Business Roundup

Economic development

• The Common saw a 20% increase in sales during Downtown Dining Week in March, a welcome boon heading into a summer that will see increased fees for patios. The Common's sidewalk patio configuration would be subject to $3,700 fee, so the owners are scaling it down from 60 seats to 20, which will reduce the associated fee to $500. "It's such a wild card that it just becomes not worth it," co-owner Kyla Kazeil told Taproot. "That money can pay a grocery bill or pay benefits for our staff." The owners of Rocky Mountain Icehouse also oppose the fees and have asked diners to share their concerns with city council.
• Prairies Economic Development Canada has invested an additional $50 million in Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation through the Canadian Critical Drug Initiative to support construction of the Critical Medicines Production Centre — a partnership with the University of Alberta to enable large-scale Canadian pharmaceutical manufacturing. The investment is expected to create more than 350 jobs and support at least 60 early-stage life sciences companies. CEO Andrew MacIsaac said the facility's final fitout is now underway.
• Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation CEO Andrew MacIsaac told CBC's This is Edmonton about the organization's plans to produce a generic GLP-1 weight loss drug for Vimy Pharma at the Critical Medicines Production Centre. "One of the amazing things about the work we're doing here is we're building something that is part of the supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry," he said. "Most people don't really think about the supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry unless there's a shortage." Vimy Pharma said it will make its application to Health Canada for the drug soon.
• Startup TNT has named its top 20 for the next Edmonton investment summit. Among them are Davidson Defence and NGT Energy in the defence sector, and Datamint, FeynMed Solutions, Karma Medical Products, Rane Pharmaceuticals, RNARevive, and SpectraCann in health. The results of the top 20 pitch night on April 16 will lead to pitches from the top five at the finale on May 28.
• Startup TNT community development lead Jesse Wiebe is leaving the organization after five years for a new national role. Wiebe developed Startup TNT's agri-food arm. The organization's spring Agri-Food Summit finale in Calgary awarded a $100,000 investment pot to dental hygiene startup Toothpod on April 9. Wiebe cited Canada's "structural crisis in early-stage capital formation" as the problem he aims to solve, with his transition set to be complete by the end of September. Operations lead Jonah Tetz is also stepping away after four years.
• Jeff Bell has departed as director of research and business intelligence at Edmonton Global to run his own consultancy, Understory Advisory. His first client for the practice is the Edmonton International Airport. "One of the highlights of my role was meeting business leaders from around the world and personally showing them what Edmonton has to offer," Bell wrote on LinkedIn. "On a typical week, our team would host delegations from half a dozen countries, from Japan and the United States to Brazil and Germany."
• The Downtown Revitalization Coalition, which represents more than 40 organizations, recommended steps to make Edmonton the safest major city in Canada. The plan called for better coordination between transit officers, peace officers, and the Edmonton Police Service, plus a 24-hour stabilization and transfer facility based on expanded crisis diversion teams.
• Skies Mag profiled Volatus Aerospace and its work delivering medical supplies by drone from the Edmonton International Airport to Montana First Nations Clinic — a complex beyond-visual-line-of-sight route through active airspace. The company, which has completed more than 11,000 commercial operations across Canada, also announced a 200,000-square-foot drone manufacturing hub near Montreal to serve civil and military markets.
• The Pacific Northwest Economic Region Annual Summit is coming to Edmonton from July 19 to 23. The event is "the leading nonpartisan forum that brings together public and private sector leaders from Canada and the U.S. to address shared challenges and economic opportunities in the Northwest," Explore Edmonton posted.
• Emissions Reduction Alberta CEO Justin Riemer and Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute board member Peter Tertzakian discussed how AI, electrification, and global market pressures are reshaping clean-tech investment on an episode of Carbon Copy.
• The City of St. Albert has launched a survey to better understand the needs and priorities of local businesses. Deloitte Canada will conduct the telephone and email survey between April 20 and May 8. Results will be shared with council and the community in early summer. Business owners can opt in on the city's website.

Startups and SMBs

• Fairly Staffing plans to expand into Ontario and across Canada after an investment from Accelerate Fund IV. The workforce management company handles the paperwork to help dental clinics take on fill-in hygienists. "The demand for dental professionals is growing while the supply is shrinking. Fewer people are entering the profession, and those who do increasingly want the flexibility of gig work," said CEO Amir Reshef, who co-founded the company with Aisha Abdul. Reshef previously co-founded legaltech company DealCloser. Fairly Staffing is also in the top 20 for Startup TNT's next Edmonton investment summit.
• Kurtis Broda, co-founder and COO of Wyvern, argues that Canada's space sector generated 25% less revenue in 2024 than in 2014 because the government is not a reliable buyer for Canadian space companies. He pointed to the cancellation of the $43-million Canadian Lunar Rover — which involved more than 30 Canadian companies — while the paused $1-billion Canadarm3 contract stays on the books. Broda also discussed the company's commercialization challenges on Carbon Copy.
• Bailey Books in St. Albert has found new life under Lisa Bailey, who transformed her father's quiet online used-book shop into a community hub, in part by capitalizing on the BookTok boom in romance and fantasy titles. In-store sales grew 3,200% in the first year of retail operations, The Globe and Mail noted, and the store has won multiple St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce awards.
• The Good Game YEG podcast looked back on the first quarter in Alberta's game industry, with highlights including Sovereign Syndicate from Crimson Herring Studios landing on Xbox and PlayStation, and Caldera Interactive launching a demo for The Rabbit Haul on Steam.
• Edify profiled Johwanna "Jojo" Alleyne, the owner of Mojo Jojo Pickles, which has grown from a farmers' market side hustle into a provincially distributed line of pickles, jams, syrups, and condiments.
• Professional organizer Kaytlyn Beakhouse of Sort and Simple joined the RAEdio podcast from the REALTORS Association of Edmonton to share strategies for decluttering and downsizing.

Real estate

• Building the critical mass of infill needed in Edmonton relies on execution rather than policy, argued Sydney Bond and Marty Pawlina of BILD Edmonton Metro. "Policy creates the opportunity for housing, but builders also have a responsibility to be good neighbours — maintaining high construction standards and building trust so that new homes strengthen the communities they join," they wrote, adding that BILD's Infill Priority Actions plan can support proper infill execution.
• The Garneau Community League is proposing to expand its special-character residential area to preserve historical charm while meeting Edmonton's density targets. The City of Edmonton identified Garneau as a major-growth node in May 2025, prioritizing increased density. League president Steph Neufeld said the community is already Edmonton's densest and wants growth that preserves its unique features. The proposal would reduce maximum build-out potential while still exceeding targets and would diversify housing. Both the city and the community league are seeking public input.
• Josan Properties reduced the vacancy rate at the former Phipps-McKinnon Building from 65% to 17% with two years of creative conversions, programming, and amenity additions, wrote Cory Wosnack of Avison Young. Now called Connect Tower, the building on Rice Howard Way leased 33 of 91 new residential units within a month of going to market.
• A proposed mosque in St. Albert's Campbell Business Park is facing opposition from some residents who feel it is incompatible with the industrial area and will cause traffic and parking issues. The Muslim Association of St. Albert said the new mosque would have enough parking stalls to alleviate on-street pressure.
• Edmonton's spring housing market cooled from last year's pace but remained strong by historical standards, according to figures from the REALTORS Association of Edmonton. March resales were down 14% year over year, while the average home price still rose just over 2%.
• A report by Rentals.ca and Urbanation found that average apartment rent in Edmonton decreased by 2.2% to $1,488 in March. The decline reflects a national trend, where average asking rents in Canada saw their largest drop in nearly five years. Shaun Hildebrand of Urbanation attributed the downturn to declining population, affordability issues, economic uncertainty, and record apartment completions, leading to higher vacancy rates and increased landlord incentives for prospective tenants.

More headlines

• The 2026 recipients of the NAIT Celebrates Award include Kimberley Mullins of Suncor, Jennifer Kinzer of PCL Construction, Asmahan Rabo of Needs4Water, dental technologists Daniel Yeung and Seth Potter, and Patrick Twinn of ATB. Twinn also spoke about leadership and Indigenous economic reconciliation on the Settle Down podcast.
• NAIT highlighted alumni achievements in business in its quarterly community roundup. On the list are Bianca Parsons of the Alberta Food Processors Association, Peter Keith of Meuwly's, The Hub, and Scale Kitchens, Rob LeLacheur of Road 55 and the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, retail expert Mark Ryski, and many restaurant owners featured in the latest Best Restaurants issue from Edify.
• Aurora Cannabis has acquired Safari Flower Co. in a $26.5-million cash-and-stock deal that adds a 59,000-square-foot EU GMP-certified facility in Ontario to support exports.
• BioAlberta has opened nominations for its Annual Achievement Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations making meaningful contributions to life sciences in Alberta, with a deadline of May 15.
• MacEwan University's Social Innovation Institute is seeking equity-deserving entrepreneurs — including immigrants, Indigenous entrepreneurs, women, and people with disabilities — to participate in hour-long listening sessions for a research study on inclusive entrepreneurship.
• Edmonton city council voted 7-5 to restore daytime street parking on a stretch of 101 Street after hearing concerns from the Chinatown Business Improvement Area and others about the effects of a dedicated bus lane.
• The City of Edmonton spent $21.9 million covering short-term disability absences, according to an audit of the Abilities Management Program. Officials noted that 25% increase in mental-health claims since the pandemic, rising from an average of 432 in 2018-19 to 548 in 2024-25. Auditors recommended improving case management, evaluating the modified-duty program, enhancing abilities-management reporting, and developing an evaluation framework.
• Students at the University of Alberta decried Bill 48, which would expand online betting and gambling privatization, citing concerns about the mental health impacts of increased gambling advertising. Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally said the bill addresses the 65% of black market online gambling in Alberta. "We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend online gambling is not here," he said on CBC's Edmonton AM. "Our approach is a more practical one. We are stepping in and putting player safety and responsibility first."
• The Alberta government will not match Ottawa's temporary suspension of the fuel excise tax and will keep its fuel-tax formula in place until at least July. "If we're going to give (the federal government) their flowers over this, you should also give us some on the fact we don't have a (provincial) sales tax," Finance Minister Nate Horner told reporters.
• Alberta's energy minister said Bill 30 would create a 120-day review window for priority energy projects worth at least $250 million, provided proponents have substantially completed environmental assessments and Indigenous consultation.
• Industry leaders at the BMO CAPP Energy Symposium said Canada's industrial carbon price is reducing oil and gas competitiveness, while arguing the country should move faster on export infrastructure.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• April 17: Tourism Week Kickoff at Coffee with the Chamber starting at 8:30am at Parallèle Alberta
• April 20: Innovation Catalyst Grant Info Session starting at 1pm online
• April 21: Selling to the City Information Sessions starting at 1pm online
• April 21: Edmonton Safety Connects April Social starting at 4:30pm at Canadian Brewhouse (Edmonton Ellerslie)
• April 21-23: Canadian Hydrogen Convention at Edmonton Convention Centre
• April 22: Powering Alberta's Future: A Conversation on Energy with Minister Brian Jean starting at 9am at World Trade Centre Edmonton
• April 22: MARIOS - Advanced Mechanical Testing to Address Mine Site Challenges starting at 12pm online
• April 23: Developing Leaders Present: 20 Questions with Raka Josan and Dave Young starting at 12pm at CBRE Limited
• April 23: AI for Small Business: Where It Actually Makes Sense (and Where It Doesn't) starting at 12pm online
• April 23: EDifier Awards starting at 4pm at MacEwan University

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• April 29: Spring Soirée: An Evening With Alumni at MacEwan University (The Lookout)
• May 5-6: Clean Fuels Canada Summit at Strathcona Community Centre and County Hall
• May 7: YEG Startup Community Awards

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