The Pulse: April 25, 2025

The Fulton Creek Business Park in southeast Edmonton has requested a rezoning to expand its footprint that would require a creek to be relocated and the loss of 6,900 mature trees.

City administration supports the business park's application to rezone natural land for industrial purposes in order to create a more contiguous land parcel. That application is scheduled to be debated at a public hearing on April 28, and is among the first steps required to relocate the creek. If approved, the applicant will need to apply to the province to relocate the creek.

The relocation "poses considerable ecological risks," according a report from city administration, and would clear 5.38 hectares of the North Saskatchewan River Valley and Ravine System that acts as wildlife habitat and a carbon sink. The applicant would plant approximately 6,000 new trees where the creek is proposed to be relocated, but city administration said it would take decades for the new area to reach the same level of ecosystem functioning. This project would hinder the city's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, the city report said.

Administration said it supports the application because it would create a larger, more contiguous land parcel, which is in line with the city's Industrial Action Plan. Relocating the creek would grow the space the applicant can build on, increasing potential building footprints from a maximum of 50,000 square feet to 347,500 square feet. The application said that administration is taking a more active role in maintaining industrial land supply and is discouraging using industrial land for non-industrial uses. However, earlier this year, administration supported rezoning what it described as a "highly valuable," 14-hectare parcel of land for a high school, mosque, recreation centre, and business complex.

The application explains how the business park engaged with First Nations. The provincial Aboriginal Consultation Office directed the applicant to consult with the Paul First Nation and Enoch Cree Nation, both located west of Edmonton. The business park also contacted 31 First Nations to provide project information. Six nations asked how they could be involved and/or expressed concerns about the project. Representatives from the business park held three site visits with Paul First Nation as well as the Blood Tribe and Siksika Nations, both of which are located in southern Alberta. The application said no First Nations have opposed the project and the Paul and Siksika Nations have written non-objection letters.

The River Valley Alliance, a not-for-profit made up of the six municipalities that border the North Saskatchewan River in the Edmonton region, said it supports the project. The alliance said it is excited about new trails that are planned for the relocated creek. Sierra Club Canada, an environmental conservation group, said it did not support relocating the creek. The Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition said it had concerns about the project and asked to be kept informed.

• Edmonton had the most opioid-related deaths of any Alberta city in 2024, nearly twice as many as Calgary, even as numbers across the country fell and Alberta reported its lowest number of deaths since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly half of the 6,381 opioid-related emergency calls occurred in Edmonton, which recorded 569 deaths, compared to 284 in Calgary. According to available coroner reports, 14% of deaths in Edmonton involved carfentanil, compared to 1% in Calgary.
• The Hindu Society of Alberta temple, located at 14225 133 Avenue NW in northwest Edmonton, was significantly damaged by fire on April 24. Edmonton Fire Rescue arrived on the scene around 3:40am and brought the fire under control by 6:33am. Society president Rajeev Arora said the fire damaged the hallway and back section, but no injuries were reported. Investigators are determining the cause of the fire.
• The Downtown Revitalization Coalition and the 124 Street Business Association issued statements criticizing the City of Edmonton's decision to remove all EPark machines by the end of July as it transitions to the HotSpot digital payment system. The groups argue the change negatively affects people without a smartphone or data plan and is "actively harmful to the downtown economy." Coun. Aaron Paquette tabled a motion this week to review the City's decision in light of accessibility concerns.
• The Edmonton Police Service said it has arrested and charged a man in connection with stealing a bronze statue of Emily Murphy in February. According to a release, police had also been investigating the theft of a stand-alone plaque that was beside the statue and seven residential address plates. Police recovered "portions of the statue and signs" at a metal recycler in March and made the arrest in April, the release says.
• The Edmonton Police Service is seeking public assistance to locate several First World War memorial plaques that were stolen from the Edmonton Cemetery in March, some of which may have been sold online to collectors. The City of Edmonton is planning to restore and reinstall seven plaques that were returned in recent weeks. Joe MacDonald of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Association explained that the plaques, also called "death pennies," were sent home to families of fallen soldiers when remains couldn't be repatriated.
• Dow Inc. said it will delay construction of its Path2Zero project in Fort Saskatchewan due to market uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs. The $9-billion project is touted as the world's first ethylene cracker with net-zero emissions, which would convert fossil fuels into usable products. Both the provincial and federal governments had committed money to the project.
• The Garneau Community League has been resisting a proposed boarding house at 10948 89 Avenue NW, arguing the 15-unit building on a 33-foot lot is not suitable for the historic street. In a recent op-ed, league president Steph Neufeld criticized the City of Edmonton's 2023 zoning bylaw renewal and its broad approval of upzonings in priority growth areas. Neufeld said her community wants "modest considerations" for heritage and multi-bedroom units under three storeys. A third public hearing on the rezoning request is scheduled for April 28.
• Unceded: Voices of the Land, an interactive multimedia exhibition showcasing the work of 18 Indigenous architects, is continuing until June 21 at Edmonton's City Centre Mall. Elder Douglas Cardinal, leader of the team that debuted the work internationally in 2019, said the exhibition explores how Indigenous architects are applying their history, worldview, and cultures.
• The Energy Mix, an Ottawa-based climate and energy news platform, published a feature article on Blatchford, a carbon-neutral community being developed by the City of Edmonton on the site of the former municipal airport. Tom Lumsden, the City's development manager for Blatchford, said the community is doing well relative to other greenfield developments, despite sluggish growth and early skepticism. Blatchford aims to have 30,000 residents by 2042.
• Abdul Abassi, a vice-president of the University of Alberta Students' Union, spoke to The Gateway about affordability issues facing students, after an Abacus Data poll found three in four students experience affordability challenges, and 20% have used a food bank in the last semester. Abassi said the Campus Food Bank has seen a 600% increase in use over the past five years, with rising rent being a driving factor.
• University of Alberta physicists Doug Gingrich, Roger Moore, and James Pinfold have received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to developing the ATLAS detector, a machine at CERN that was instrumental in discovering the Higgs boson in 2012.
• The Edmonton International Airport says it is partnering with Diesel Tech Industries to explore powering two runway snow sweepers with a hydrogen diesel system. The snow sweepers currently run on diesel fuel, and conversion will begin in spring 2025, a release says.

The High School Culinary Challenge season culminates with its marquee fundraiser on April 30 at the Royal Glenora Club.

"This is our first time holding this event there. Our chef community, the organizers of this, we've collaborated with the club quite a bit," Peter Keith, who is part of the challenge's organizing committee, a former competitor, and the owner of Meuwly's, told Taproot. "Their executive chef, Steve Buzak, is a really good partner in all of the things that we do."

The fundraiser is called Hot Chefs Cool bEATS. It's a tasting-style mingler with stations by chefs from Fu's Repair Shop, Boa & Hare, DRTY Ice Cream, The Butternut Tree, Braven Restaurant, Pitt County BBQ, Super Amigos Mexican Street Food, Edmonton EXPO Centre, MEAT, The Butchery by RGE RD, and The Flavour Agency, a new catering concept from the team behind Filistix. The event also features libations and live music. Supporters include the title sponsor, Alberta Chicken Producers, as well as Alberta Pork, Alberta Milk, Egg Farmers of Alberta, Alberta Pulse Growers, Gordon Food Service, and HESCO.

The point of the fundraiser, which offers tickets starting at roughly $100, is to support future editions of the High School Culinary Challenge. The challenge itself tests students on their ability to master a uniform menu. This year, the menu was mulligatawny soup, pork back ribs, and a flourless chocolate cake. The challenge took place on March 17, and the team from St. Joseph's Catholic High School won gold, Dr. Anne Anderson High School's team received silver, and Bev Facey High School's team earned bronze.

"Over the course of four hours, the teams prepare all of this food together, and they're judged in the kitchen, usually, by NAIT instructors," Keith said. "They evaluate their food safety, their general skill and technique, their cleanliness, their organization, and their teamwork. That accounts for about half of their score. The other half of the score is on the overall taste of the dish and the presentation."

Keith has been part of the challenge since it began in 2008. At age 16, he competed for the first time. He returned the next year and received a NAIT scholarship. The culinary challenge has awarded roughly 40 of those scholarships since 2008, and today the endowments are named after founders Stanley Townsend, Simon Smotkowicz, and Jan Anderson.

"I think what (the challenge's founders) instilled in us was not only a sense of what it means to be a great chef and cook, to make really amazing food and run a great kitchen, but also what it means to be part of the community," Keith said. "The role that the culinary professionals should play in our city, as a chef, as a restaurant owner, someone at a hotel or a catering company, we are actually such a core part of so many events in people's lives."

Aside from the main competition and Hot Chefs Cool bEATS, the High School Culinary Challenge is working on the Alberta Chicken Challenge. Winning submissions for chicken recipes will be announced this month.

On this day in 1989, Edmonton city council denied official recognition of gay and lesbian awareness celebrations.

Mayor Terry Cavanagh clearly refused to support a request from the city's gay and lesbian community to declare June 27 as Gay and Lesbian Awareness Day in Edmonton, but was vague about his reasons why. He told the news media that the request wasn't like the usual volunteer groups that had days proclaimed in their honour, and was worried about "how many other groups are going to come along to want a day proclaimed." As an Edmonton Journal writer noted at the time, Cavanagh's explanation didn't quite make sense, given other special days that he had proclaimed, including those honouring cable TV, housekeepers, and coins.

Of course, the mayor's real reason to oppose the request would likely have been more than clear to Edmonton's gay and lesbian community. Nor would it have been a surprise. Cavanagh's denial came at the end of a decade of the community fighting, unsuccessfully, for official city recognition of the event.

Many agree that Edmonton's modern Pride celebrations began in 1980, with a small picnic and campfire that drew about 75 people. In the next year, a gay and lesbian group (which included Michael Phair, who would later become the first openly gay person elected to office in Alberta) entered a craft into the annual Sourdough Raft Race. The boat referenced a gay bathhouse and was dubbed the S.S. Pisces, in protest of a raid Edmonton police conducted on a spa earlier that year which ended in the arrest of more than 60 gay and bisexual men.

By 1984, the event had grown into Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week, a combination of celebrations and protests across the city. It was also the first year that organizers petitioned the city to officially honour the event on June 27. The request was shot down due to "lack of public appeal." A similar request was made the next year and also denied.

The failed 1989 request sparked a protest. Called "Gay Day Anyway", it took place in front of city hall, with actors holding a mock city council meeting. While the 1990 Pride parade wasn't accompanied by any proclamation, the new mayor, Jan Reimer (who had supported the previous request as a councillor), became Edmonton's first mayor to participate in the event. Three years later, she would also be the one to finally make an official proclamation, marking June 26, 1993, as "Gay and Lesbian Pride Day" in Edmonton.

Today, Edmonton's Pride celebrations are very different. June is Pride Month, and there's a Pride Festival weekend in August, all drawing thousands of people to celebrate many queer identities alongside gay and lesbian communities. The Pride Curling Championships were held in the city earlier this month, and there are a couple of events coming up in May drawing attention to Edmonton's queer history.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.

Correction: This file has been updated to reflect that June is Pride Month in Edmonton.

Here are some events happening this weekend in the Edmonton area.

• April 25: Beyond Stigma: Using Recovery-Focused Language to Support Mental Health and Addiction starting at 12pm online
• April 25: Black Lives for Environmental and Climate Justice starting at 5:30pm at University of Alberta (TELUS International Centre)
• April 25-26: ChocoFest at Millennium Place
• April 25-27: St. Albert Lifestyle Expo and Sale at Servus Place
• April 26: Kim Ross: No Till Gardening starting at 9am at Millhurst Community Hall
• April 26: Edmonton Potter's Guild Spring Show and Sale starting at 10am at Edmonton Potters' Guild Studio
• April 26: Edmonton Earth Day Festival starting at 1pm at Alberta Avenue Community Centre
• April 26: Community Health Fair starting at 1:30pm at Clareview Community Recreation Centre
• April 26-27: Edmonton Indie Bookstore Extravaganza at various locations
• April 26-27: Snow Goose Festival at Beaver Hills Biosphere
• April 27: Fertility Unfiltered: From Reel to Real starting at 2pm at RGE RD
• April 27: Community Celebration of Ukrainian Voice: A Legacy Mosaic starting at 2pm at Royal Alberta Museum

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• May 3: Mr. Vampire at Metro Cinema
• May 5: CSW Cohort 6 Demo Day at Edmonton Unlimited
• May 7: Edmonton Arts Prizes Awards Presentation at Roxy Theatre

Visit the beta version of the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.