Police were called to the Sage Hill neighborhood in northwest Calgary around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Thirty-six law professors, legal researchers and other staff from two Alberta universities are asking the province to reconsider policy changes affecting transgender youth.

The post Rebranding the carbon tax won’t fix a failure appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Canada's Ingrid Wilm came into Qatar without any long-course world-championship medals in her career. Now, she has two. The Calgary native captured her second bronze medal in Doha on Thursday, placing third in the women's 50-metre backstroke.

Kerri Einarson agrees with a saying in sport that it is more difficult to stay on top than to get there. Winner of four straight Canadian women's curling championships, the Manitoba skip says each title has been progressively harder to claim. The fifth could be the toughest yet.

Alberta Parks is replacing its online camping reservation system with a model that includes new search tools and features ahead of opening up bookings next week. 

New data suggests Edmonton police officers have been keeping busy over the past year, responding to a steady increase in vehicle thefts.

Calgary Uber and Lyft driver Ravinder Arora said his pay has dropped nearly 50 per cent since he first started driving five years ago. 

In a year expected to bring worsening drought conditions, the laws, regulations and history of water in Alberta are increasingly relevant — and worth unpacking.

More than a year after Edmonton's city council voted to invest $100 million to build active transportation infrastructure, the city has announced 10 routes spanning 17 kilometres that it will build in 2024 as part of the project.

Each of the 10 new routes will be a shared-use path that's three metres wide. A majority of the planned construction is focused on the north side of Edmonton, with stretches of 66 Street, 50 Street, Fort Road/Manning Drive, and 153 Avenue all set to receive pathways. Several streets south of the river are included, too. More details about the 10 routes are on the city's website.

Northside resident Bethel Alemu uses a bike to run errands around her neighbourhood and occasionally cycles downtown, often having to bike unprotected on roads with drivers in vehicles. She said she was delighted and surprised when she saw the planned routes.

"I feel like I have been shouting into the ether a little bit, like no one has listened," Alemu said. "I'm just glad to see some of these missing gaps being filled."

Alemu said she thinks the new routes will encourage people to choose a bike over a car for neighbourhood trips. "It's great that there will be continuous active transportation routes between four transit hubs in the north side — Castledowns, Eaux Claires, Clareview, and Belvedere," she added. "The path connecting (Belvedere and Clareview) LRT stations is particularly overdue."

Some future shared-use paths will replace existing sidewalks, while others will add a path where there was no sidewalk or path before, said Christopher Wintle, supervisor of transportation planning and design at the city.

Wintle said the city considers many factors when choosing what active transportation infrastructure to build on a route, including traffic speed and volume, and the volume of cyclists.

During budget deliberations in December 2022, city council approved $100 million in capital funding to implement the bike network plan. Council chose an "accelerated" approach. That means public engagement will be limited and construction will be focused on completing "easier bike connections."

The funding will cover planning, design, construction, engagement, and communications about the network expansion through standalone projects as well as through "synergies with other capital-funded work," the city said. This means if a street is slated for rehabilitation or a neighbourhood is scheduled for renewal, bike lanes may be built as part of the project and access the $100 million. Bike parking, wayfinding, and new fleet equipment to maintain the network are also included in the budget.

When council endorsed the investment, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the network expansion would give people more transportation options. "I think one of the arguments we hear from people is that Edmontonians don't bike or that we are a winter city, but Edmontonians do bike," Sohi said. "More Edmontonians will bike more if we have appropriate infrastructure, which is safe, reliable, and connected."

Still, the delay between the investment and construction has led to some frustration. About a week before the new routes were announced, Paths for People wrote a blog post expressing frustration with the lack of visible progress on the plan so far.

"Our relationship with city administration is normally quite strong, and we understand that city administration is not obligated to provide these kind of updates," the group said. "But it makes for a more effective and thoughtful process when we see open lines of communication between city administration, community organizations like ourselves, and the public writ large."

Paths for People was among five stakeholder groups that was invited to an engagement session shortly after this blog post in the first week of February.

What has the city done over the last year?

Planners have spent the last year reviewing more than 200 existing or proposed segments within the existing active-transportation network and ranking them based on connectivity, ridership potential, equity, safety, and feasibility, said Christina Tatarniuk, program manager of transportation planning and design at the city.

Next, segments were sorted based on their complexity to build, which "considers construction priorities, site-specific constraints, engagement requirements, and facility types," she said.

More complex routes may have multiple options for infrastructure — a shared pathway or a protected bike lane, for example. In those cases, the city will consult the public on the preferred design, Wintle said. "Some of these ones that you're seeing this year are the ones that can move forward in a rapid approach, whereas some of the more complicated ones, our team still working on what 2025 and 2026 is going to look like."

The 10 routes planned for 2024 cover 17 kilometres, which would barely make a dent in the 675 kilometres of new and improved routes identified in the city's bike plan implementation guide. That's because some routes, mainly those running through neighbourhoods, are planned to be built through the neighbourhood renewal process.

Tatarniuk said her department has collaborated with the neighbourhood renewal department to make sure routes the respective teams are designing line up and complement each other. Additionally, some routes are expected to be constructed by developers building subdivisions outside of Anthony Henday Drive.

When will we know more about the $100M plan?

Wintle said he expects routes planned for construction in 2025 to be announced in the spring or summer of 2024. The city's bike plan implementation guide shows priority routes and areas, as well as the "general location" of future bike routes in the city.

The city has a survey open until Feb. 20 for residents to share thoughts on communication and education relating to the expansion of the network. At this point, the city is not seeking feedback on the design of the active transportation infrastructure, as it is basing the design from the principles outlined in its bike plan.

Here are opportunities to help inform city planning, including the active transportation network, transit and recreation centre services, and the renewal of an important collector street in Ritchie and King Edward Park.

• Active Transportation Network Survey — The city is looking to learn about how people view active transportation and the Active Transportation Network Expansion project, and their preferences for communication and education about active transportation. An online survey is open until Feb. 20.
• February Mixed Topic Survey — The city is gathering information this month about transit and recreation centre use. The survey form also invites residents to opt into two upcoming engagement opportunities: a survey in February about recreation centre memberships and a survey in March regarding the Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy, which is entering its final engagement phase before being presented to council in spring. The February Mixed Topic Survey closes Feb. 20.
• Element Park Planning (St. Albert) — The City of St. Albert is designing a new park in the Erin Ridge North community, which will be the northernmost park in the city. The project team is holding an open house at Servus Credit Union Place on Feb. 21. Residents can also complete an online survey until Feb. 25.
• 76 Avenue Renewal (explore) — The City of Edmonton has started engagement about the renewal of 76 Avenue between 75 Street and 99 Street, through the neighbourhoods of Ritchie and King Edward Park. Residents can meet the project team at an open house at the Ritchie Community League hall on Feb. 22 or complete an online survey about their experiences using the street until March 3.

More input opportunities

• Until Feb. 16: Public Washroom Strategy (interactive map, survey)
• Until Feb. 19: Winterscapes photo contest (nominations)
• Until Feb. 25: Mill Woods Town Centre Land Development Application
• Until Feb. 25: Hillview Neighbourhood and Alley Renewal (refine)
• Until Feb. 26: Voter Engagement Initiative (survey)
• Until Feb. 26: Housing Strategy (City of Leduc)
• Until Feb. 29: Northeast River Valley Park Strategic Plan

Photo: An Edmonton bike lane in early fall. (Mack Male/Flickr)

The fastest speed skaters on the planet are gathering at the Calgary Olympic Oval for the world single distances championships. CBC Sports' Signa Butler and Anastasia Bucsis will provide the play-by-play and commentary when action begins on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

A proposed public spaces bylaw for Edmonton will go back to city staff for revisions and research after a lengthy debate during a city council meeting Wednesday.

In court Wednesday, the Crown asked that a charge against one teen be downgraded from assault with a weapon to assault.

A First Nation in northern Alberta says it has told the Alberta Energy Regulator that oil and gas producer Obsidian Energy cannot proceed with plans to expanded drilling on its territory due to concerns about earthquakes.

A new class-action lawsuit alleges Canadian major junior hockey leagues violate antitrust laws in the United States by colluding to restrict the negotiation powers of players.

An Alberta First Nation has added its voice to a call for a provincial environmental assessment of two major property development projects in a neighbouring mountain town.

The Liberal government is rebranding its carbon tax rebate in an effort to make it clear to Canadians where the funds are coming from.

Edmonton city workers have voted in favour of strike action after negotiations with city administration reached a stalemate.

A Federal Court ruling Tuesday has thrown out a decision from federal Environmental Minister Steven Guilbeault denying a permit for an open-pit coal mine in the Alberta Rockies.

The City of Edmonton is looking to combine three public spaces bylaws — Public Places Bylaw, Parkland Bylaw and Conduct of Transit Passengers Bylaw — into a unified bylaw that spells out clear enforcement strategies to regulate behaviour in public spaces.

A group of North Glenora neighbours who collaborated to build multifamily housing in their own backyards have already netted an Urban Design Award and are now looking to repeat their climate-focused success in another mature neighbourhood, just with a smaller footprint.

"We're in early discussions right now and early talks about doing the second one," T5M Connect president and director Ryan Young told Taproot.

Young said the group built its first project on two city lots, but the second will have to fit onto one, which has presented a challenge. "How do we do what we do, but build it in such a way that it's replicable and can be used across the city on one city property lot?"

That first development, called T5M Connect North Glenora, is a modestly sized 16-unit building with two wheelchair-accessible suites and a roof covered in solar panels that's built to Passive House standards. Readers familiar with Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie's Showtime series The Curse may know Passive Houses act as something of a Thermos, built to keep temperatures regulated to cut down on energy use.

Fittingly, the first electrical bill for the multifamily development's 16 units was just over $1,000. For comparison, Young said his single-detached home's monthly average is several hundred dollars.

Next up for the T5M group will be a similar building within another of Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods. Young did not name the location but did say will be close to transit. "If we're developing higher density (housing), then this should be along public transportation routes," Young said. "Where's the new LRT route going? Where are the key bus routes?"

Young and T5M don't want to keep their methods to build secret. Details on their development are available on the Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association and ENBIX websites. Young is part of an advisory group for the latter, whose launch Taproot covered, based on his role as associate dean, industry engagement, for the J.R. Shaw School of Business at NAIT.

The amount of Edmonton's rental buildings owned by investment firms located outside the city grew by 22% between 2019 and 2022. Young said T5M's development is different. "We wanted to improve our own neighbourhood. We live here, we live just down the street, so we have more investment into what we're doing."

He was inspired by the concept of missing middle housing when he joined the development game. The term describes housing like duplexes, townhouses, and modestly-sized apartment towers that are smaller than a tall or sprawling complex but house multiple families, unlike a single-family home.

The missing middle was a hot topic during Edmonton's zoning bylaw reform process. Even some of Young's neighbours were hesitant about seeing missing middle redevelopment projects in North Glenora.

"There's a perception that multifamily brings down the value of their houses if they have single-family homes," Young said. "Some people have apologized to us. And one person even said, 'This is a gem in the neighbourhood.'"

Fittingly, neighbours were key to build the T5M development. Young and his wife Michelle joined forces with fellow couple Melissa and David Campbell to form T5M in June 2020. They hired Noemi Lopinto of Treetop Urban Gardens and Erin Olefeldt, climate resilience advisor at Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues and sustainability director for North Glenora Community League, to install and design landscaping, respectively. Rummy Dabgotra of Level Digital maintains the website, Maryan Ali manages the property, and James Shrimpton of Helix Design helped with graphic design, Young said.

More environmental considerations include solar panels and the landscape design. Lapinto and Olefeldt's work included plant guilds that are similar to biodynamic farming, where plants work together in symbiosis.

"One plant will help another plant pollinate, and they'll work together to be an effective community of plants or vegetation," Young said. "It's not just purely for aesthetics."

Edmonton was reminded in December that our city can get very, very cold. Young said his Passive House-principled development endured the test of its heating capabilities.

"We use air-source heat pumps to heat the entire complex … We have no natural gas hookups to the building at all," he said, adding that heat pumps are typically effective in temperatures as low as -22 to -30° C. "We well surpassed what they were tested to."

The demand for suites in the North Glenora building bodes well for T5M's next development. All 16 units are occupied and Young said there's a waiting list of prospective tenants.

Where demand lags is for the building's eight parking stalls. Young said many tenants shrugged off using the amenity. The T5M illustrates work the group did to reassure the community on this common point of concern for multifamily infill developments, including a parking study.

T5M Connect North Glenora was designed by architect Oscar Flechas, a past chair of Passive House Alberta, who also runs Calgary-based firm Flechas Architecture.

On this day in 1984, planning for Pope John Paul II's three-day visit to Edmonton was in full swing.

The Pope's journey to Canada in September 1984 marked the first time the head of the Catholic Church had set foot in the country. His 12-day Canadian tour started with him kissing the airport tarmac in Quebec City and continued with stops in 12 other cities, including Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Yellowknife, and Edmonton.

By the time the Pope's plane landed at CFB Edmonton the city was experiencing Pope-mania. A crowd of more than 100,000 people stood along the recently widened 97 Street to catch a glimpse of the popemobile as it zipped towards downtown. Among the crowd was a sizeable security presence, as the Pope had survived two assassination attempts in the previous three years.

The Pope and his entourage arrived at St. Joseph's Cathedral for a gathering of religious leaders before heading to the Grey Nuns Centre where he stayed during his visit.

The next day, it was back north to CFB Edmonton, where the Pope hosted a mass in a farmer's field beside the base. Crowds of up to 200,000 were expected for the service. Preparations included renting a gigantic TV screen from a Micheal Jackson tour to broadcast the speech. The crowd was smaller than anticipated — estimated at 125,000 — possibly due to the blustery weather. (The smaller crowd apparently left organizers with a lot of leftover communion wafers on their hands.) The Pope mentioned Alberta's famously unpredictable weather in his opening remarks, before giving a fiery speech that touched on the dangers of nuclear weapons and the growing inequality between wealthy and poor countries.

During the Pope's final day in the Edmonton area, he visited Elk Island National Park. A photo of John Paul II walking down one of the park's pathways while holding a rosary became one of the most famous images from his time heading the Catholic Church.

The weather wasn't done messing with the Pope's Canadian plans. After three days in Edmonton, the Pope intended to travel to Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories to meet with Indigenous leaders. Heavy fog forced his plane to return to Yellowknife, however, and the visit was cancelled. John Paul II would return to Canada in 1988 to visit Fort Simpson.

The excitement of the Pope's visit to Edmonton led to all kinds of mementos and souvenirs. Collectible cards and tickets were produced, businesses held special papal sales, and the city's transit system even sold commemorative maps. While many of those have been lost to time, there are still reminders of the visit around the city, if one knows where to look.

During his visit, the Pope promoted St. Joseph's Cathedral to a minor basilica, which remains to this day. And the metal structure that protected the altar during his farmers' field mass now stands in Gallagher Park as the Peace Dove. The sculpture even has a time capsule buried underneath, placed there by Edmonton's Catholic school district, and set to be opened up in 2088.

The Peace Dove got a major makeover a couple of years ago in preparation for another papal visit, when Pope Francis stopped in Edmonton in 2022. The most recent tour included an address in Maskwacis, where Pope Francis formally apologized for the Church's role in the residential school system. Despite the apology, many say they are still waiting for more concrete action more than a year after Francis's visit. There are currently plans for improvements to Gallagher Park, which might involve expanding the paths network around the Peace Dove or even relocating the sculpture.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse of @VintageEdmonton. ​

More than two years after Calgary's last municipal election, provincial efforts to modernize local campaign financing remain controversial.

Friends and couples know what works for them. We find out what it is for Jen and Shawnee Kish. What the key is for friends who remain close no matter where they are in the world. What the secret is for a couple married for 74 years and what brought a set of friends with the same name together.

A beautiful day for a winter walk

Brenda Shenton enjoyed a stroll on the frozen surface of Beauvais Lake last Wednesday.

Winter Walk Day is a Safe Healthy Active People Everywhere (SHAPE) Alberta event that encourages Albertans to be more active outdoors and to be active travellers.

As an MD of Pincher Creek resident, Brenda typically comes to town and joins the combined Winter Walk and Jersey Day crew, but she tried something different this year.

Photo by Shannon Peace

The post Shootin’ the Breeze Pincher Creek – Feb. 14, 2024 appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

CBC Edmonton's local podcast looks into building a life and community as a single Edmontonian

The City of Chestermere says it will abandon its application for a judicial review of the province's firings of four members of council and three chief administrative officers.

An Alberta RCMP officer is accused of leaking protected policing information to the Rwandan government.

A cougar attack in a popular wilderness area of Banff National Park has left one person with minor injuries.

It has been more than six months since the Alberta government introduced a moratorium on new renewable energy project approvals. But with only weeks to go until the pause is set to end, companies are still wondering about the fate of their projects.

U.S. consumer prices increased more than expected in January amid rises in the costs of shelter and health care, but it likely won't change expectations that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates in the first half of 2024.

A restaurant building in the Kensington area of northwest Calgary was damaged by fire late Monday night.

Allowing international students to work more than 20 hours a week could distract from their studies and undermine the objective of temporary foreign worker programs, public servants warned the federal government in 2022.

Two advocates pushing council to better pedestrianize Edmonton's downtown offered optimism on "mushy middle" achievements, despite pessimism from the hosts of Episode 250 of Speaking Municipally.

The episode and appearance by Stephen Raitz of Paths for People and Jason Syvixay of Urban Development Institute — Edmonton Metro follows an urban planning committee meeting in early February, which received and addressed an administration report on the Downtown Pedestrianization Plan. The committee passed a motion that calls for a second report, all based on the plan Raitz, Syviaxy and other advocates submitted in 2023.

Hosts Mack Male and Troy Pavlek thought the committee's passed motion was a nothingburger. But they also acknowledged Raitz and Syvixiay's work is a step on pedestrianization, nonetheless.

Still, Raitz consistently argued small changes will lead to big ones.

"It's not some loss if there's still access for a vehicle at some points in the day," Raitz said, about street closures downtown. "That's not some huge L we're taking. We need to recognize that we need to pass the baton to future advocates who can then use the circumstances and situations that we've created to get that big W."

Raitz and Syvixay work together on walkability even though they don't agree on everything. They said the direction the urban planning committee approved creates incremental change that will make Edmonton's downtown easier to walk and stimulate positive change over time.

Both mentioned the failure to permanently close 102 Avenue and the promise of Rice Howard Way. They believe better literacy on pedestrianization and novel ideas will create a more walkable city.

"Rice Howard Way and 104 Street continue to emerge as the two areas that can really have a path to success and serve as a proof product," Syvixay said. "There's actually a lot of conversation already happening with Rice Howard (Way), sort of behind the scenes, with the City of Edmonton administration … It's something tangible that they could see success on."

Raitz said there's more work underway than what's in the motion. "Council, often, can't be so fine-grained in how staff are deployed and how resources are deployed. So the nuance in the context that was missing from the motion, but was actually discussed during the conversation with administration, was the necessity to move forward on the short-term implementation and on actions."

Next up is a report from admin by the fourth quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Paths for People is engaged in the $100 million bike plan and the Winter Cycling Congress. UDI has lots of public events coming up.

Photo: Jasper Avenue, as depicted in this 2019 photo, was opened to pedestrians for an event and closed to drivers, leading to a different look and feel to the street than is usual for pedestrians. (Mack Male/Flickr

What gets Edmonton residents fired up? If one were to look at the city's preliminary data for its public engagement in 2023, the results suggest animal control, single-use items, and off-leash dog parks.

The city sent out more than 100 surveys last year, with the number of responses on each ranging from 20 to nearly 9,000, Dale Shekooley, acting lead strategist for integrated communications at the city, told Taproot.

The survey that elicited the most feedback was on the animal control bylaw, which garnered nearly 8,800 responses in December. The single-use item reduction bylaw received nearly 8,000 responses. Third place was engagement on off-leash dog parks, which saw more than 6,500 responses.

Snow and ice removal got keyboards clacking, too. A survey in April about it received about 4,100 responses. The related topic of community sandboxes got 2,900 responses.

But zoning bylaw renewal was what made people show up at city hall. The six-day hearing saw 279 speakers register to provide feedback both for and against the proposal. (The online survey for the related, but separate, topic of district planning received just more than 1,700 responses.)

The city creates regular opportunities for engagement, through in-person sessions at pop-ups, public hearings in city hall, and through surveys, which are open to the public and sent out via email to members of the Edmonton Insight Community.

More detailed statistics on civic engagement, like how many people attended in-person sessions, are not yet available as these initial numbers are still being validated. The city said some surveys were more popular due to increased distribution through public service announcements or media coverage.

Taproot compiles opportunities to offer thoughts on civic matters every week. Subscribe to The Pulse to get calls for public engagement delivered to your inbox.

Photo: A 2016 file photo of a public engagement session at city hall. (Mack Male/Flickr)

This Edmonton video game writer says that thanks to Bioware, this city has become a hub for independent video game creators.

There is undoubtedly much to be said — and asked — about the ArriveCan endeavour. But it's not clear (and not for the first time) whether any elected official is ready or willing to think about it too deeply.

Alberta is the country's honey powerhouse — and the sweet commodity last year had never been worth more. As interest in beekeeping steadily rises, beekeepers and industry stakeholders are working to ensure Alberta's bee population stays healthy.

More than 265 people evicted from encampments have visited the province's new navigation centre since it was set up nearly a month ago in downtown Edmonton, administration told city council at a meeting Monday.

Energy critics within the NDP’s provincial affiliates in Alberta and Saskatchewan are pushing back against MP Charlie Angus’s private member's bill targeting fossil fuel advertising.

A Calgary man fired seven shots at a driver in a road rage incident where one bullet miss the victim's head "by an inch or two," a judge heard Monday. 

As cases of measles surge in Europe, there are calls for public health officials in Alberta to take stronger steps to keep it out.

The City of Edmonton’s claim against a U.S. electric bus manufacturer has ballooned to $82 million, according to court documents.

Avex Energy has been fined for nearly $250,000 for running a natural gas-fired generator in the County of Stettler while bypassing regulatory tests for safe and unobtrusive operation.

A former Calgary high school teacher who is on trial for alleged sexual assault involving a 17-year-old student has asked the court to toss his charges due to delays in the case. 

WestJet is facing indefinite delays on dozens of new aircraft deliveries after a panel blowout on a Boeing 737 Max plane last month that prompted a halt to production expansion at the U.S. aircraft maker.

After setting two Canadian records in as many races, Edmonton runner and reigning 800-metre world champion Marco Arop has ended in his indoor season to focus on training for an outdoor campaign he hopes will include earning his first Olympic medal.

The City of Edmonton will figure out a plan to raise the respective turf and horticulture budgets to pre-pandemic levels, which council may consider during its springtime budget talks, following a unanimous vote during last week’s community and public services committee meeting.

Edmonton Catholic Schools estimates 38 per cent of its buildings are at or over capacity. The Edmonton public division, which has more than double the number of schools, says 18 per cent of them are full.