The Pulse: March 1, 2023

At his day job in biochemistry, Michael Overduin pursues data to better understand proteins and accelerate drug discovery. But at DiscoveryLab, he's in search of something a little less scientific: stories.

The quarterly meeting, which returns to Enterprise Square on March 14, is a chance for innovators of all kinds to pitch their ideas in a low-pressure environment, seeking advice and in some cases investment from a network of about 230 experts assembled by Overduin over the past six years.

"Rather than presenting for a Dragons' Den, I ask my friends to tell their story," Overduin said, noting that the program has heard about 330 pitches since its inception. "What happens then is we get the story before anybody else does, often, … because it's a friendly roundtable with peers."

That's not to say this storytelling lacks all rigour. Presenters are at various stages of development, but they have to be far enough along to submit a credible business plan summary. "You can't just come with a brilliant idea but no kind of conception on how to address a market need," Overduin said.

Those with the most traction are invited to present in person for 20 minutes; the rest get 10 minutes each to present online. Unlike Startup TNT, DiscoveryLab doesn't get involved in any deals that might ensue but just creates the opportunity.

"Hopefully, at the end of the day, the presenters make some new connections with an investor or adviser or someone from industry who can help," Overduin said. "Maybe they need people. Maybe they just need a bit of confidence. They can get all that from our events."

Overduin, who co-directs the National High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre at the University of Alberta, started convening events in 2016, inviting the public in to hear talks about medical research. He noticed investors were attending to learn what was happening with cancer drug discovery and such, so he and his students started running DiscoveryLab in 2017.

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, the event moved online and accelerated to draw attention to mobilizing against the novel coronavirus. It returned as a hybrid event in September 2022 and has settled back into a quarterly rhythm.

• The UCP government tabled its 2023 provincial budget on Feb. 28, which reflects a forecasted surplus of $2.4 billion in 2023-2024, largely due to high oil prices, and will see spending grow by nearly 4%. Investments in Edmonton include funding for charter schools, one new public school in Glenridding Heights, various affordable housing programs, hospitals, the LRT system and ring roads, and a planned recovery-oriented addictions facility. The budget, which comes months before the anticipated May 29 provincial election, does not include funding for controversial items like a provincial pension plan, a provincial police force, or a program to subsidize oil and gas companies to clean up inactive wells. In her response, NDP Leader Rachel Notley called it a "fraudulent budget" that is "designed to buy votes."
• The Edmonton Police Service is reviewing the duty status of an officer who was caught on video repeatedly punching an 18-year-old man during an arrest in the parking lot of a McCauley apartment. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is investigating the incident.
• Councillors Keren Tang and Andrew Knack tested a process of participatory budgeting in Edmonton by allocating $25,000 from their 2022 ward budgets, a small but meaningful sum, toward community-based projects that were brainstormed and voted on by the public. The councillors were inspired by the positive impact participatory budgeting has had in more than 7,000 cities around the world since it was first implemented in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1989.
• The Edmonton Oilers made a pair of trades on Feb. 28, first announcing that winger Jesse Puljujarvi has been traded for Patrik Puistola from the Carolina Hurricanes. Puljujarvi, who was drafted by the Oilers in 2016 and since earned the nickname "Bison King," struggled during the 2022-23 season after reaching career highs the previous season. The Oilers also acquired defenceman Mattias Ekholm and a 2024 sixth-round draft pick from the Nashville Predators. In exchange, Nashville received defenceman Tyson Barrie, forward Reid Schaefer, a 2023 first-round draft pick, and a 2024 fourth-round pick.
• As part of its 2023 provincial budget, the UCP government introduced a fiscal accountability plan that would require future provincial governments to table balanced budgets and limit spending increases. The plan would also create a policy of allocating surplus funds toward repaying provincial debt or investing in the newly created Alberta Fund. "The purpose of the Alberta Fund is to bring discipline to the use of the surplus," said Finance Minister Travis Toews.

On this day in 1965, construction was starting on a major expansion to the Northlands Park horse track.

In its heyday in the last half of the 20th century, Northlands Park was dubbed a crown jewel in Canadian horse racing. But it came from a much more humble start. Near the turn of the century, horse racing was a casual pastime for many of the families living near Rossdale Flats. As Edmonton's population grew, the sport became more popular, and Northlands Park was established as an official racetrack to replace the routes in Rossdale in 1900. The track was one of the venues run by the Edmonton Exhibition Association, which would later rename itself Northlands.

While races attracted a good number of spectators and hopeful gamblers in those early decades, the popularity of thoroughbred racing began to climb in the 1920s. That was largely thanks to horse breeder and race organizer R.L. Speers, who staged regular race events in Edmonton, as well as other cities across Canada.

Speers was also the founder of the Canadian Derby, which he first ran in 1930 from his own racetrack in Winnipeg. The prestige (and the purse) of the competition grew over the next couple of decades. When Speers's racetrack closed in 1956, the Derby found a new home at Northlands Park (or Northlands Spectrum, as it was known at the time).

With a new grandstand and casino built only a few years before and now the host of one of the premier events in Canadian thoroughbred racing, Northlands drew both crowds and competitors. Full-time harness racing would be added to the park in 1961 after a push by city councillor Bill Connelly.

By the 1970s and '80s, Northlands Park was a hub of horse activity. The track was holding races five or six days a week, with daily bets sometimes reaching more than a million dollars.

The sport began to decline in popularity, and even for those still interested, simulcast races meant spectators and gamblers no longer needed to be at the track to watch the races. Later, online betting would deal another blow to attendance. Within the Northlands organization, pressure began to mount to leave the racing industry altogether.

By the mid-2010s, the finish line was in sight. The aging facility would need expensive upgrades to continue. The Canadian Derby moved south to Leduc, and Northlands Park held its final horse race in 2018, a few months after the closure of Northlands Coliseum, which is to be demolished in 2025. Northlands itself met its end in 2021, transferring responsibility for the exhibition lands and its remaining events to Explore Edmonton.

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.