The Pulse: July 19, 2023

Edmonton's gaming scene owes much to trailblazer BioWare, but the next generation of developers is doing things differently.

"I think BioWare has really been the foundation on games here in Edmonton and Alberta," said Derek Kwan, president of Interactive Arts Alberta. "I think without BioWare we'd be close to Calgary, (which has) a pretty strong indie scene. But Edmonton's game-dev community is probably around twice the size of Calgary's."

Kwan's non-profit organizes the annual Game Discovery Exhibition (GDX), which next takes place from July 19 to 23 at NAIT and K-Days. Among the speakers is Trent Oster, who was at BioWare in its earliest days but left in 2009, two years after the company was acquired by AAA gaming corporation Electronic Arts (EA).

"Electronic Arts is an interesting animal once you understand it. It has a fundamental need to generate money on a fairly short-term basis," Oster told Taproot. "They need to make a lot of money to pay all the bills, because they've got thousands of employees."

Founded in Edmonton in 1995, BioWare had its first smash success with its second game, Baldur's Gate, in 1998. Success continued, and Elevation Partners bought BioWare in 2005, then sold it to EA in 2007. BioWare is today best known for its original series Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, plus licensed work for entertainment properties like Star Wars.

BioWare put Edmonton on the map as a market where ambitious game development was possible. But today's developers don't necessarily want to follow in that company's footsteps. Not even Oster, as it turns out. He said he wanted to spend more time on games he felt were more daring, to take greater risks that yielded greater rewards. He co-founded Beamdog in 2009 alongside fellow former BioWare employee Cameron Tofer for two main reasons.

"One of them was creative agency, being able to make products that are stimulating and interesting to us, and ones that we believed were ahead of where the market was going," Oster said. "The other part of it really came down to the financials. When you're at a big company, you're taking the risks. If the game screws up, you could get fired. Why not get the rewards that go along with that? Because you're taking most of the risk, the creative and career risk, just assume some of the financial risk (as well)."

Beamdog began by developing and publishing expanded and enhanced versions of MDK2 and Baldur's Gate, titles previously handled by BioWare. In 2022, the studio reached a milestone by releasing an early access version of its first game based on original intellectual property: MythForce, which is set to be released on Sept. 12.

"We thought that being able to build a game that was very quickly visually differentiated from other video games was of great value. So when you look at MythForce, it's obvious it's not Call of Duty, it's obvious it's not Assassin's Creed. It's something different. And that visual identifiability was very important to us," Oster said.

• The Edmonton Police Commission has announced Jayan Nagendran as its newest member. Nagendran, a full-time surgeon who is also co-founder of Tevosol and an associate professor at the University of Alberta, was appointed by the Government of Alberta and will serve a three-year term until April 24, 2026.
• Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he had "a very productive meeting" with Jason Nixon, Alberta's minister of seniors, community, and social services, about the "inadequate" availability of 24/7 shelter spaces in the city. The province has said more than $5 million will be available this winter to support an additional 450 temporary shelter spaces, and it is now accepting applications from operators who want to open permanent Indigenous shelters and women's emergency shelters. Sohi and Nixon also "committed to work together to find long-term solutions such as investing in permanent supportive housing to end houselessness in Edmonton."
• Doug King, a criminal justice professor at Mount Royal University, says Edmonton is far safer today than it was in the 1990s. "We are now, compared to the peak in 1990, 30% less likely to be a victim of a crime today than we were in 1990," King told CityNews. "And crime severity is less than it was in the 1990s." He suggested the onus is on police to find a solution when crime rates rise. "Are they responding in a manner that is sufficiently enough people in their plan to do what they wanted, and then, is it working? And if it isn't working, then they need to change what they're doing."
• The city said it has completed 11 solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on its buildings, with another eight in progress and six more in planning and design. The installation at the Edmonton EXPO Centre is Canada's largest rooftop solar PV installation, according to the city, and has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 617 tonnes of CO2e as of June 2023.
• Housing starts in Edmonton decreased 13% year-over-year from June 2022 and June 2023, though the city did see a small 3% increase (seasonally adjusted at annual rates) from May 2023 to June 2023. The Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) said the national month-to-month increase in housing starts of 41% between May and June this year was the largest change in the past 10 years. "Despite this, total year-to-date housing starts for the first half of the year were 8% lower than they were over the same period in 2022 as the high interest rate environment continues to challenge housing starts through increasing borrowing costs," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist.
• According to Environment Canada, Edmonton's smokiest year on record — based on "smoke hours" counted when the haze from wildfires reduces visibility to 9.7 km or less — was 2018, when the city recorded 229 smoke hours. So far this year, Edmonton has recorded 194 smoke hours, making it the second-highest on record. "By the end of this season we might not be in second place anymore, if this year continues the way it has been," Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CBC News. "We do see another long stretch of hotter and drier conditions coming."
• West Edmonton Mall has welcomed four new African penguins, which relocated from the Vancouver Aquarium as part of an international breeding program intended to help endangered species. The African penguin has been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2010. The mall now has 21 in its flock.
• Media personality J'lyn Nye is leaving the broadcasting business after 34 years. "It's been a wild ride, with some incredible highs and lows," Nye said. Her last day at 630 CHED will be Aug. 18. Nye starts as director of marketing and digital content at the Edmonton Police Service on Aug. 28.
• Health Minister Adriana LaGrange's mandate letter from Premier Danielle Smith instructs her to "reform the management and structure of Alberta Health Services to better decentralize decision-making and resources to the front lines and local communities." LaGrange told CBC that AHS has grown beyond its original focus on acute care since it was formed from the merging of regional health authorities in 2008. NDP health critic David Shepherd questioned whether it made sense to "rip apart the system at a time when it is already in chaos and already in crisis."

An American virtual healthcare service is basing its Canadian operations in Edmonton, citing the city's strong health-innovation ecosystem.

"The goal was for us to really zero in on where we think we want to be headquartered, where we want to start first," Ciba Health CEO Innocent Clement told Taproot during an event at Edmonton Global on July 18. "And when we looked at the landscape here… we've seen that Edmonton is certainly very forward-thinking. They built an ecosystem that is a very collaborative space that allows for startups like us to thrive."

Clement, who is a medical doctor, founded Ciba Health in New York City in 2020. The company provides personalized, AI-enabled healthcare to patients with chronic conditions, especially Type 2 diabetes. The company is still figuring out how its services will work within the context of a universal healthcare system, but in the U.S., patients pay $194 for a "root cause discovery program" that leads to a personalized health plan, and $150 per month for ongoing care involving connections to healthcare providers such as MDs and dietitians.

Clement said the company is not trying to compete against Canada's public healthcare system.

"We're not here to take away the jobs," he said. "We're here to enhance, using technology and using that methodology, to provide access to care."

Edmonton Global CEO Malcolm Bruce described Ciba Health as "complementary" to both universal healthcare and Alberta's health-innovation ecosystem, but he also said there's nothing wrong with a little competition when it comes to innovation.

"Remember, competition is a good thing, particularly for the clients," he told Taproot. "Think of energy. It's not a question of electric vehicles or hydrogen vehicles — it's going to be both."

Ciba was part of the third health cohort accepted by Plug and Play Alberta, an accelerator brought to the province through the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program (Scaleup GAP) from Alberta Innovates.

"As part of the program, Ciba Health had access to industry experts (and) several information workshops, helping them focus their pitches and hone their business objectives," Alberta Innovates vice-president of health Tim Murphy said during the event. "Ciba Health is exactly the sort of company that Scaleup GAP is designed for. The experience they bring from the New York marketplace is a terrific asset to Alberta's digital health ecosystem."

Ciba's services are not yet available in Canada. The company is awaiting regulatory approvals, planning a pilot project tentatively set for October, and looking for office space within Enterprise Square. Ciba also plans to hire up to 20 people within its first year, ranging from dietitians to coders to members of the operations team.

Photo: (From left) Tim Murphy of Alberta Innovates, Innocent Clement of Ciba Health, Coun. Jennifer Rice, Innovation Minister Nate Glubish, Roger Chahine of Ciba Health, and Malcolm Bruce of Edmonton Global attended the announcement of Ciba Health's choice of Edmonton as its Canadian headquarters on July 18. (Colin Gallant)

On this day in 1926, a bold coyote was spotted crossing Jasper Avenue on its way to the river.

It certainly wasn't the first time a coyote and a person have crossed paths in these parts. The Indigenous people who first lived and gathered here called the animal mîscacâkanis in Cree and aapi'si in Blackfoot.

When European settlers arrived during the 1880s, few saw a distinction between coyotes and wolves. Most of their interest was in the fur trade; coyote and wolf pelts sold for the same amount (and were nowhere near as desired as beaver fur), so most European accounts at the time just made reference to small wolves or "prairie wolves."

The coyote's name comes from Central America, rooted in the Aztec word "cóyotl." That name eventually spread north, through the United States, and eventually entered the Alberta English lexicon. There's also a Latin name that will seem fitting for anyone who has heard a coyote's yelp — Canis latrans means "barking dog."

Coyotes were poorly regarded as Edmonton grew. They were considered nuisances and threats to livestock. Coyote and wolf populations began to decline around Edmonton and the rest of Alberta in the 1880s due to intentional poisoning, loss of habitat as more land was turned into farms, and difficulty finding prey like elk. Bounty systems, funded by homesteaders and town governments, would pay money in exchange for coyote ears. The bounties would continue for decades, finally being withdrawn in 1948.

In the 1950s, rabies was found in foxes in northern Alberta, which led to a cull of many wild animals — including coyotes. Millions of poisoned bait traps were set up over the next four years, killing an estimated 150,000 coyotes.

Despite more than a century of coyote control methods, they are still a common sight. Coyotes are famous for being clever and adaptable. And the efforts to eradicate wolves may have helped coyote populations increase and expand to new areas without competition. While they often feed on rabbits, mice, and other small animals, coyotes are opportunistic omnivores who will also eat fruit and other vegetation.

Edmonton's urban coyote population is growing, with estimates of up to 1,000 currently living in the city. Studies have also found that they are building their dens closer to human activity. The city is home to a coyote research project at the University of Alberta, which helps track coyote-human interactions.

While coyotes are generally pretty human-shy, they can threaten cats, dogs, and other small pets. There have also been recent concerns that coyotes associate human-heavy areas with easy meals, because people leave food out accidentally or on purpose.

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.