The Pulse: Feb. 1, 2023

The University of Alberta is about to go on a global shopping spree in search of experts to fill 20 new positions in artificial intelligence after a $30-million investment from the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii).

Five of the new faculty members will be in computing science. The other 15 will fund interdisciplinary research related to health, energy, and Indigenous initiatives. The investment will also fund four existing positions.

"All of these positions will support research in areas of existing strength for the university," U of A president Bill Flanagan said at the Jan. 31 funding announcement. "Adding these AI chairs will boost our global reputation for research excellence, and will continue to signal to Canada and the world that we are uniquely positioned to tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges."

Amii CEO Cam Linke announced the news a week after Alphabet confirmed the closure of DeepMind's Edmonton office. In his remarks, he acknowledged that blow but reflected on the extraordinary work that has been done here in this field and the importance of continuing to invest.

"At a time when there's a lot of hype in the field, now is the time to double down on great, ambitious science in artificial intelligence, and to invest in the ambitious people doing it," he said.

The list of planned research chairs includes two that are related to Situated Knowledges: Indigenous Peoples and Place, which the university has identified as one of its signature areas.

"We're investing in AI and Indigenous leadership chairs to continue exploring the complex experiences Indigenous people face today," Linke said. "This includes critical work like Indigenous epidemiology, where Indigenous leaders will be guiding the use of health and genomic data."

• The Edmonton Transit Service announced that mid-winter service changes will take effect starting Feb. 5, including adjustments to LRT service frequency and the replacement of Route 561 with Spruce Grove's on-demand service. Adjustments are made five times a year based on rider feedback, data, and seasonal ridership changes.
• Residents who attended a community engagement session on Jan. 30 got into a heated debate over a plan by Boyle Street Community Services to open a health hub in the Ritchie community one block south of Whyte Avenue. The "microsite," which Boyle Street wants to open in the spring, would provide various addiction and health-related resources, along with a supervised consumption site, which is awaiting provincial approval. Boyle Street spokesperson Elliott Tanti said the organization identified Ritchie and Old Strathcona as two of four neighbourhoods in the city experiencing the most drug poisonings and calls for service. A 2020 provincial review found that 82% of Edmontonians support a supervised consumption site in their area, which is significantly higher than other Alberta cities.
• The Edmonton Police Service is asking for help to identify two men who, on Dec. 7, deliberately shot at a house occupied by a mother and her three daughters, whom are believed to be innocent victims. Police say 165 shootings were reported in Edmonton in 2022, up from 150 in 2021, with 85% believed to be targeted. So far, 19 shootings have been reported in 2023. Edmonton police themselves shot and killed four people in 2022, the most of any Canadian city, including an innocent bystander in a nearby apartment.
• The Edmonton Law Courts building has resumed normal operations weeks after a power outage caused disruptions and case delays. A provincial spokesperson said a "temporary electrical solution" was implemented as work continues to develop a permanent fix. The cause of the power failure hasn't yet been identified, but the outage renewed calls for the courthouse to be replaced. The province said it is developing options to either renovate or construct a new building.
• Thousands of new spaces at private child care facilities in Alberta are set to become eligible for subsidies as the Canada-Alberta Child Care Agreement moves into its second phase, which involves a for-profit expansion plan. The agreement was signed in 2021 with the goal of lowering the cost of child care at a licensed facility to an average of $10 a day by 2025-2026. Children's Services Minister Mickey Amery said up to 1,600 spaces at private, for-profit facilities will qualify for subsidies "almost immediately" and another 2,000 shortly afterwards, pending licensing requirements.
• The RE/MAX 2023 Canada Housing Barometer Report found that Edmonton's housing market was among the four major Canadian markets where the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio increased between Q3 of 2012 and Q3 of 2022, but the trend is expected to reverse in the coming years as increased economic activity fuels home buying. An average mortgage in Edmonton rose from $277,554 to $322,469 during that period, and housing values rose proportionally, resulting in an LTV average of 83% by Q3 of 2022, second only to Regina at 88%.
• The office of Premier Danielle Smith confirmed she will attend a Feb. 7 meeting of Canada's premiers in Ottawa, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scheduled to discuss health-care funding. A statement released by the 13 premiers says they welcome the meeting and expect the federal government to increase its share of health-care funding from 22% to 35%, which premiers have been requesting for years.

Varme Energy is the only Edmonton company with a chance to make it through to the finals of the upcoming Cleantech Investment Summit.

The subsidiary of Norway's Green Transition Holding, which gasifies waste at landfills and stores the resulting carbon underground, made it into the cleantech top 20 pitch night on Feb. 9. It will compete for the opportunity to pitch to investors for at least $200,000 at the cleantech summit finale, which Startup TNT is presenting with Foresight Canada.

The cleantech finale will take place in person in Edmonton on March 23, and Startup TNT co-founder Zack Storms "would have loved to see more YEG companies in the Top 20," he told Taproot via email. He noted that Edmonton companies have seen success at previous cleantech summits, including side deals for Nanode Battery Technologies in 2022 and Wyvern in 2021.

"So I'm hesitant to draw too many conclusions from a single summit cycle," he said. "Sometimes, the timing isn't right."

There will be seven Edmonton companies at the life sciences top 20 pitch night and five at the agtech top 20 pitch night, both of which also take place online on Feb. 9.

On this day in 1982, the city was split on the future of one of Edmonton's most storied downtown buildings.

When Robert Tegler started building his office block in 1911, it was a gamble. Edmonton was growing by thousands each year, and Tegler knew the swelling city would need more office space as more professionals and entrepreneurs made their way out west. But the plan for the seven-storey building on 102 Avenue and 101 Street — at that point two storeys taller than anything else in the city — was an ambitious one.

Tegler was able to secure an agreement with James Ramsey to house a department store on the first floor, which was enough to go forward with the plan. The square, brick-clad building was finished later in the year. It was a sturdy block made out of reinforced concrete, a relatively new innovation at the time, making it the first "fireproof" building in the city.

Tegler's play turned out to be a smart one. The building quickly became one of the hubs of Edmonton's downtown. Within just two years, the Tegler's 110 offices had mostly filled up, and the building's owner was already desperate to expand it.

But there was a snag. The spot beside the office tower was occupied by the Edmonton Journal, which was set to move to its current location on 100 Avenue. But the paper wasn't ready to relocate, and Tegler was impatient. So, he started building his extension on the third floor, on top of the newspaper. Then, when the Journal did eventually move, he just built down. The new eight-storey expansion contained another 700 offices.

The Tegler Building's influence was so great that it is credited with shifting the centre of Edmonton's core westward from 97 Street. And it remained Edmonton's tallest building until the 1950s.

In 1978, the Bank Of Montreal bought the site and announced plans to tear down the Tegler Building to make way for a new Edmonton headquarters. The row over the fate of "Edmonton's first skyscraper" sparked passionate feelings on both sides. Some called it a vital part of the city's history, while others, like our correspondent above, argued its demise was needed to revitalize downtown. A bylaw was put in place to protect the building but was later rescinded by city council.

On Dec. 13, 1982, the Tegler Building's dramatic end drew a crowd of onlookers. But even when the tower was gone, anger at its demolition remained. The furor ignited a wave of interest in historic preservation of Edmonton's architectural past and led to new bylaws to protect heritage buildings.

The BMO building that replaced the Tegler was torn down in 2018. The new tower that was pitched for the site had echoes of the Tegler's legacy. Regency Developments proposed a 50-storey skyscraper, which would have put one of the tallest buildings in Edmonton back on the corner of 102 Avenue and 101 Street. However, five years later, the parcel remains vacant and dotted with rubble.

This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.

Correction: This piece has been updated to reflect that Regency's proposed skyscraper would have been among Edmonton's tallest buildings, though not the tallest.