The idea was included in the city's housing strategy, which was passed by city council in September 2023. It estimated the exemption would affect approximately 360 such properties in Calgary.

Their firm disagreements on how to deal with Trump's trade ideas are rooted in their backgrounds, and in their backyards.

Clarence Lawrence, 28, pleaded guilty to a series of unprovoked attacks on Sept. 7, 2022, injuring two women and killing 38-year-old Brian Berland in northeast Edmonton.

The fires devastating California are exacerbated by warm winds similar to what Alberta experiences, which is a risk the Calgary Fire Department prepares for.

In a year that saw Canada set a new record for insured losses due to severe weather at $8.55 billion, Alberta topped the list for 2024.

A fast-moving and intense snowstorm is expected to whip into the Edmonton region Thursday morning, bringing battering winds and heavy snowfall. A snow squall watch and a wind warning are in effect.

Clowns and street performers can get feedback on their work from other comedy artists now that a lab for these artists is returning after a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's really hard to kill artists," said Christine Lesiak of Small Matters Productions, the original founder of The Comedy Lab. "We're pretty resilient."

The Comedy Lab was born in 2018 as a place for "alternative comedy" artists to workshop their material. Lesiak started it because while stand-up comedians have open mic nights and improv actors have improv jams, clown artists, street performers, and other physical comedians didn't have a similar place to share early work in Edmonton. Street performers Aytahn Ross and Paul Bezaire were among the original lab participants. The lab ran until pandemic restrictions forced it to go on hiatus, but it will return starting on Jan. 23 at The Playhouse in Ritchie.

To restore the lab, Lesiak has partnered with Dayna Lea Hoffmann and Katie Yoner of Batrabbit Collective, the indie company behind Rat Academy, which won three of the five Fringe categories at the 2024 Sterling Awards.

"I'm just thrilled that Katie and Dana are jumping on board with this, because I think their energy and their ability to get (stuff) done is extremely good," Lesiak said. "They're very talented performers and creators and are quite skilled in other ways that an artist needs to be from a producing standpoint."

Artists are invited to sign up to perform online. The lab is looking for "clown turns, physical pieces, new characters, comedy bits, (or) vulnerable performances that blur or mix the structures of theatre, improv, clown, stand-up, dance, mime, and/or music." Audiences are welcome, too. "We just want a general audience to understand that our focus isn't to entertain you, but to serve the artist's needs at this time, but a lot of this work requires an audience for development," Lesiak said.

Each artist or group will perform their bit, there will be a break, and then each bit will be workshopped using Liz Lerman's critical response process. "It's a method that prioritizes the artist's positioning so that the facilitator, in collaboration with the artist, will go through a process to make sure that the feedback isn't just a wave of stuff the artist might not actually want at that time," Lesiak said. "Most of the time in this situation, the artist wants to just know, 'Did you understand what I was doing? Did you enjoy this? What was confusing?'"

"And then, honestly, a big bunch of the time we end up going out and grabbing a drink or a coffee somewhere, and people can continue the conversations there," Lesiak added.

Part of the reason the lab has been shut down for so long is that Lesiak has been working on The Spinsters, which won two Sterlings and returns for a limited run in February. It's free to workshop bits and to come watch the lab, but donations are welcome, Lesiak said.

Here are opportunities to inform municipal decision-making about rezoning, development, policing, and more. Please only answer surveys from the municipality where you live.

• 18333 Lessard Road NW Rezoning — The City of Edmonton received an application to rezone 18333 Lessard Road NW in the Donsdale neighbourhood to allow Touchmark at Wedgewood, a seniors facility, to add an additional 41 semi-detached villas for seniors. The area is currently zoned for medium density residential, and the request is for low density residential. Residents can ask a question or share their thoughts to a discussion board until Jan. 26.
• StrathconaBlok99 Rezoning — The City of Edmonton is considering an application to rezone the vacant lot on the northeast corner of 99 Street NW and 90 Avenue NW to allow for a mid-rise residential building of up to eight storeys. Residents can ask a question or share thoughts to a discussion board. Due to the recent Canada Post strike, engagement has been extended to Jan. 26.
• 2025 RCMP and Enforcement Services Priorities Survey — Strathcona County is asking residents about their priorities for policing in their community for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. A survey is open until Feb. 2.

More input opportunities

• Until Feb. 28: Engage and Play: Shaping Public Recreation (City of Edmonton)
• Until April 15: Passenger Rail Master Plan Survey (Government of Alberta)

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is raising concerns about a proposed AI data centre in their traditional territory. Celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary plans to fund and develop the "world’s largest" AI data centre in the Municipal District of Greenview near Grande Prairie.

Trump's threats of widespread tariffs, and Canada’s threat of its own tariffs in response, has the potential to impact hundreds of thousands of jobs, ignite inflation pressures and bruise the financial health of many industries. In particular, Alberta and its oilpatch are in the crosshairs as energy is Canada’s largest export to the U.S., worth about $125 billion in 2023.

Officers responded to a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian at 26th Avenue N.E. and Rundlehorn Drive just before 2 p.m. 

The home for at-risk youth was designed around therapeutic architecture, created with the feedback of youth, volunteers and parents, says the child mental health treatment centre.

A man and a woman are facing arson charges related to an explosion and fire at a townhouse complex in the northeast Calgary community of Monterey Park.

The Alberta government has cut funding to three self-advocacy groups for people with intellectual disabilities more than a year before the expiry of their contracts. 

It’s a very bad idea to allow convicted criminals to serve as Calgary Police officers, a lawyer for the service argued Wednesday.

A Calgary man who admitted to laundering money for organized crime will not see his charges stayed despite the case taking more than 30 months to make its way through the courts. 

Alberta's police watchdog says a man fatally shot by RCMP before Christmas was unco-operative and "made comments" that prompted police to call in its bomb squad.

Police have charged a 53-year-old sonographer with the sexual assault of a patient at a southeast Edmonton ultrasound clinic. Investigators believe the sonographer is still practising, and that other patients may have been sexually abused while receiving medical care from him.

The Alberta government’s newly announced Coal Industry Modernization Initiative has intensified the debate over coal mining in the province, particularly in southwestern Alberta, where concerns about environmental impacts and economic opportunities are deeply intertwined.

The CIMI was unveiled Dec. 20 by Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean and Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz. It was presented as a framework for balancing metallurgical coal development with environmental protection. 

The policy is said to prioritize water protection and will include a focus on royalty rates, coal mining standards and regulatory certainty for investors.

Jean emphasized that no new open-pit coal mines will be allowed in the foothills and mountaintop-removal mining is off the table, while Shulz noted the importance of relying on science.

Shootin’ the Breeze connected with several local leaders for feedback.

We can capitalize on clean coal

Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter welcomed the policy, expressing optimism about its potential economic benefits.

“I’m glad that the province has made a decision and that they are supporting clean coal policy in Alberta,” he said. “We do have a lot of good quality metallurgical coal that we can export and capitalize on.”

Painter also defended the exemption of Grassy Mountain, describing it as an advanced project on Category 4 land.

“It’s not a pristine mountaintop, like some of the folks like to let everybody believe,” he said.

Reserving judgment until viability determined

In a Dec. 23 press release, Piikani Nation Chief Troy Knowlton expressed caution about the policy, referring to it as “the so-called Alberta Coal Industry Modernization Initiative.”

“It seems that the Government of Alberta is tacitly giving the nod to the proposed Grassy Mountain mine,” Knowlton said.

He highlighted the lasting effects of past projects, such as the Oldman River Dam, which he said continues to harm water, fish, and habitat. 

“We continue to live with the legacy of the previous mine at the Grassy Mountain site — a legacy of damage and dust for a project that did not create jobs or prosperity for Piikani,” Knowlton said.

The chief reaffirmed that Piikani Nation supports Northback Holdings’ application for viability testing but would not take a stance on the project until results are available. 

“This is our home. We treasure it. We will defend it,” he said.

Our concern is water

Rick Lemire, reeve of the MD of Pincher Creek, echoed sentiments about water protection as the critical issue. He stressed the need to safeguard the Oldman River from contamination, particularly in light of last year’s drought.

Lemire expressed skepticism about the government’s assurances of scientific safeguards to protect the water, noting limited success with selenium cleanup in British Columbia and Montana.

“There still isn’t anything on paper yet to tell how they’re going to do that,” he said. “I don’t know what technologies they’re going to use for this.”

He also questioned the decision to exempt Grassy Mountain from the new policy. 

“Both levels of government, at one time, did reject it, and now they’ve changed their mind. That’s something people are upset about,” Lemire said.

It will put the region at risk

Chris Spearman, former mayor of Lethbridge and a resident of the MD of Pincher Creek, described the policy announcement as rushed and misleading, particularly regarding its exemption of the Grassy Mountain project.

“The truth came out that this new policy would not apply to Grassy Mountain, and so that is our big concern in this area — the high risk of contamination of the Oldman River Basin,” he said.

Spearman emphasized the importance of the Oldman River, which supports one of Canada’s largest agrifood sectors. 

“We have a multibillion-dollar economy, that has grown up over 70 years, that will be put at risk due to the coal mining at Grassy Mountain,” he said, referencing concerns about selenium contamination.

“Energy Minister Brian Jean stated that contractual relationships exist and have to be honoured. Are these contractual relationships between the Government of Alberta (taxpayers) and Northback Holdings?” he asked.

“What are the contractual relationships that Albertans are not being informed about, and why did the government enter into them before consulting Albertans?”

“Where are these contracts? Where are these studies that the ministers report to? Where is the technology? Why isn’t the company telling us what technology they’re going to use to make sure that the Oldman River system is not contaminated with selenium and other mining byproducts?” he asked, criticizing claims about technological solutions for mitigating selenium contamination.

Let the process work itself out

Pincher Creek Mayor Don Anderberg emphasized that town council is taking a neutral stance on the new policy, noting that coal mining decisions fall under provincial jurisdiction.

“We had a bit of a discussion at council about the whole coal situation,” Anderberg said. “That discussion is really out of our jurisdiction. The province has made a decision around how they want to move forward.”

Anderberg noted that while a previous council supported a local coal mining project, the current council has not revisited the issue and has adopted a more hands-off approach.

He further explained that the council has not consulted the people of Pincher Creek on the matter, as was done in the past, and is therefore not in a position to take a definitive stance.

“Let the process work itself out,” he said.

The mayor expressed interest in reviewing the policy’s details but deferred judgment until more information is available. 

“Any new coal development in the Eastern Slopes would be, to my understanding, underground mining, not strip mining,” Anderberg added. “It’s been a long time, and there’s been a lot of things done. Our council’s perspective is to just see where it goes.”

A region divided

As Alberta moves forward with its new coal policy, Albertans remain divided. While some see economic opportunities in metallurgical coal development, others fear the environmental risks and potential harm to vital water resources.

The Alberta Energy Regulator is conducting hearings on the Grassy Mountain project this week in Calgary. Transcripts and further details are available on the AER website.

The post Local leaders respond to Alberta’s new coal policy appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

CBC podcast looks at an increase in cases, and the support and resources are missing that can make a difference.

An Alberta human rights tribunal has dismissed a complaint that the Edmonton Police Service was discriminatory in how officers responded to a safety complaint about a transgender person who hadn’t reported back from a date.

Council found itself split down the middle on a motion to roll back a pay increase that went into effect on Jan. 1 and freeze their salaries at 2024 levels.

Mark Carney will launch his candidacy for the Liberal Party leadership at an event in Edmonton on Thursday, according to a notice from Calgary Skyview MP George Chahal.  

The future of Alberta's COVID-19 vaccination program is unclear as the federal government shifts responsibility for the immunizations to the provinces this summer.

The Alberta Law Foundation gives 25 per cent of the interest revenue from Alberta lawyers' pooled trust accounts to Legal Aid Alberta. The head of the non-profit says he expects the province to mandate an increase to 50 per cent.

The inaugural Industrial Heartland Career Forum in Fort Saskatchewan will search for workers to fill the blue- and white-collar jobs emerging in the region following major project investments from Dow, Linde, Cando Rail & Terminals, and others.

"With so much investment happening in our in our region, there is going to be a lot of increased demand for a local, skilled workforce to help support all these projects," Erin Brush Duncan, the director of investment for the City of Fort Saskatchewan, told Taproot. "(The event is) beneficial to the community, and it is beneficial to all of these big, industrial investments."

The forum, which is free but requires registration, will take place at the Dow Centennial Centre in Fort Saskatchewan on Jan. 30. It is a partnership between the City of Fort Saskatchewan, Lamont County, Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, and Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association. The event will feature a session for high school students and another for professionals looking to re-skill. Sponsors include Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Interior Heavy Equipment Operator School, Graham, and North West Redwater Partnership. Educational presenters include Careers in Energy from Energy Safety Canada, the Indigenous Career Centre out of NorQuest College, the University of Alberta, MacEwan University, the Heartland Industrial Training Centre, and NAIT.

Brush Duncan was clear that working in Alberta's Industrial Heartland isn't only for on-the-ground tradespeople. There are several career paths in the area, she said. "The trades are such an integral, important part of industry processes, and keeping these plants and operations running," Brush Duncan said. "But there are other parts: There are analyst positions, there are positions for people who are very tech-oriented; they can transition. There are jobs in operations that primarily use computers and technology. There's this huge growth in automation."

She added the event is not a job fair but is instead about learning. "This is a chance for you to really explore the opportunities that are out there — and how to get there," she said.

Brush Duncan pitched the forum to the event partners following a recent labour study of the northeast Edmonton region and the conversations its results inspired. The study, by Applications Management Consulting Ltd., found there is "uncertainty" in the job market across the region. It suggests "emerging energy technologies, technological advancements and diversification of the regional economy" are why more professionals in both office and field positions will be needed.

In November 2023, Dow announced a US$6.5-billion expansion to build a net-zero ethylene and derivatives complex in the region. In August, Linde announced it will invest more than $2 billion a clean hydrogen facility. And in September, Cando announced a $200-million investment to expand its Sturgeon Multi-Purpose Rail Terminal. The Heartland area is also home to companies that work in climate-marketed energy businesses like carbon capture, utilization and storage (or CCUS) and hydrogen, too.

Mark Plamondon, the executive director of AIHA, has spoken about the need for skilled workers in the Heartland, including at an event Taproot attended in October. There, on a panel with reps from ATB Financial, NAIT, and Nanostics, he highlighted that a focus on climate has also opened doors in the region.

"Not only do you have the opportunity for low-cost production of value-added energy products (in the Heartland), you now can do so in a way that has a lower carbon footprint, because of the carbon-sequestration capability in this region," Plamondon said. "A lot of companies, when they're looking to advance their next big capital project, they're looking at: 'Not only can I produce this in an economic way, but how do I do it with a lower carbon footprint?'"

The Government of Alberta tracks labour supply through its province-wide job market forecasts, its biennial occupational outlook updates, and data specific to the Edmonton region. Its 2021 to 2025 report on the Edmonton metropolitan region highlights workforce deficits that include train crews, operators for cranes, drillers, blasters, as well as utility equipment operators and controllers. Conversely, it shows that the number of workers in other trades, including electrical and construction, slightly exceeds the jobs available.

It’s Minor Hockey Week!
U11, U13, U15 and U18 teams are featured this week.

U9, U7 and U5 will be in the spotlight next week

Local stories, news, obituaries, jobs, notices and events in Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass in the Jan. 15 issue of Shootin’ the Breeze.

The post News and events: Pincher Creek & Crowsnest Pass | Jan. 15, 2025 appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

If you’re a homeowner, chances are you recently got your property assessment notice. Some houses went up in value, while others decreased. Mrinali Anchan has more on the neighbourhoods that saw the most and least change — and what that means for your taxes.

Kingsley Ogieva was recognized by the Highway Angel program for his efforts to help a man trapped in a tractor-trailer that rolled on a busy southern Alberta highway.

The Alberta Energy Regulator is holding the hearings to review coal exploration permits submitted by Northback Holdings, the company behind a proposed coking coal mine in the M.D. of Ranchland, just north of Crowsnest Pass.

The lawyer for a man accused of drugging and raping seven women wants a Calgary judge to call off the trial due to his client’s inability to speak following a stroke last spring.

Support staff have walked off the job at Edmonton and Sturgeon public schools. Students who rely on support from educational assistants are feeling the disruption. Nicki Pasieka is a parent of a kindergarten student with Type 1 diabetes.

Cohos’s family confirmed he passed away on Jan. 9 while on a cruise from New Zealand to Australia. 

The union representing mechanics and labourers at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. says 99 per cent of its members have voted in favour of strike action.

In December 2012, Conservative citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney, who spent the previous several years ranting and raving about “bogus refugees” and “false [asylum] claimants” who were cheating the system, announced plans to fast-track asylum claims from countries he deemed “safe.”

Starting that month, refugee claimants from 27 countries classified as designated safe countries of origin—all European Union states and the U.S.—would have one opportunity to make their case for asylum at the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). If they were denied, they would no longer have the right to appeal their case at the board and would be swiftly deported.

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Kenney shelled out $3,000 to purchase six billboards in Miskolc, Hungary, where a large Romani population was becoming increasingly targeted by far-right forces, warning residents that if they tried to apply for Canadian asylum and didn’t have all their papers in order, they “will be processed faster and removed faster.”

Soon after, Kenney added an additional eight countries to the list, including Mexico, where a twice-rejected asylum seeker who was deported from Canada was kidnapped and killed by a drug cartel in 2009.

In 2019, three-quarters of the way through Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first term, a Federal Court justice ruled that treating asylum seekers differently based on assumptions about the country they’re from is unconstitutional, a ruling which Trudeau didn’t challenge.

But it turns out that this discriminatory refugee regime remains informally intact, even as increasing numbers of asylum seekers are accepted into Canada.

Aidan Simardone, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer and writer, told the Orchard that the way political leaders talk about refugees “shapes perceptions,” producing long-lasting “unconscious biases” in institutions of power.

“Even when the whole designated country of origin framework went away, you have all these cases of Romani people being denied refugee protection, people from Mexico being denied refugee protection and that legacy therefore continues on,” Simardone said in an interview.

In a Jan. 11 CBC investigation, journalists Tara Carman and Owen Leitch conclude that there exists “two systems for deciding asylum claims: one that produces mostly positive decisions for people from countries Canada has deemed to be sources of legitimate refugees, and another for everyone else.”

According to IRB figures the reporters cite, the number of successful Canadian asylum claims increased from 14,000 in 2018 to 37,000 in 2023.

From January 2018 through September 2024, the recognition rate, which calculates the percentage of accepted claims by excluding those that were withdrawn, abandoned or deferred, increased from 64% to 82%.

Carman and Leitch note the disparity in recognition rates of asylum seekers from various countries between January 2018 and September 2024.

Claimants from Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, representing a combined 35,000 asylum seekers, were accepted at a rate of 95%. Meanwhile, around half of asylum seekers from Mexico, Haiti, Nigeria and India, representing a combined 65,000 claimants, were accepted.

The CBC reporters contend this is a result of an increasing number of cases being handled without a hearing, based solely on the documents claimants submit, which is known as a paper review.

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“Refugee claims cannot be rejected without a hearing, so paper reviews have only two possible outcomes: a positive decision, or a decision to send a case to a hearing,” write Carman and Leitch.

With a growing backlog of asylum claims—250,000 in September 2024 compared to 43,000 at the end of 2017—the IRB has opted to increase the number of paper reviews as a quick-fix for claimants from countries with historically high recognition rates.

While the CBC article contains valuable information, it’s framed around the assumption that Canada accepts too many refugees and that “the system is vulnerable to abuse”—the precise type of claims Kenney made vociferously when he was immigration and citizenship minister.

Simardone called this assumption “complete bullshit,” noting that the CBC article contains no data on fraudulent claims—”people literally making things up” to claim asylum—which from his experience “hardly ever happens.”

He said there’s far greater risk from IRB officials being “hyper-vigilant” and rejecting claims based on the “slightest discrepancy” in the claimant’s account.

“Every now and then there's cases of people who make false claims of having cancer and start a GoFundMe. Should we start shutting down GoFundMe and start turning people away from the hospital because there are some false claims? No, that'd be ridiculous,” said Simardone.

The CBC piece quotes Vancouver-based immigration and refugee lawyer Mojdeh Shahriari, who used to sit on the IRB, in which she evokes “common knowledge” that the asylum process “has been and is increasingly being abused.”

Shahriari raises the spectre of paper review documents being fabricated to argue that more IRB cases need to go to hearings, although it’s unclear from the story whether she’s aware of any incidents where that’s actually occurred.

“If there is no hearing, there is no scrutiny of the person's credibility. The door for abuse is always open,” Shahriari said.

But Toronto-based refugee lawyer Debbie Rachlis told the Orchard that an IRB hearing “very often ends up testing how good people are at being witnesses.”

“Most people are not great, but I will tell you that the people who are good tend to be literate and educated,” she said in an interview.

Rachlis noted that when politicians and media discuss potential abuses to the asylum seeking system, there’s often confusion about the definition of refugee, as established in the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Canada is a signatory.

Under the convention, a refugee is someone who has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

This definition excludes people who are fleeing horrific circumstances that are outside their control, including poverty and war, Rachlis added.

Failing to meet the convention’s narrow definition of a refugee, she emphasized, doesn’t make the claimant a “bad actor.”

“Some people don't meet the definition, but still have good reason to be afraid,” Rachlis said.

Part of the problem has to do with the biases of individual IRB adjudicators, who don’t require any formal legal training. There’s “nothing scientific” about their rulings, Rachlis said.

Research from Sean Rehaag, who runs the Refugee Law Lab at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, shows recognition rates from 2013 to 2023 fluctuated wildly by adjudicator, ranging from 2.8% to 100%.

In 2017, referring to an earlier version of these findings, Rehaag told the CBC that the individualized disparity in recognition rates demonstrate the need to “appoint people who have a solid understanding of refugee law and who are not predisposed to denying claims.”

Lubomyr Luciuk, a Royal Military College political geographer who denies Ukrainian nationalists’ participation in the Holocaust, served as an IRB adjudicator from 1996 to 1998, and again from a brief period in 2018.

During his initial tenure, he earned the nickname Dr. No for turning down 90% of refugee claimants.

“Be a liar. That’s the first lesson most claimants who come before the Immigration and Refugee Board learn,” Luciuk wrote in a September 2001 op-ed that was published in the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and Kingston Whig-Standard, which argued that Canada’s asylum system has it “a haven for … assorted terrorists, drug peddlers and war criminals.”

A January 2018 Global News investigation revealed repeated instances of IRB judges engaging in misconduct, including a 2010 incident in which an adjudicator demanded to see nude photos of a Ukrainian sex trafficking victim before denying her asylum claim.

When Simardone hears talk of too many refugees coming into Canada with insufficient scrutiny, he can’t help but think of the nearly 300,000 Ukrainian refugees who’ve made Canada home over the past few years through the Canada–Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET)—more than triple the number of refugees approved by the IRB from January 2022 through September 2024.

Beginning in March 2022, the CUAET opened Canada’s doors to an unlimited number of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their country, providing them with free settlement services.

“I wish that was the case for everyone,” said Simardone.

A city councillor is suggesting the City of Calgary do an external review of how its operations and council decisions are being impacted by false information. Coun. Courtney Walcott said he plans to bring forward a motion to council, calling for its support for a review.

Edmonton utilities company Epcor has dropped part of a fee charged to customers who opt out of the installation of new water meter reading devices. Some customers and advocates for Palestinians had expressed concern over the device's ties to an Israeli company criticized for water extraction and exploitation in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Alberta government's work to lure data centres to the province and spur artificial intelligence could be a costly effort that exceeds the capacity of our electrical grid and highlight how expensive our electricity is, says the operator of several independent data centres in Edmonton.

"We have something like five or 10% of the expected data centre capacity we'll need for the next five or 10 years," Dale Corse, the CEO of Wolfpaw Data Centres, told Taproot about the Edmonton region. "Could we handle an AI boom? No, absolutely not."

Data centres routinely make news in Edmonton nowadays, yet people rarely get to understand what they are, how they work, and what their business model is. Taproot set out to discover these details from Corse at Wolfpaw, which is one of at least six operators of commercial data centres in Edmonton. Wolfpaw has been in operation since 1998, and has spaces at Rice Howard Place and within two Rogers facilities in town.

The provincial government's goal is to build the data centre capacity that an AI boom would need in Alberta. Its Artificial Intelligence Data Centres Strategy, rolled out in December, sets to develop Alberta's electrical capacity, solve cooling challenges for data centres, and ultimately drive economic growth by seeing companies invest to build centres and AI to use them. The strategy lists objectives for each of these goals, and a map of actions that includes modernizing regulations and collaborating with municipalities. When announced, Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish said he wants to see $100 billion invested in data centre infrastructure in Alberta over the next five years.

What's a data centre?

"A data centre is a place where you would rent space — either physical space or possibly computer space — to put your IT stuff so that it stays online all the time," Corse said.

Data centres house the computers needed to power the internet, the applications and storage that companies rely on, and increasingly, the computing power needed to create services that use AI.

Corse said the two key functions of a data centre are to keep the electricity on, even during a power outage, and to keep the computers cool. "A data centre would be expected to be able to deal with all of those problems for you so that as a company, you can just concentrate on your business and don't have to also be an IT company on top of trying to do your day to day," he said.

Wolfpaw's facility at Rice Howard Place consumes 5,000 square feet and can draw up to 400 kilowatts of electricity at a time. The company has redundancies, including generators, for its power and cooling to ensure its operations never go down, Corse said. Right now, the centre draws around 200 kilowatts for its clients. By contrast, Corse estimated the average household draws a maximum of 10 kilowatts at any given time.

How does the business work?

A data centre's biggest expense is electricity, Corse said. Real estate is "one of the smaller numbers on the balance sheet," he added. The input cost of electricity is the greatest hurdle, he said, and even building the infrastructure to supply it is pricey.

It costs between $8 million and $10 million to build one megawatt, or 1,000 kilowatts, of data centre power, Corse said. "Some of these AI guys, (they) come to us and they want three megawatts of power. OK, well, that's $30 million worth of equipment just to run it, and then you have the input cost (from electricity) on top of it. So it is a great business, so long as somebody can afford to pay for that. Is it a great business for the small guy? Maybe not."

Who uses data centres?

Wolfpaw employs five people, plus contractors, to serve roughly 100 clients. Corse said naming customers would violate their privacy, but did share that some are based in the United States and that "the vast majority" of non-TELUS-based internet service providers from north and east of Edmonton in Alberta run through his data centres before reaching consumers. Many of Wolfpaw's customers are local, he said, and there are reasons why a client might prefer a data centre to be close by.

"The closer you are to your data, the faster you're going to get it," Corse said. "If you were doing real-time gaming, for example, where the person hits a button on their controller and then something happens at the data centre ... that distance will matter."

Does Alberta have a data-centre advantage?

The province has touted Alberta's colder climate, that it's the only Canadian province with a fully deregulated electricity market, and that it has curbed governmental red tape as the advantages that make it ideal for investors hoping to build data centres.

Corse said Alberta's climate is a benefit, as cooling is the second-greatest challenge after electricity. "Our climate is already cold, so you can use that to your advantage," he said. "It's better than putting (a data centre) into the southern U.S., where it's already hot and then you (need to) cool it off on top of that. It's sort of a natural fit for us here."

But Corse said Alberta's price of electricity and its availability from the grid are less advantageous. Speaking to CBC, he said Edmonton's electricity was the most expensive in Canada in 2023. Energy Hub, which tracks energy in Canada, shows Alberta had the highest average price for electricity among the provinces in 2023, at $0.258 per kilowatt hour. Places where electricity was more expensive in 2023 were the Northwest Territories ($0.41 per kWh) and Nunavut ($0.354 per kWh).

The grid has also been unable to cope with demand, leading to several brownouts.

The province, however, has said new data centre operators will be encouraged to build their own power supply rather than pull power from the grid. During his CBC Edmonton AM interview, Corse said that's like asking truck companies to build highways. He also said the price of electricity needs to be cheaper.

"I don't know how many people are going to have the expertise or the ability to do something like that," he added to Taproot about building power facilities. "If you can't make your own power, then you've got to buy it from the grid. And our power here in Alberta is very expensive compared to the rest of the country, so I think that is something the government, if they're serious about this, has got to work on."

Glubish has proposed natural gas and even geothermal energy be used as power sources for data centres. One example he has highlighted is Wonder Valley Data Centre, an off-grid project using natural gas and geothermal power that's being built by O'Leary Ventures near Grande Prairie. Both Glubish and Premier Danielle Smith provided quotes for the project's press release.

What's happening next for data centres?

O'Leary Ventures is a business started by Kevin O'Leary of Dragons' Den fame. Its plan, to build the world's largest data-centre industrial park, was announced in December. The announcement also said the development will yield more than $70 billion in investment during its operations, which are planned to roll out in phases. The province's major projects webpage lists the cost of Phase 1 of the project at $2.8 billion.

Wonder Valley isn't the only data centre added to the major projects list in December. Beacon, a company with offices in Dublin, Ireland, and Calgary, has proposed five data centres in the province, including ones in Leduc County, Parkland County, and Strathcona County. Each would have 400 megawatts of power available. Only the one located outside High River has been ascribed a cost: $4 billion. The Western Wheel reported that the centre "would include five two-storey buildings on a more than 260-acre parcel and create 300 jobs when operational."

The major projects site notes the facility will contain 400 MW of "onsite power generation capacity," along with two five story buildings.

Self-powered data centres are making headlines. California's Edge Cloud Link opened a modular, hydrogen-powered data centre in May, and now plans to open another hydrogen-fuelled facility this summer outside Houston, Texas. Just the first phase of the project is valued at US$450 million, and the data centre should eventually offer one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of power.

Researchers from Concordia University of Edmonton are looking at how observing nature could impact your mental health. Holli-Anne Passmore is the lead researcher on a project called Noticing Nature Intervention. She shared her work with the CBC's Nancy Carlson.

Increasing wildfire prevention in the Bow Valley has long been a priority for Canmore and nearby communities, though a lack of funding has delayed many preventative measures in the past.

Calgary police struggled to control the violence and destruction carried out by two groups of Eritrean Calgarians, a judge heard Monday, as one detective testified it took nearly 200 officers as well as tear gas grenades and nearly 2,000 rounds of pepper balls to separate the clashing sides. 

Monday's court decision comes after a man with opioid use disorder filed a lawsuit arguing that closing the OPS is a violation of his Charter rights, as well as the rights of other site users who will be left at an increased risk of a fatal overdose.

Noah Madrano, 43, pleaded guilty to two of six federal U.S. charges he faced for sexually abusing a 13-year-old Edmonton girl he took across the border in 2022.

Calgarians will have a new direct-flight destination in Mexico starting this spring.

Before entering politics, Notley was a labour lawyer. That included a stint with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, where she handled workers' compensation cases.

Matt Noble, executive director of the "Put Food Banks Out Of Business" campaign, says the existence of food banks creates the perception that food insecurity in the country is being taken care of, when in reality, things are getting worse.

First Nations leaders are urging Canada to reconsider its decision not to renew national negotiations on a $47.8-billion proposal to reform the on-reserve child welfare system long term, after chiefs rejected the offer last fall.

Hundreds more cases of sexual assault and sexual exploitation have gone to trial in Alberta since 2017, data shows. The #MeToo movement has helped take away the stigma faced by survivors, while intentional change, teamwork and fewer preliminary hearings have helped push cases to court.

The final round of voting for Edmonton's City Bird is now open. The boreal chickadee, blue jay, and black-billed magpie are the three species flying for your vote to be Edmonton's avian representative.

Thousands of Edmontonians voted in the first round to narrow the choices down to these three. Nick Carter, the nature kids coordinator with Nature Alberta and a council member of Bird Friendly Edmonton, said species had to be easily recognizable and live in Edmonton year-round to be considered for the vote.

The boreal chickadee has that call we all recognize — chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee — (which, by the way, has been described as "one of the most sophisticated and exacting systems of communication of any land animal"). But Carter said it sounds like a congested version of the call of its relative, the black-capped chickadee. "A lot of people wondered why we didn't have the black-capped chickadee (as a contestant), which is pretty well ubiquitous in the city, and that's because Calgary already took it," Carter said. "They scooped it out from under us, so we can't go with that one, because we want to be unique."

However, while the black-capped chickadee is found all across the country, the boreal chickadee is a northern species. Edmonton is Canada's northernmost major city, so the boreal is a fitting choice, Carter said.

Blue jays made it to the top three because they're popular, especially among older Edmontonians, Carter said. "We don't have another bird that common that's like, vividly blue, and they're intelligent, they're social. They do have some crow habits like being a bit loud and raucous and doing things like eating other small birds, but people tend to kind of look past that with blue jays nowadays," Carter said.

Carter mentioned that blue jays — associated with a certain Ontario city's baseball team — have become more common in Edmonton in recent years. Perhaps the Alberta is Calling campaign worked on more than just skilled workers.

The black-billed magpie, however, is Carter's pick, mainly because it's truly a Western bird, he said. The chickadee and blue jay can be found across most of Canada, but Edmonton is at the heart of the magpie's range.

"I think it's a pretty Edmonton kind of bird. It's something that we would want to be proud of, and it embodies a lot of the good and, you know, the less desirable about the city," Carter said. "It's scrappy, but it's intelligent, it's social, it's complex, it might not look all that much to us on the surface. But people from other parts of the world, or even other parts of Canada, see magpies and they're like, 'Oh my God, this is the most beautiful bird ever.'"

Carter encourages Edmontonians to vote early because he wants to beat the voter turnout for Calgary's ornithological election, which took place in 2022 and selected the black-capped chickadee. "It's going to be a bit of a tall order because we have a smaller population, but it'll be great for local pride if we can do that." Voting closes on March 31. When a victor is crowned, not much will change, Carter admits. But he hopes municipal officials take note of the vote and make one of the birds, whether magpie, chickadee, or blue jay, Edmonton's official fowl.

Calgary's fire chief says a heightened risk of cancer is just part of the job, but the risks can be reduced.