The Pulse: May 2, 2023

Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw says she's going to keep pushing for a plan to develop the Villeneuve Airport Area, with or without the support of the regional governance board that voted it down in April.

"We're still going to move forward with reaching out to businesses and talking about the area structure plan in preparation for it to pass," she told Taproot.

The Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB), made up of the 13 mayors of municipalities including and surrounding Edmonton, voted down Sturgeon's proposed Area Structure Plan for the area surrounding the Villeneuve Airport (VAA-ASP) at a meeting on April 13. The vote was 6-7, but the noes prevailed because one of them was cast by Edmonton.

The plan aims to draw business activity in tech, aerospace and aviation, defence, and more to about 1,200 hectares of land surrounding the airport. The crux of the disagreement is the definition of the "major employment area" that is attached to the airport in the regional growth plan. Opponents also cited a lack of imminent investment and missing details about infrastructure.

"I really struggled to be able to understand the position of several folks at the table that day," Hnatiw said of the meeting that turned Sturgeon's proposal down. "(The VAA-ASP) was in line with the body of the document of the growth plan, but it wasn't in line with a conceptual map (of major employment areas)."

The growth plan has to be the compass for development in the region, said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi of Edmonton, who found common cause with St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Beaumont, and Stony Plain.

"One of the reasons for having a coordinated regional growth plan is to reduce the cost of infrastructure," Sohi told Taproot. "Any new (major employment) area that is added will hopefully be compliant to the principles and values of the growth plan, which is to have an orderly growth, which is to have more coordinated growth, not a one-off type of growth."

Hnatiw told her fellow mayors that Sturgeon County would consider leaving the EMRB as a way to achieve its vision for the Villeneuve Airport Area. Such a move would require the province's permission, but it has a precedent: Wheatland County was released from the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board last year.

"I am always in favour of being at a table and an understanding the perspectives of other folks at the table … (but) the province has to look at whether we are fulfilling the mandate and whether we have the right power in the right place," Hnatiw said in an interview.

• Edmonton's city manager, Andre Corbould, shared a progress report with councillors on the city's actions to promote public and transit safety, along with efforts to support recovery in Chinatown and increase downtown vibrancy. The actions include the Transit Community Action Team foot patrol, the recently launched bystander awareness campaign to reduce gender-based violence, the $1-million Chinatown Recovery Fund, and $600,000 for enhanced security for the Chinatown and Area Business Association and its members. The Downtown Vibrancy Fund has also awarded $6.5 million for 61 projects, including festivals and efforts focused on public safety. "Cities across the country are facing challenges with public safety and security, and we recognize that crime is an ongoing concern for Edmontonians," Corbould said in a release. "Edmonton is taking action, and working with police and community partners in an integrated way."
• The Edmonton Police Service has deployed two new teams of officers to patrol the LRT system as part of efforts to increase public transit safety. Each team has eight constables and one sergeant, Supt. Warren Driechel said. The teams will focus on hot spots but will adjust patrol areas based on transit crime trends. In a release, EPS said its 2022 crime analysis data showed that dispatch calls to transit increased by 31.4% from 2021 to 2022 and violent calls for service increased by 52.8% during the same period.
• The Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton Police Service are warning fans of zero tolerance for bad behaviour as the team prepares to enter the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The warning comes after two people were stabbed and a suspect shot by police downtown near an outdoor fan watch party in the Ice District on April 29. Video taken the same day and circulated on social media also showed a crowd of Oilers fans pushing past a barricade to enter the watch party area. "The fact that we have people pushing through barricades, the fact that a bit (of) unruly behaviour makes it obviously unsafe for others — that's not acceptable," said Chief Dale McFee during a news conference May 1. Police are working with the Oilers Entertainment Group and the city to ensure safety at the events. Meanwhile, the NHL has announced the schedule for Games 1 and 2 of the second round of the playoffs. The Oilers will play the Vegas Golden Knights on May 3 and May 5.
• Edmonton Fire Rescue Services were busy responding to fires across the city, including two wildfires. Police warned drivers about poor visibility on Wayne Gretzky Drive near Mt Lawn Road due to smoke from a nearby brush fire after reports of vehicles colliding with fire trucks. A fire reported around 8:30am in a central Edmonton residential building sent three men to hospital. Later, about 40 firefighters responded to a fire that destroyed three homes in the Terwillegar neighbourhood. No injuries were reported in that fire, and the cause of both remains under investigation.
• More than 1,100 people have been affected by evacuation orders in Parkland County and Yellowhead County due to wildfires in the area. The hamlets of Entwistle and Evansburg remained under mandatory evacuation, and an evacuation order for Wildwood, Lobstick, and areas around Chip Lake was in effect May 1. A reception centre for evacuees has been set up in Edson. Derrick Forsythe with Alberta Wildfire said the high temperatures, strong winds, and dry conditions are "a really good environment for fires to get up, get started, and get rolling." Two properties and some outbuildings have been destroyed.
• Edmonton set a new record high for May 1, with a temperature of 28.7°C recorded at the Blatchford weather station, breaking the previous record of 26.7°C set in 1931. The high temperatures were expected to last through the week, with the average high for May 1-7 projected to be 26°C. That would make it the hottest start to the month in 30 years, with four out of the top five hottest starts happening in the past 10 years.
• The provincial election officially got underway on May 1 as United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith and NDP Leader Rachel Notley launched their campaigns in Calgary. Smith held a press conference focused on lowering taxes and announced plans for a new eight-per-cent tax bracket for those who earn less than $60,000 annually. Notley delivered a speech focusing on the need to improve and invest in health care in the province. Recent polls show the two parties in a statistical tie.
• Edmontonians can learn about emergency preparedness at the 14th annual Get Ready in the Park event on May 6 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre grounds. The event will feature the work of 50 different groups from the regional emergency response community, providing tips on preparedness and information on resources available during a major emergency. Get Ready in the Park is held annually in May during Canada's Emergency Preparedness Week.

The Edmonton Police Service raised the alarm about an increase in violent crime based on newly released data for 2022, but Episode 218 of Speaking Municipally had questions about those numbers.

"This is not a data dump in the way that you might think," co-host Mack Male said of the April 21 release. "This is Edmonton police releasing some charts and saying 'Trust us, this data is accurate.'"

The report, which was timed for a nationwide campaign for bail reform, indicated that violent crime increased by 16.5% from about 13,000 cases in 2021 to more than 15,000 in 2022. Edmonton saw the highest number of violent criminal incidents recorded in a single year, said Sean Tout, executive director of information management and intelligence.

But the definition of "violent criminal incidents" is not clear. And most of the charts show criminal incidents were less numerous and less severe in 2022 than before the pandemic. Pavlek presented an open-minded-if-skeptical lens to the way EPS reported its data.

"It could be that the EPS is presenting data that is completely true and forthcoming and presents a story that we need to remedy … (but) there was no spreadsheet that you could download the data and look at different contexts, there (were) no robust definitions or anything like that," he said. "I don't know that this report provides us enough to say truly: 'We are making data-based decisions.'"

Hear more in the April 28 episode, along with takes on the ongoing hiatus of the solar rebate program, efforts to repair social housing, the number of trees at risk in Hawrelak Park, and the politics of Calgary's arena deal.