it does specifically say that the accrual process that was being done was stopped," Rutherford countered.

Davidson said the process in question was related to collective bargaining settlements.

"Why wasn't that same strategy carried forward to completely address the deficit?" Rutherford continued. "The plan basically just says we'll clean up that deficit in three years, but I don't really see concrete steps to do that."

She also criticized the report for a lack of information about how future deficits might be avoided. "They didn't provide a strategy for how to keep the reserve from going back into deficit," Rutherford told Taproot.

She suggested upcoming council decisions could have a significant impact on that. "If we don't continue with a funding formula, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another deficit."

• An extreme cold warning is currently in effect for Edmonton and most of central and northern Alberta, with temperatures expected to drop to nearly -40°C in some areas on Dec. 6. Meteorologists are forecasting dangerously low temperatures in the morning and advise Edmontonians to check weather conditions before leaving home. Wind chills below -30°C can cause frostbite in as little as 10-30 minutes, and wind chills below -40°C can cause frostbite in as little as 5-10 minutes. Temperatures are expected to climb on the night of Dec. 6 and return to the -12°C to -2°C range by Dec. 7.
• The Edmonton Police Commission has hired retired provincial judge Donna L. Shelley to conduct an independent review of the events that led to the unprovoked murder of two men in Chinatown in May. The commission promised to conduct the review in July as concerns emerged around the interaction between law enforcement and the accused, Justin Bone. Shelley, who served for 15 years as a justice on the Court of King's Bench, will be looking into the "circumstances of the accused individual's arrival and stay in Edmonton" for the purpose of producing a report outlining gaps and recommendations. "Everybody agrees that what happened in Chinatown was an absolute catastrophe," police commission chair John McDougall told reporters. "I would like to have the people of Chinatown feel confident that their voice is being heard, that the commission is appreciative of their concerns, and we have that same vested interest in wanting to find answers."
• Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell wrote a blog post warning that other councillors have suggested reducing the budget for the Terwillegar Drive Expansion as part of ongoing deliberations. Work on widening Terwillegar Drive to four lanes started in 2021. The project also includes expansions to the Rainbow Valley bridges, a pedestrian bridge over Whitemud Drive, and an upgrade to interchanges by 2025. "I do not understand why this road project gets this amount of notoriety," said Cartmell. "It seems to be more about where it is in the city than what it actually accomplishes, and that's getting tiresome." Coun. Michael Janz, who said he hadn't heard of plans to defund the expansion, nonetheless suggested "there may be some savings there, and Coun. Cartmell, of all people, should know how strapped we are for the capital budget." Council approved the expansion in 2019, and the province pledged $120 million to the project in 2020.
• The UCP caucus has proposed various amendments to the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act that would remove the power for cabinet ministers to unilaterally change legislation if they decide to fight a directive from the federal government. The amendments also narrow the scope of federal legislation that cabinet can resist to laws the government deems to be unconstitutional, interfere with provincial jurisdiction, or violate Albertans' charter rights. "I want to make sure that we get this bill right, and I'm grateful that my caucus is going to propose amendments to do that," said Premier Danielle Smith. NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the opposition will not support any amendments to the act. "It is a mess," said Notley. "There are so many elements of it that create uncertainty. It needs to be withdrawn, and they need to go right back to the drawing board."
• The City of Edmonton has designated a Holyrood church as a historic resource. Built in 1958, St. Luke's Anglican Church was one of the city's first to eschew the influence of medieval ecclesiastical design in favour of a more modern approach, the city said in a release. "The post-war years changed how people lived in Edmonton," heritage planner Scott Ashe said. "They wanted to live away from where they worked, but still worship in their own communities. St. Luke's is indicative of the kind of modern church built in those times." It was designed by Edmonton architect Kelvin Crawford Stanley, who also designed the former Edmonton Post Office and the Paramount Theatre. As part of its historic designation, the church will receive a grant of more than $50,000 for its rehabilitation.
• Real estate prices in Edmonton fell slightly in November as activity slowed, according to the monthly report of the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton. New listings fell 22% from October, and single-family home sales were 36% lower than in November 2021. Single-family homes averaged at $454,000, condos at $216,000, and duplexes at $362,000. "While we're not seeing significant changes to our average prices from the previous month or even last year, we are seeing an impact on residential sales and the number of listings hitting the market each month," said association chair Paul Gravelle. "We expect this normalization to continue as we move away from the flurry of pandemic activity and back to a more balanced market."
• The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation announced that Myrna Khan will take up the role of executive director on Jan. 9 to replace Natalie Minckler, who retired in September. "Born and raised in Oil Country as a passionate Oilers fan, Ms. Khan is an accomplished executive and community steward with an impressive track record of success," the foundation said in a release.

Looking back at 2022, a common theme of gratitude emerged from Edmonton restaurants that made it through the restrictions that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, says a longtime observer of Edmonton's food scene.

"In all the conversations with all the local restaurants that managed to survive or expanded in the last year, the common theme was that they all recognize that many Edmontonians went out of their way to support local," said Sharon Yeo, the blogger behind Only Here for the Food and a frequent Taproot contributor on the food beat.

"That was something that I heard over and over again, that people are appreciative of the customers that are loyal in these times."

Will those customers be willing and able to continue offering that support in 2023? "I want to remain optimistic that folks will not take the local food scene for granted," Yeo said. But while the restrictions have eased, the pandemic has not disappeared, and a recession seems imminent amid efforts to control inflation, limiting some people's ability to eat out. Next year could be a tough one.

"I wouldn't be surprised if local restaurants continue to announce their closure," she said. "Unfortunately, I don't think we're at the end."

While Edmonton lost Blue Plate Diner, June's Delicatessen, Ohana Donuts, and Juniper Cafe and Bistro and others in 2022, it also gained a number of new restaurants, some of them instigated by developers looking for independents with proven track records to set up shop.

That's what drew the team behind Woodwork and Bar Clementine to Glenora's West Block to open Leopard. And Black Pearl Seafood Bar's decision to open a second location in Windermere, amid the big-name chains like P.F. Chang's and California Pizza Kitchen, also reflects a developer's interest in creating a dining destination.

"It's good business to have a vacant space filled," said Yeo, adding that it makes sense to form a relationship with a tenant that will likely last as "they've already demonstrated some success in the market and hopefully can bring that success to a new place."

Two Edmonton companies made Foresight Canada's annual Foresight 50 list of Canada's most investable cleantech ventures.

Copperstone Technologies builds field robots that it sends into hazardous areas to help companies carry out environmental monitoring. Co-founder Nicolas Olmedo was recognized by Mitacs for his entrepreneurship in June, and the University of Alberta spinoff has placed highly in a couple of innovation competitions this year.

In the Foresight 50 Pitchbook, the company notes that it closed a deal with a Boston-based private equity firm in September, with a planned equity raise of at least $20 million in 18 months. "We have bootstrapped our way so far, yet earned international clients, the world's biggest mining companies," the pitchbook says. "They use Copperstone's robots to help solve some of the greatest environmental and safety challenges in the mining industry."

Swift Charge is developing smart technology for electric vehicle charging, with a mix of software and hardware that "closes the gap between the demand for EV charging and the limit of grid power capacity," says the Foresight release. The pitchbook indicates that Swift Charge is raising a $1-million pre-seed round. It recently took part in Batch 2 of Plug and Play Alberta's accelerator and is an alumnus of the Alberta Accelerator by 500 under its previous name, Electronic Grid Systems.

Foresight Canada, a non-profit dubbed "Canada's cleantech accelerator," is collaborating with Startup TNT on a second Cleantech Investment Summit, which will culminate in a pitch night on March 23. There's an information session on Dec. 15; companies from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are invited to apply by Jan. 24.

Environmental Material Science won last year's Cleantech Investment Summit, securing at least $250,000 for its soil remediation efforts.

Photo: The HELIX Neptune is one of two robots built by Copperstone Technologies to collect samples in areas where humans can't easily go. (Supplied)