A court challenge by a group of Calgary residents aiming to overturn city hall's blanket rezoning bylaw was dismissed.

There are mental health concerns for the Calgary man accused in the Boxing Day death of a nine-year-old girl, his lawyer noted Wednesday as the accused made his first court appearance.

With fierce wildfires raging uncontrolled throughout the Los Angeles area, the NHL announced that Wednesday’s game between the Calgary Flames and L.A. Kings has been postponed.

On Tuesday, town council approved a new incentive policy that makes development companies eligible for grants worth 75 per cent of municipal property taxes for 10 years. 

Pokémon cards are flying off the shelves right now at stores around the world, and one local Calgary game-card store owner says it's because a new generation of game cards are reigniting nostalgic joy among fans. 

CBC's hyperlocal podcast looks at the data from 2024, and what we can learn from a record-breaking year for frostbite amputations.

In 2024, Taproot reported on several stories that continued to evolve after we published them. Here are some updates.

Hydrogen hiccups see backers stand firm

The original story: While Taproot regularly reports on hydrogen's potential due to its prominence in the region, one 2024 story that stood out was the growing number of people questioning the fuel's viability for consumer vehicles. Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, 120 scientists shared their distrust of the hydrogen fuel-cell Toyota Mirai, to be used at the games, with the International Olympic Council. Meanwhile, Californians who leased the same model from Toyota launched a class-action lawsuit. Still, stakeholders in the hydrogen ecosystem like Edmonton Global celebrated the Edmonton International Airport's acquisition of 100 Toyota Mirais in June. Taproot also covered the international congregation at the annual Canadian Hydrogen Convention, the optimism for hydrogen in trucking along key trade corridors, Canada's first hydrogen quality testing centre at the Edmonton Research Park, and how industrial businesses that use hydrogen are flocking to the region.

Then what? As industry interest in hydrogen grew, NAIT responded with a new course. Its Introduction to Hydrogen Vehicles is a micro-credential course that includes the theory behind hydrogen-powered vehicles, safety, regulations, and more. The curriculum, and NAIT's larger goal to "drive net zero," are supported by partners that include the Alberta Motor Transport Association, the City of Edmonton, and Diesel Tech Industries. Speaking of the AMTA, the organization hosted the debut of Verne's cryo-compressed hydrogen technology for heavy-duty vehicles at an expo in September. In June, the 5,000 Hydrogen Vehicle Challenge also shared a post that compiles more news on NAIT's hydrogen training, Velocity Truck Centres's opening of Alberta's first hydrogen and natural gas refuelling bay, and more.

What's next? There are two hints that more hydrogen news is coming this year, plus one sure thing. NAIT will eventually add another new hydrogen course, though there are still few details to share. The other unknown is what will change with the Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB, which its founding chair and Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw teased will "take on a new form this year." Hnatiw declined to comment further when contacted by Taproot. The Canadian Hydrogen Convention returns from April 22 to 24 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre and industrial sites. The convention typically includes announcements and displays of new tech.

Teatro Live! and other arts organizations bridge funding gaps

The original story: In 2024, Teatro Live! launched a club to repay its pandemic loan, which it called The 400 Club. The idea was that if 400 people donated $100 each, Teatro Live! could raise $40,000 of the $60,000 it owed for a Canadian Emergency Business Account loan. In exchange, donors would receive a tax receipt and be invited to a thank-you party. The long-running theatre company started by Stewart Lemoine was not the only arts organization that called for public support in 2024. Metro Cinema raised money in the spring to replace its sound system and just wrapped another fundraiser for its endowment fund at the Edmonton Community Foundation. Also, the Where Edmonton Community Artists Network/Harcourt House Artist Run Centre is at $105,831 of the $150,000 it is hoping to raise towards the $3.5 million purchase of its titular home.

Then what? Teatro Live's 400 Club campaign eventually totalled $46,006.76, the company shared in June. Arts funding remained in the news in 2024, too. In a later story, Taproot learned that the Edmonton Arts Council changed its funding strategy for arts organizations due to its own stagnant budget. While the organization does not believe this will cause significant challenges, new multi-year funding and the renewal of existing multi-year agreements is unavailable until 2026. The new strategy has increased its focus on safety and inclusivity, as well, and applicants who receive poor peer assessments may see their funding decreased or restructured. The EAC also found a permanent new executive director, Renée Williams, in 2024.

What's next? Teatro Live! is in the midst of its 2024 to 2025 season. There are three shows to go: Lemoine's The Noon Witch from Feb. 21 to March 9; On the Banks of the Nut, also by Lemoine, which runs May 30 to June 15; and Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, which runs from July 11 to 27. Each show has a preview the day before its official run. All shows take place at Varscona Theatre.

Tech investor grows but faces challenges

The original story: In 2024, OligomicsTx was the first of three Edmonton-based companies to win a StartUp TNT summit finale, which it did back in March. The maker of RNA-targeting therapies for rare neuromuscular disorders earned at least $155,000 in investment at the Life Sciences Summit, held at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. In June, SketchDeck.ai, which uses AI and machine learning to automate estimates in the construction industry, won at least $150,000 at Summit IX. Finally, The Fort Distillery also received at least $150,000 in investment at Summit X.

Then what? Startup TNT experienced both achievements and challenges throughout 2024. In February, the non-profit was recognized as the most active pre-seed and seed stage investor in Western Canada by the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. In April, Startup TNT launched in British Columbia, but then paused its Manitoba operations in July. In October, Startup TNT received a SABEX Award for community impact from the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce. Later that month, it shared a code of conduct that aims to protect its community members from harassment and discrimination. Its biggest update came in a December post, which said the organization needs to streamline its operations and layoff staff. The changes Startup TNT shared it will undertake include creating a greater emphasis on the independence of its regional chapters, restructuring some of its summits, and hiring a new executive director.

What's next? The search for a new executive director for Startup TNT is underway. Recruitment is being led by Artemis Canada. The post calls for someone based in Western Canada (and "ideally Edmonton") with operational expertise, financial leadership, and more. As far as summit events go, the December post said four summits will take place at some point this spring: Edmonton, Calgary, British Columbia, and Agri-Food. The Cleantech, Life Sciences, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba events "are being restructured for future Summits, some as early as Fall 2025," the post said.

Alberta researchers are working to expand wastewater surveillance into the agriculture sector in an effort to identify early warning signs and protect against potential threats, including highly pathogenic avian influenza. They're hoping to expand human wastewater testing at the same time.

Those visiting the United Kingdom for more than six months will need to apply for a visa instead, the country's government says.

An oil and gas price forecasting report published by Deloitte on Dec. 31 said an increased demand for Canadian natural gas coupled with growing LNG shipping capacity could translate into higher prices in the new year. 

In a new CBC/Pollara survey, 54 per cent of surveyed immigrants living in Canada said it was difficult to find a job in their field.

Faced with an uncertain future for her children in Nigeria, Dr.Omowumi Iyaoromi chose to leave her successful medical practice in Nigeria for a less uncertain future in Canada.

The lawyer for a woman who encouraged an assault on her boyfriend that led to murder should be released from jail on a time-served sentence, her lawyer argued Tuesday. 

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the main sticking point is wages and that its members haven't seen a pay increase in well over a decade.

Given the many disagreements that transpired before Christmastime, Calgary's mayor says the path forward on the Green Line LRT project still isn't clear — and what's happening in Ottawa isn't helping, either. 

Gliding conditions were poor on the seventh day of the 2024 Canadian National Soaring Competition last May about 60 kilometres south of Calgary near Diamond Valley, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in an incident report published Tuesday.

Three EPS officers applied for a judicial review after they were each suspended without pay, for different reasons, in 2022. A new court ruling includes rarely disclosed details from Chief Dale McFee's reasons for the suspensions, and the police commission's internal reviews.

British Columbia wineries can again sell their products directly to Alberta consumers, months after an interprovincial deal was announced between the two provinces last summer. 

The driver charged with killing former Calgary Flames player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, as they cycled on a rural New Jersey road pleaded not guilty to the indictment Tuesday after turning down a prosecution offer of 35 years in prison.

Indigenous Services Canada is going to court to overturn an order requiring it to immediately address a backlog of requests at the Jordan’s Principle program for First Nations youth in need.

An analysis of a decade's worth of data kept by the Alberta Energy Regulator suggests the agency has made unsubstantiated claims about the success of oilsands tailings spills cleanup.

Every Albertan knows the perils that come with handling the province's infamous paper health care cards — torn corners, water damage, irreversible crease marks. Now, the province is once again hinting that a more robust model could be on the way.

A legal dispute over deteriorating paint on Edmonton’s Low Level Bridge has been dismissed in Alberta’s highest court, nearly 20 years after the job was done.

With a federal election on the horizon, Alberta and Saskatchewan’s premiers are again making noise about the country’s contentious equalization program. While the Liberal government has locked in the equalization formula for payments to provinces until 2029, it's unclear how other parties might approach the issue. 

Non-profit organizations could slow the loss of inexpensive rental units by purchasing the buildings they are in before real estate investment trusts can, according to a housing expert consulting on Edmonton's affordable housing strategy.

Steve Pomeroy, an industry professor with the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative at McMaster University in Hamilton, visited Edmonton in November to discuss the idea of non-profits like HomeEd acquiring older apartment buildings. He said Canadian municipalities and housing non-profits fixate on building new affordable housing while the stock of existing affordable rental units dwindles. These units, which may be in older buildings and in less desireable neighbourhoods, are affordable for those who earn lower incomes without needing government subsidies.

"If you look at the rate at which we're losing those low rent units compared to the rate at which we're adding — at quite a high subsidy cost — new units, we're actually going backwards, and there are fewer housing opportunities for low income folks than there would be otherwise," Pomeroy said. "We've got a big hole in the bucket. We're pouring water in the top in terms of funding for new affordable housing, and for every cup of water we pour in the top, across the country, we're losing 12 cups at the bottom."

But Edmonton is only losing about five "cups," or units, for every new unit that's constructed, Pomeroy said. This makes the city an ideal place to focus on purchasing the buildings these units are in. The naturally occurring affordable units are lost through two main methods, he said. They're occasionally lost when developers raze a three-storey walk-up building, for example, to build a 200-unit tower near transit. But the bigger problem is simple rent inflation. As rents increase faster than wages, housing can move beyond the reach of lower income earners.

If non-profits buy existing units, they can control rents to keep them more attainable to lower income earners. Even if the non-profit were to keep the rents at 2025 rates or only increase them to cover operations, in a few years, those units would be considered affordable housing, Pomeroy said. If non-profits do not buy the buildings, however, real estate investment trusts (REITs) could purchase them and will have no reason to keep rents low. As of 2022, REITs own nearly half of purpose-built rentals in Edmonton.

"Why does the non-profit sector … do the more expensive thing of building the new stuff and taking all the risks and fighting NIMBY and all that?" Pomeroy said. "Why don't we behave like the private guys, but with a social mission rather than a profit motive?"

Pomeroy is working with the City of Edmonton and community housing providers to help them think of acquisition as a viable strategy alongside building new units. Pomeroy has done such work in Ottawa and Hamilton, but needed to tweak his strategy in Edmonton because property values are much lower here than in other Canadian cities. It's possible to buy a 20-unit building here for about $110,000 per door compared to about $200,000 per door in Ontario cities, and rents are about 20% lower in Edmonton, he said. He recommends Edmonton non-profits look at buildings with between 10 and 40 units. Any smaller and the amount of effort wouldn't be worth it, and any larger would be difficult for a non-profit to afford.

The 2024 federal budget included the $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund so that non-profits and other partners can purchase units and preserve rents in the long term. Pomeroy said details for this funding are not yet known.

Edmonton's population was forecast to grow by 4.2% in 2024, and the influx of new residents is expected to keep driving housing prices up.

"Now is an opportune time to jump in while the prices are still low, before demographic and market pressures drive prices higher, and you won't be able to get as much value for money in five years from now as you can today," Pomeroy said.

People in Western Canada, a longtime fortress of resistance to many of Justin Trudeau’s policies, weigh in on the Prime Minister’s resignation announcement.

It's another year, another pay raise for city council. Council members received a 3.07 per cent pay bump, effective Jan. 1.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says it’s “irresponsible and selfish” for resigning Prime Minister Justing Trudeau to delay calling a federal election, and that it’s now up to Canada’s premiers to advocate for the country in U.S. trade negotiations.

The Flames said in a news release Monday that Al MacNeil died Sunday in Calgary. No cause of death was provided.

A new academic study examining 514 bitumen tailings spills in Alberta over a decade has found that the provincial regulator’s records “lack the ecological, biological, and chemical data required to assess and manage the environmental impacts of tailings spills.”

The report, published by ecologist Kevin Timoney in the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment journal on Jan. 3, challenges the Alberta Energy Regulator’s (AER) claim that tailings spills haven’t caused any environmental damage.

In an interview with the Orchard, Timoney called this claim a “red flag, because that's not physically possible in the real world.”

Tailings are the toxic sludge that emanates from the tar sands extraction process, which are stored in pools often referred to as ponds.

Spills can have major health impacts on water quality, wildlife, the environment and public health, underscoring the importance of the public having access to clear and reliable data about them.

For the paper, Timoney examined the AER’s publicly available Field Inspection System (FIS) database for each tailings spill that occurred from January 2014 to May 2023, and filed freedom of information requests for all documents relating to those incidents that were in the AER’s possession, including photos of the spill sites, which the article describes as the sole piece “objective data” contained in the documents.

By comparing the documents he received with the publicly reported data, he was able to assess the “reliability and credibility of the data,” Timoney explained.

In 99% of the spills examined, the AER claimed publicly that the spill footprint was less than 100 square metres, which Timoney said is “not physically possible, given the … known relationship between spill volume and spill footprints.”

“It's like you're stating that you spilled a gallon of milk onto the head of a pin,” he explained.

The study outlines how the AER has vastly underreported volumes and footprints of tailings spills. In one instance, the FIS publicly reported a spill of 44,596 m3. But the documents Timoney obtained showed that the AER knew its true volume was 4,459,680 m3—100 times larger.

Timoney found that the AER had conducted routine inspections on just 3.2% of the tailings spills, calling into question how the AER can make sweeping claims about a lack of environmental impact.

In another incident, the FIS publicly reported a spill volume of 500 m3, which was later increased tenfold to 5,000 m3. While the AER claimed there was “no environmental impact,” the regulator never conducted an inspection.

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The FIS reported the spill’s footprint as less than 100 m2, whereas the documents Timoney obtained reported it as 465 m2, which he said based on the photograph evidence is still an understatement.

“Images show spilled bitumen, soil contamination in a large footprint, and contact with vegetation. Both the spill volume and spill impact were visual estimates,” Timoney writes in the study.

The article notes how the AER routinely makes basic reporting errors on spill dates and locations, which calls its research methods into further question.

In addition to establishing that the AER’s data collection methods aren’t credible, the study aims to establish a “plausible rate of harm.”

Important data, such as the spills’ chemical impact on water, wildlife, vegetation and soil, were absent from the documents, so Timoney was forced to gauge these factors based on photos alone.

Based on the photographic evidence, Timoney concluded that somewhere in the range of 41% to 54% of the photographed spills had evidence of environmental damage.

But only a quarter of the spills had photographs taken. Extrapolating the rate of environmental damage from the cases with photos, Timoney calculated that anywhere from 23% to 36% of tailings spills caused environmental harm.

In most of the cases where there was no visible environmental damage from the tailings spills, Timoney explained, it was because the spills occurred in “areas that have been so heavily impacted already that you can't really detect an effect … because it's already been completely devastated.”

“In those cases, I gave the AER the benefit of the doubt and said, ‘I can't detect an effect here based on the photography, because the area is already devoid of life.’ It's an unliving substrate that has been so heavily disturbed by humans that there is no effect,” he explained.

The study argues that the AER’s inability to provide credible information isn’t accidental. Rather, it reflects the reality of a captured regulator, whose primary aim is to provide justification for the industry that it’s tasked with holding to account.

AER spokesperson Renato Gandia told the Orchard that the regulator has received Timoney’s report and its “subject matter experts will review the data for a more comprehensive response at a later time.”

“In regard to tailings spills generally, once a release occurs, companies must report the incident and complete a release report to record the release type, volume released and recovered, location, any adverse effects on the environment, and other information,” Gandia wrote.

He added that the regulator “routinely conducts inspections to ensure that releases have been cleaned up and remediated in accordance with the regulations [and] to assess potential adverse impacts to the environment and wildlife.”

You can read Timoney’s paper in full below.

Timoney Study Jan

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Rod Sykes, a three-term Calgary mayor, has died at the age of 95. Sykes played an instrumental role in developing Calgary's downtown, as well as laying the groundwork for city's LRT system. 

Former Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt will be back in court this year after the Crown filed an appeal of his acquittals on charges of uttering threats against a group of teen boys he chased in his pickup truck through a southwest neighbourhood. 

Government data shows the number of Albertans receiving provincial income support has reached a five-year high.

A 31-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a woman found dead last week near the North Saskatchewan River. Police say her death is considered an intimate partner homicide.

I wrote the cover story for the January/February 2025 issue of Alberta Views, which is about Danielle Smith and the UCP’s increasingly heavy handed approach towards municipal governance as this year’s civic elections approach.

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In 2024, Taproot reported on several stories that continued to evolve after we published them. Here are some updates.

Service providers partner, move, face barriers

The original stories: In 2024, we noticed two trends among social service providers in Edmonton. Some partnered to improve their work, while some tried to expand out of the downtown to serve different areas of the city. In April, Boyle Street Community Services took over the day-to-day operation of the CHEW Project, as the centre struggled with staffing and new requirements, and Youth Empowerment and Support Services also provided specialized training. This happened as Boyle Street was operating from a hodgepodge of locations in the inner city after leaving its former building just north of Rogers Place. In January, Boyle Street's Elliott Tanti told Taproot the move actually streamlined services for the people that the different providers serve in overlapping ways. For example, Boyle Street moved its triage program to a Bissell Centre building, where clients could also meet a housing or youth services worker, or retrieve mail, a bus pass, or pet food. As for services moving out of the inner city, in January the George Spady Society successfully applied to move its medically supported detox program to a building beside the Jasper Place Transit Centre. Around the same time, Boyle Street appeared before the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board to reapply for a permit to open an overdose prevention site in Ritchie. The SDAB had denied Boyle Street a permit because the proposed building wasn't universally accessible. Boyle Street reapplied after adding a ramp to the proposed building's design.

Then what? The CHEW Project's partnership with Boyle Street and YESS has allowed it to expand hours and even consider an outpost in Calgary. Meanwhile, Boyle Street's Ritchie overdose prevention site stalled. In May, some Ritchie residents opposed the project at an SDAB hearing, and in June, the SDAB denied Boyle Street's permit once again, this time because it didn't adhere to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design principles. Boyle Street dropped the project in December.

What's next? Boyle Street will recombine its services in central Edmonton once the King Thunderbird Centre opens in 2025. The organization, meanwhile, has said little about its project in Ritchie since dropping it in December, but the provincial ministry of mental health and addiction said that because "development permits have been repeatedly denied or revoked by the city's Subdivision Appeal Board, Boyle Street is no longer moving forward with their application and Alberta's government is no longer providing funding for the opening of a new drug consumption site in the Strathcona area." In Jasper Place, the George Spady Society's medically supported detox program is scheduled to move to its new location in the first half of 2025.- Stephanie Swensrude

City continues Chinatown investments

The original story: In March, Taproot reported that most of the City of Edmonton's $1 million Chinatown Recovery Fund was awarded to security efforts. The city's Brett Latchford said one of the fund's goals was vibrancy, though $622,000 went towards installing security upgrades like roll shutters at businesses. William Lau, who has worked with both the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative and YEG Chinatown Re:VITA, said the emphasis on security was due to community demand. Latchford, meanwhile, discussed a Chinatown Vibrancy Fund.

Then what? In April, the city launched a $480,000 Chinatown Vibrancy Fund. The recipients were announced in October. The funds were reallocated from the Downtown Vibrancy Fund, based on a motion by Coun. Keren Tang. The largest investment was $90,000 for two years of the Chinatown Summer Festival, held by the Edmonton Chinatown BIA; the smallest was $7,000 for the Chinatown Peace Walk with Indigenous Elders, also held by the BIA. Close to $41,000 was invested in Azure Dragon of the East, the second in a four-part mural series by Busyrawk. That mural is now complete. Another project, the $20,000 Chinatown Chow Down by Linda Hoang, is running until April. Taproot covered vibrancy updates that happened outside the fund, too: Stories on the imminent opening of Boa & Hare, the June opening of Little Bon Bon by the team behind Yelo'd, and a storytelling map led by Emily Chu.

What's next? Many of the projects that received funding have yet to be executed. Chinatown Dining Week is back from Jan. 16 to 26. The BIA will organize Lunar New Year celebrations, and the Van bLoc Party by Van Loc will have a special edition during the Edmonton Dragon Boat Festival. Busyrawk's next mural, Black Tortoise of the North, is in concept development. Some of the roll shutters in the area will be beautified through a BIA-led project. Plus, Tang's successful motionincludes another $480,000 for Chinatown vibrancy in 2025, plus the same amount in 2026. - Colin Gallant

Strathcona County affordable housing development faces delay after delay

The original story: In 2024, an affordable housing development at the old Clover Bar Lodge in Strathcona County that has been in the works since 2022 faced delays. As Taproot noted in a March newsletter, some residents attended a public hearing in February to speak against Heartland Housing Foundation's development at 100 Fir Street. The development had already been reduced to 115 units from 200 units due to its size and potential impact on parking, mature trees, and neighbourhood character, but opponents wanted the building's scope to be further reduced. Council voted 5-4 to send Heartland back to the drawing board to address resident concerns, but the motion was later rescinded because one councillor had voted in error. This sparked a special March 12 meeting, where council voted 5-4 to reopen readings of the rezoning bylaw. On April 9, council voted 5-4 to approve the rezoning, which now included 126 parking stalls both on the surface and underground.

Then what? Heartland told Strathcona County council that requiring underground parking would make the project unviable as it would add about $4.5 million to the cost. The foundation proposed surface parking, which would require a reduction of up to 20 units in the development. Ward 4 Coun. Bill Tonita said he was concerned to see the number of units decrease again. "We have a real shortage of affordable housing. We have a project that we've been working on and we've seen it whittled back from where we initially began and we've seen it come back several times," Tonita said. "When we take 20 or 25 (units) off of this list, to me, that's 25 families that we cannot house."

What's next? There's no set date for a public hearing to further reduce the number of units, but county staff said the rezoning timeline could take about three months. Heartland said it plans to host more public consultations this year. Ward 2 Coun. Dave Anderson said he didn't want the project to come back even smaller at the next meeting. "I don't want this coming back to us again, to be sitting here in four months from now (and hear), 'The cost of construction went up and we need to make the project even smaller.' It puts it in a really precarious situation for me and I'm really struggling." - Stephanie Swensrude

A new book, By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik by Crystal Gail Fraser, documents the harms done by Northern residential schools while also highlighting the ways children resisted.  

More than 2,300 low-income students across Alberta lost access this school year to financial help for courses preparing them for work or post-secondary education after cuts to an aid program.

"It feels like we're right where we need to be," Diana Matheson, co-founder and chief growth officer of the women's professional league, said of Monday's milestone.

It's a new year with a new full-time return-to-office mandate for Amazon's global workforce, including those who work in Canada, and not everyone is pleased with the change.

The proposed sale of a condemned Edmonton condo building to a commercial construction company remains in limbo, 16 months after the building was evacuated due to the risk of collapse.

Seven years after it closed, the former home of the Edmonton Oilers still stands by waiting for the wrecking ball. And it's expected to take at least another two years before it's demolished. We look into why it's taken this long and how much it's cost so far.

Alberta RCMP have ramped up the use of body worn cameras for frontline officers. But criminal justice experts say the research is murky on how effective the cameras are at decreasing use of force incidents.

Pincher Creek Legion’s medical cupboard program aims to help those with mobility issues gain access to medical equipment, and members of the Legion wish to spread the word. 

The program, which operates solely on donations, offers free loans of various mobility aids to ensure that financial constraints do not prevent anyone from accessing necessary equipment. An individual can borrow any item for as long as they need, whether for a few weeks or many years. 

“The main purpose is to supply medical equipment to the community at no cost to them. We do appreciate a donation in return if possible, but if someone can’t afford it, then they can’t afford it,” says Lou Burnham, who chairs the program committee.

The program is available to any resident of Pincher Creek and surrounding communities looking to maintain mobility and independence, regardless of whether or not they’re a Legion member or a veteran. 

Housed at the local Legion, the medical cupboard is stocked with a wide variety of equipment. Items include wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, raised toilet seats, shower chairs and much more. 

“We’ve helped approximately 200 to 250 people over the last year and a half,” says Lou, describing the positive impact the program has had on community members of all ages.

The program began shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Legion received a few initial donations of walkers and canes. These donations prompted a Legion member to suggest starting a lending program, and the rest is history. 

Following an extended pandemic-related delay, the Legion elected to convert a 225-square-foot space into a dedicated storage room to house medical equipment for the program. The Legion provided supplies to convert the space, while Pincher Creek Co-op generously donated the paint.

Medical cupboard committee chairwoman Lou Burnham, left, and Legion president Maggie Christians display some of the many mobility aids in stock at the Pincher Creek Legion branch.

Since officially organizing the medical cupboard in January 2023, the program has received a steady influx of donated mobility aids and medical equipment. Support from the community has been essential to stocking the medical cupboard.

According to Lou, about 90 per cent of the items have been donated by local residents, with the remaining items covered through monetary donations. Now boasting a large stock of medical equipment, the Legion looks to return the support of residents by offering the free loaning program.

“The community has been so great. People are getting to know more about the program and are stepping up to support us, so a big thank you to them,” says Lou.  

With a growing demand for services, plans are in motion to further expand the storage space to about 400 square feet to accommodate more equipment. There are plans to make additional pieces of medical equipment available as loan items in the future, including electric scooters. 

As the program grows, Lou encourages residents to donate medical equipment they no longer need, noting, “It doesn’t make sense for it to end up in a landfill.” 

To make a donation in support of the program, visit the Legion branch in person or head over to www.pinchercreeklegion.com.

People interested in borrowing medical equipment can contact the Legion by email at [email protected] or by phone at 403-627-4024. Those hoping to take advantage of the program can also head down to the branch location and speak to staff or a Legion member in person.

The post Legion program provides medical equipment, mobility aids appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Leon Draisaitl thought he had a stinker of a game, even if he did come out smelling like a rose at the end.

Nature lovers in Alberta say they are continuing to act as volunteer guardians of natural areas, even though a government-run stewardship program that used to formally recognize their efforts has all but disappeared in recent years.

Breanna Bourque is a high school student who lashed out in anger when her parents told her they were getting a divorce. She writes about her journey making sense of it and rebuilding broken relationships.

In her new book, The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom, Nancy Reddy digs into the reasons moms often feel terrible about themselves when they don’t find every minute of mothering as joyful as books, blogs and Instagram suggest.

Liberal MPs will gather next week for a special national caucus meeting for the first time since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told them he would take the holidays to reflect on calls for him to step down as party leader.