The shelter has leaned on placing dogs in foster care, and a temporary "sleepover" program, as it struggles to maintain space for the animals.

More than six months after the devastating wildfire ravaged Jasper, Alberta, many residents are still struggling to return to their homes, facing a housing crisis magnified by the destruction. 

With major Canadian energy companies advocating for building a CO2 pipeline in Alberta, the CBC went to Satartia to learn first-hand about the possible risks when a CO2 pipeline runs through a community.

The union representing thousands of education support workers across Alberta has reached a tentative deal with the Edmonton Public, Fort McMurray Public and Fort McMurray Catholic school districts.

Worries around measles are growing across Alberta. There are reports of new cases in the northern Alberta's Fort Vermilion, following reports of the virus emerging in Calgary.

After a lengthy meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade officials on Thursday, Canadian representatives say they have a clearer understanding of the rationale behind Trump’s insistence on tariffs — not just on Canada but on the whole world.

Alberta Health Services is warning the public about a possible exposure to measles after a case was confirmed in the Calgary area.

Despite calling for its demise for years, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she isn't phased by the new prime minister's move to kill the consumer carbon levy.

First in series of new Macewan residences will open this fall while a 200-bed Concordia residence is expected to open to students in January 2027.

Watch live coverage of the men's and women's U Sports basketball championships from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Starting this summer, the city will remove driving lanes or parking from some busy streets so it can install dedicated lanes to give buses priority over other vehicles. One of the bus routes will be on 101st Street southbound, approaching downtown. Neighbouring businesses aren’t too happy.

The emphasis on climate action and transitioning to cleaner energy has waned in recent years as more emphasis is being placed on energy security and affordability. And that was before Donald Trump returned to the White House.

RCMP say at least one person is missing after an avalanche in the area of the Lake Louise Ski Resort on Friday.

An outbreak in the community of John D'Or Prairie, which is about 575 kilometres north of Edmonton and part of the Little Red River Cree Nation, is being investigated.

Open Letter

Chris Spearman — Water for Food Spokesperson

The post Water for Food urges Ottawa to stop Alberta coal mining appeared first on Shootin' the Breeze.

Mountain safety officials in Banff National Park and Kananaskis Country are among those putting out warnings about elevated avalanche danger.

Mark Carney was sworn in today as Canada’s 24th prime minister and he comes as somewhat of a blank slate.

The former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and chair of Brookfield Asset Management, is the first Canadian prime minister to have never held elected office, leaving him without a voting record in parliament that might give some hints as to where he stands on key issues.

But based on his leadership platform, public pronouncements and what he’s left unsaid, we can reasonably infer that Carney is a ‘90s-style business Liberal in the mould of Jean Chretien or Paul Martin.

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There’s a reason Conservative former prime minister Stephen Harper sought to recruit Carney as his finance minister in 2012, or so Carney says, and it’s certainly not because Carney is a progressive in any form.

He’s a “technocrat on steroids,” McGill University political scientist Daniel Beland told Al Jazeera’s Canadian correspondent, Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, “a consummate insider and a consummate elite,” in the words of .

We know from Carney’s victory speech, delivered after winning a resounding 86% of the leadership vote, that he plans to “immediately” eliminate the “divisive” consumer carbon tax and reversing a planned modest increase to the capital gains tax.

During the campaign, he pledged to increase military spending to 2% of GDP by 2030—two years earlier than former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s goal but three years later than Defence Minister Bill Blair’s.

Carney has kept Blair as defence minister, as well as Mélanie Joly at Global Affairs Canada and Patty Hajdu at Indigenous Services Canada.

Chrystia Freeland, who placed second in the Liberal leadership race with a pitiful 8% of the vote, was appointed transportation and internal trade minister. The new finance minister, a position Freeland occupied before her dramatic resignation in December, is François-Philippe Champagne.

Carney downsized Cabinet by a third—from 37 ministers under Trudeau to 24—so that it could be “focused on things that matter most to Canadians.”

Within this context, the rebranding of former labour minister Steve McKinnon as minister of jobs and families is instructive.

“The former emphasizes the worker, and the latter emphasizes what capitalists take from the worker,” wrote long-time Liberal in his newsletter.

As he was preparing to enter the race in December, Carney penned a Globe and Mail op-ed outlining his “New Year’s resolutions” for Canada.

Consisting mostly of platitudes (“Embrace change”), there was one resolution that does provide a hint as to approach towards governance:

Enforce real rules on government spending. Canadians must be confident that their tax dollars are being spent wisely. Governments can’t give into reflex spending that treats the symptoms of our problems, rather than curing the disease. But we also cannot slash our way to prosperity. We need a government that keeps its word to spend less, so we can invest more [emphasis added].

“Spend Less. Invest More” is one five sections of Carney’s platform. “In recent years, the federal government has been spending too much,” read the first words of that section.

Focusing on excessive spending and not insufficient revenue is a choice. which is furthered when Carney pledges to focus on “reining in wasteful and ineffective government spending” and delivering income tax cuts, “so that Canadians can keep more of their hard-earned money and better cope with the higher cost of living.”

Carney said his intention is to run a deficit to “invest and grow” Canada’s economy, but only for capital projects, which he said would “catalyze many multiples of private dollars.”

Operational spending, meaning the services government actually provides, will be balanced, meaning cut, over the next three years—a pledge which he appears to have walked back a bit.

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Another platform plank, dubbed “Creating One Canadian Economy,” focuses on eliminating provincial trade barriers, which has been all the rage in elite circles since President Donald Trump decided to effectively shred the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement.

In February, then-internal trade minister Anita Anand, whom Carney made minister of innovation, science and industry, announced the removal of half of existing internal trade barriers, but good luck finding out what exactly those are.

“Policy barriers to selling Canadian goods and services across the country are so few that you can list them on a paper napkin,” writes Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior researcher Stuart Trew in The Breach.

“What these corporate-backed groups really mean when they talk about removing internal trade barriers is dismantling regulations that protect workers, consumers, the environment, and nascent industries.”

Carney’s rigid deference to market logic is further reflected in the platform plank that deals with housing, which pledges to build four million homes “over the next several years.”

He doesn’t say how many need to be affordable, let alone provide a metric for affordability, making it difficult to see how his plan is any different from the status quo.

“Canada faces an urgent housing crisis. We simply do not have enough homes. This is our time to build,” the platform reads, adopting the view shared by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Trudeau that a lack of affordable housing is nothing more than a basic issue of supply and demand.

Pledging to “supercharge” the building of homes, Carney vowed to block municipal or provincial “tax or regulatory measures that impede building the homes that Canadians need.”

He said his government will use federal infrastructure funding to lower development fees, which “unfairly increase housing costs and create barriers to building new homes.”

On affordable housing specifically, Carney pledges to increase access to Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation grants and low-interest loans to affordable housing providers, but doesn’t provide any numbers.

He does raise the prospect of expanding the $4.5-billion Rapid Housing Initiative, which provided funding to convert under-used buildings into low-income housing.

According to economist Marc Lee, this was one of the more successful Trudeau-era affordable housing programs.

Carney has been conspicuously silent on Indigenous issues, journalist Karyn Pugliese notes in a story for APTN News.

The only mention of First Nations, Métis or Inuit people in his leadership platform comes in his aforementioned housing section, in which he vaguely vows to partner with Indigenous communities “to address housing availability, safety, and affordability by advancing solutions that respond to local priorities across urban, rural, and northern communities, and support the extraordinary leadership and innovation already underway.”

In her APTN piece, Pugliese notes that Carney refused a request for a one-on-one interview with the Indigenous broadcaster and was the only leadership candidate not to provide a written response to a six-question survey on Indigenous issues sent to each contender.

When an APTN reporter asked Carney specifically about Mi’kmaq fishing rights in the Maritimes, he responded that he’s spoken to Mi’kmaq MP Jaimie Battiste (Sydney—Victoria), who dropped out of the leadership race to endorse Carney’s campaign, about the need for child welfare reform.

This lack of attention to Indigenous issues led Javin Ames-Sinclair of the Zagime Anishinabek First Nation in Treaty 4 to cast his leadership ballot for Karina Gould, who placed third with little more than 3% support.

Ames-Sinclair told APTN:

All I’m hearing is economic development. Economic reconciliation is incredibly important, but there’s way more to it than that. And I want someone in my country who carves that space, knows the files, knows the things that are important to our people, and I just don’t see that drive and that vision from anybody else on the slate.

I actually cried thinking about the future because I think that Trudeau really was an ally and he had a lot of drive. And I think the way that Mark and Crystia are speaking about Indigenous reconciliation, in general, it is just not what I would expect.

Indigenous people are, of course, not monolithic in their views. Some see Carney’s hyper-focus on economic issues as an asset.

“ He’s an economic, I wouldn’t go as far as say genius, but that’s the word that comes to mind at the time, at this moment. He knows more economics than anybody else,” Métis Association of British Columbia VP Earl Belcourt told Pugliese.

Climate is supposed to be Carney’s passion. Beginning in 2020, he served as the UN special envoy on climate action and finance, and has been a staunch proponent of environmental sustainability goals in finance.

Yet like former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, Carney’s first act as prime minister was to eliminate the consumer carbon tax. (This is not the only similarity between Kenney and Carney.)

There are plenty of critiques of carbon taxation as a market-based solution to a market-created problem, but that’s not what Carney, a long-time supporter of the policy, is saying.

The section of Carney’s platform dubbed “A New Climate” plan, which is the shortest by far, notes that the carbon tax has been “too divisive.”

Carney’s platform pledges a “new approach that leaves Canadians better off, while reducing our emissions,” which will “place more of the burden on big polluters.”

An accompanying news release provided more details, including tightening Canada’s Output-Based Pricing System for industrial emitters to “provide policy certainty for companies and investors to drive investment to the lowest carbon opportunities.”

Perhaps the most promising aspect of Carney’s climate plan is the adoption of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism—a fancy way of saying a tariff on emissions-intensive products from countries with weak climate policy frameworks.

Carney’s shuffling of former environmental activist Steven Guilbeault out of the environment portfolio indicates a broader break with the policies pursued by Trudeau, which drove the oil and gas industry bonkers, despite being remarkably conciliatory.

In his capacity as UN special envoy, Carney endorsed a November 2023 report by the Energy Transitions Commission, which argued that 65% of oil and gas reserves “must be left in the ground,” but now he sings a different tune.

"We as a nation need to build some new pipelines for conventional energy," Carney told the CBC in February, pledging to accelerate the approval of new pipelines, which would likely mean the repeal of Trudeau’s Impact Assessment Act.

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Notably absent from Carney’s public pronouncements is a position on the draft oil and gas emissions cap, which would be the world’s first if successfully implemented.

On March 12, the Parliamentary Budget Office concluded it would permit industry to increase production, but not as much as it would without the cap in place, representing “close to historical highs.”

The general thrust of Carney’s climate vision is a more collaborative, rather than punitive, approach, which does not bode well for the emissions cap’s future.

As the UN climate envoy, Carney helped establish the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which seeks to work with banks to pursue investment policies consistent with the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

The fate of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance he heralded as UN climate envoy, which seeks to work with banks to pursue investment policies consistent with the goal of net zero by 2050.

Since the beginning of this year, Canada’s six biggest banks have left the alliance, following the exodus of the biggest American banks. Remaining members are now musing about whether to ditch their commitment to limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius altogether.

The fate of the alliance reveals the severe limitations of Carney’s preferred approach to climate.

Many Canadian progressives are understandably breathing a sigh of relief now that the Liberals have elected a leader who might actually be able to defeat Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and his noxious brand of politics in this year’s election (although I remain doubtful).

But with Carney’s exceptionally elite-driven, business-friendly brand of liberalism, I suspect some might come to yearn for the days when Trudeau pledged to “grow the economy from the heart outwards.”

Edmonton police have charged a 32-year-old man with several sexual offences against a minor after the suspect allegedly lured a 14-year-old boy through Snapchat and sexually assaulted him. 

The provincial government laid out how it plans to spend funding for transportation infrastructure throughout the next three years, with major projects highlighted, such as Highway 686, Deerfoot Trail and reaching the Calgary airport via LRT.

In its statement of defence, the health authority says former CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was terminated because of her 'own inadequacies' in performing her job.

Prime Minister Mark Carney wasted little time in removing a potent point of attack for the Conservatives in recent years: the consumer carbon tax.

The schools in Calgary, Airdrie and Chestermere are still in the planning and design stages — meaning they're still at least two years away from opening, according to Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.

Police say the body of 32-year-old Sukhvir Singh was found around 17th Street and Yellowhead Trail — an industrial area in the city's northeast — on Feb. 28.

The post March 10-14, 2025 appeared first on Alberta Views.

A northern Alberta daycare has been placed on probation following a string of infractions, including allegations staff were inappropriately punishing children in their care. 

Daybreak Alberta broadcast live from Pincher Creek as part of CBC Alberta's Out Your Way library project. The show will be in Red Deer on March 15.

Alberta liquor agencies whose purchased U.S. products are stuck in a warehouse will not be charged storage fees for up to three months, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis said in a bulletin all agents Thursday.

Edmonton's population grew even more than expected in 2024, new numbers from the provincial government show.

Last year at this time, the City of Edmonton projected the population would increase by 3.6% in 2024. The new provincial numbers show, however, that Edmonton's population increased by 5.76% in 2024, an increase of 65,000 people, bringing the city's total number of residents to about 1,185,000.

One year ago, Ward Nakota Isga Coun. Andrew Knack warned that Edmonton wasn't ready for the projected influx of new people. "Well, guess what? We're still not ready, and, I mean, that shouldn't shock anyone," Knack told Taproot in a recent interview. "Obviously, the challenging or even somewhat terrifying point of this is, how do you keep up with that?"

New residents need homes, schools, services, and transportation options. Edmonton's City Plan, approved in 2020, is meant to chart how the city grows toward a population of two million people. The plan aims to see 50% of new housing units added through infill and to add 600,000 residents in neighbourhoods generally within the boundary of Anthony Henday Drive, instead of them being added predominantly outside of it through continued sprawl development. The progress on City Plan goals is tracked on the Open Performance dashboard.

In 2024, developers in the Edmonton region started construction on more than 18,000 units of housing, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data, a 39% increase over 2023. Apartment starts saw a particularly large increase of 49% from 2023. The city is ahead of schedule in meeting its goals of building missing middle housing, a January news release said.

Knack, who is not running for reelection in October's city election, said the proportion of new housing that is created through infill is important to guard against potential property tax increases. He added that while he understands why people can be hesitant about infill development in their neighbourhoods, he thinks some who may have previously objected to it have now changed their tune. "I think there are a lot of people who are just realizing now that in order to accomplish fiscal sustainability and environmental sustainability, we have to change, and that is hard, and it's causing some challenges," Knack said.

Another way Knack proposes the city welcome its new residents in a financially sustainable way is by simplifying infrastructure. He used the Jasper Place branch of the Edmonton Public Library, which won architecture awards, as an example.

"Goodness, I love that we have that, but at the same time, what if that is causing an issue? What if we can go build three new medium-sized recreation centres that all look the same, and because we're building three at the same time, we get a discount," he suggested. "You're essentially just copying the exact same design. You can still have a nice design, but maybe it's not going to be unique in each space."

Knack said this is something that the proposed infrastructure committee could decide on. Council is set to vote on that committee on March 18.

The Edmonton region's population as a whole increased by 4.71%. St. Albert and Strathcona County's population grew by 1.63% and 1.17% respectively. Leduc's population grew by 3.71% and Beaumont's grew by 5.85%.

With the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board set to dissolve on March 31, municipalities will not be required to follow the Regional Growth Plan, which set minimum density targets for the municipalities of the region. Knack said he worries about what would happen if regional municipalities stopped following the growth plan.

"If we start growing outside of those plans, then we're creating greater headaches and we're creating a much greater pressure on property taxes. And you might say, 'Well, isn't that the region's problem?'… Yes, but we also know folks that move into the region, many of them come into Edmonton to work every day," Knack said. "More often, we see greater traffic coming in than out. What does that mean on wear and tear, on infrastructure? What does that mean for financial viability for certain areas, if they're using up premium agricultural land to now put in new development because they're not going to follow the growth plan?"

Knack added that he doesn't believe most of the region will prioritize short-term planning because the region was thoughtful when developing the growth plan, "but that is going to loom in the background until we have a clear path on how that gets dealt with."

On this day in 1945, the town of Beverly was considering whether to join Edmonton.

European settlers first moved to the area northeast of Edmonton in the early 1880s, drawn by the promise of good soil and cheap land, perfect for farming. But it was what lay beneath that soil that would soon shape Beverly's history.

There were coal deposits throughout the river valley, but the largest was the Clover Bar seam, which ran right underneath Beverly, and produced an estimated 95% of the area's coal. Tiny coal mining operations, like William Humberstone's first mine, started popping up.

People began calling the growing settlement Beverly around 1904. In 1907, the Grand Trunk Railway built the Clover Bar bridge across the river, connecting the area's coal industry to the rail network, which encouraged even more mining.

The tiny hamlet was growing rapidly. In 1913, Beverly was incorporated as a village, and just a year later, it became a full-fledged town. That ascension led to the construction of Beverly's first official building, a town hall designed by Allen Merrick Jeffers, who also designed Alberta's Legislature Building.

The two-storey brick building served not only as a town hall but also as a fire station, police station, elementary school, and dance hall. Emily Murphy, one of the Famous Five, worked out of the building in her role as justice of the peace.

The Great Depression hit Beverly hard. By the late 1930s the town was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Alberta government appointed an administrator to oversee the town and this oversight remained for more than a decade.

The 1950s and '60s saw a significant shift in the town's direction. Coal was no longer in high demand. Housing was. The boom that followed the end of the Second World War, combined with Beverly's lower land prices, made the community an attractive place to live that was close to the city. Beverly's population expanded. In 1951, the town had 2,150 residents; a decade later, the population had more than quadrupled. That growth brought expenses for infrastructure and services, which the town struggled to cover. Debt from previous decades only made the situation more difficult.

In 1961, Beverly residents voted in a referendum on whether to amalgamate with Edmonton. More than 60% of those who voted supported the idea. On Dec. 30 of that year, Beverly officially became part of the city. What was once the town of Beverly is now split into five neighbourhoods: Beverly Heights, Abbottsfield, Beacon Heights, Rundle Heights, and Bergman.

Coal mining played a significant role in shaping the early years of both Beverly and Edmonton. While it may not have the prominence it once had, coal remains a major issue in Alberta. Earlier this year, the provincial government lifted its moratorium on new coal mine development in the eastern Rocky Mountains, sparking controversy and protests.

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

More Alberta seniors are now eligible for provincially funded RSV vaccines. All Albertans 70 and over are now eligible.

A group of major energy users have signed a pledge to support tripling global nuclear power capacity by 2050. Nuclear power is seeing a resurgence in popularity thanks in part to significant growth in power demand due to AI.

Collin Boucher-Gionet, 34, charged with second-degree murder and indignity to human remains in the death of Aylissa Rovere, the girlfriend who was trying to leave him, has been granted release on house arrest. 

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is alleging the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was unwilling to implement the government’s plan to break up the health authority, and made “incendiary and inaccurate allegations about political intrigue and impropriety” before she was fired in January. 

Last weekend, hockey players gathered in a northwest Alberta community for the annual Alberta Pond Hockey Championships. In between games spectators and players took some shots at the yet-to-be-called federal election, sharing their thoughts on issues that matter to them.

Police investigating reports of alleged assaults at Little Stars Montessori Early Learning Centre in Spruce Grove.

The city-owned utility presented its 2024 annual report to city council's audit committee on Thursday. In it, Enmax reported its comparable net earnings for last year were $316 million, which represented a year-over-year change of nine per cent.

The two people accused in the shooting death of a 20-year-old Edmonton security guard have pleaded not guilty and will have a preliminary hearing this summer.

Calgary Police Service have charged a Calgary man with one count of second-degree murder in relation to the August 2022 death of 54-year-old Rhonda Waite.

According to Alberta's police watchdog, the officer who shot and killed a Calgary man last month won't be punished because he fired in self-defence.

A confidential memo from the head of the Alberta Medical Association says government seeks cuts to more than 800 physician billing codes to save $400 million. The health ministry says government spending on physicians has risen by $1 billion since 2022-23

Alberta public safety minister Mike Ellis dodged an NDP MLA’s question at a March 13 committee meeting about The Orchard’s exclusive reporting on his government’s apparent cover-up of police violence against the University of Calgary’s short-lived pro-Palestine encampment.

As this outlet reported last week, according to Calgary police chief Mark Neufeld’s hand-written notes, he received a May 13 phone call from Ellis informing him that the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was investigating allegations of police misconduct regarding the forced dismantling of the encampment on May 9.

Half an hour later, Neufeld received a phone call from Premier Danielle Smith’s then-chief of staff, Marshall Smith (no relation), informing him that “ASIRT won’t investigate,” but would instead focus narrowly on whether there was “serious injury” resulting from police action.

“I can’t speak to a conversation that I was not a part of, or what may or may not have been said between two individuals,” Minister Ellis, a former Calgary cop, said at Thursday’s Standing Committee on Families and Communities meeting.

This was in response to a question from Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd, who serves as the NDP’s shadow public safety minister.

Shepherd brought up The Orchard’s reporting, referring to “a journalist” who obtained the chief’s notes of his conversations with members of the government “in response to a student protest at the University of Calgary.”

He asked Ellis how Marshall Smith’s intervention squares with the minister’s stated commitment to a “broader paradigm shift that reimagines police as an extension of the community rather than as an arm of the state.”

“Having a chief of staff of the premier call to tell the chief whether or not an investigation would take place sure seems like the arm of the state,” said Shepherd.

Ellis, whose office didn’t acknowledge The Orchard’s initial request for comment, was cagey, but added that “this is the exact reason” his government has ordered the establishment of the Police Review Commission to independently address allegations of police misconduct.

The commission isn’t expected to begin operations until December.

“If I were the minister of public safety,” Shepherd replied, “having the premier’s chief of staff interfere to comment on what is going to be the scope of an investigation, that would certainly concern me.”

Before Shepherd could ask his question, Calgary-East UCP MLA Peter Singh tried to shut him down, arguing that Shepherd’s line of questioning was out of order, since the committee meeting was focused on the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness’s 2025/26 budget.

“We aren’t here to discuss media reporting,” said Singh.

But Shepherd did connect the question to specific budget items before Singh cut him off.

From the budget estimates, he specifically cited line items for funding ASIRT ($5.7 million) and “Contract Policing and Police Oversight” ($397.2 million).

From the ministry’s business plan, Shepherd cited key objective 1.3, which states:

Implement strategies to improve the delivery of policing services in the province to ensure Albertans are safe and police are accountable to the communities they serve, including support for municipalities and Indigenous communities in the development of new models of policing and public safety.

Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely, the committee chair, deferred to Minister Ellis to determine “whether he chooses to answer and how he answers.”

In addition to Minister Ellis and Marshall Smith, Chief Neufeld’s notes include summaries of conversations about the encampment response with Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney and Justice Minister Mickey Amery.

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Calgary police have arrested a 24-year-old man in relation to a fatal hit and run that happened nearly 10 months ago in the city's southeast.

Not even cracking open a cold one is safe from tariffs. As the Canada-U.S. trade war continues to dominate headlines, Alberta's beer industry is paying close attention to how this is impacting the price of metal cans.

After a mild start to March, Environment Canada is predicting 20 centimetres of snow for much of Central Alberta. CBC's Alicia Asquith has more on why we need this latest blast of winter weather.

The Alberta government has suspended a loan program at Picture Butte Feeder Cooperative, the province’s largest cattle financing cooperative, after an inspection alleged a number of financial mismanagement and regulatory issues.

Rossdale is the site of a proposed development from Dub Architects. However, some residents are worried the highrise might not be right for the neighbourhood.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is implementing measures to help Edmonton paramedics, who are facing increased workloads, according to an internal email, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News.

Here are opportunities to inform municipal decisions about accessibility, rezoning, affordable housing, and more. Please only answer surveys from the municipality where you live.

• Accessibility Policy Updates and New Corporate Plan Survey — The City of Edmonton is updating its Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy and corporate accessibility policies to align with best practices. A What We Heard Report captures feedback from the first phase of engagement. Residents are now invited to share their thoughts on proposed updates and draft accessibility actions by completing a survey before March 16.
• Rossdale Centre Rezoning — The City of Edmonton is considering an application to rezone the Rossdale Brewery area, along 100 Street NW between 98 Avenue NW and Rossdale Road NW. If approved, the application would preserve the Rossdale Brewery while allowing development around it, including up to 17-storey buildings and up to 490 dwellings. Residents are invited to ask a question or share their thoughts to a discussion board until March 16.
• Belgravia 76 Avenue Rezoning — The City of Edmonton received two rezoning applications for two lots on 76 Avenue: 11607 76 Avenue NW and 11618 76 Avenue NW. Both lots are currently zoned as Small Scale Residential, while the developer wants them changed to Medium Scale Residential and Small-Medium Scale Transition Residential, allowing for a six-storey and a four-storey building, respectively. Feedback on these rezoning applications may also be applied to other rezoning applications in the McKernan and Belgravia neighbourhoods. Residents can ask a question or share their thoughts to a discussion board until March 23.
• Accessible Affordable Housing Survey — The City of Edmonton wants to understand the current state of accessible and affordable housing, including supply, quality, location, and challenges faced by developers. Residents can complete a survey on the topic until March 24.

More input opportunities

• Until March 19: Youth Transit Experience Survey — Riders Aged 12 to 18 (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 19: Youth Transit Experience Survey — Parents and Caregivers (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 21: Toward 40 Wagner Road — Draft Design (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 23: Rossdale Neighbourhood Renewal — Explore (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 28: Engage and Play: Shaping Public Recreation (City of Edmonton)
• Until March 31: 2026 Budget Planning Survey (City of Leduc)
• Until April 15: Passenger Rail Master Plan Survey (Government of Alberta)
• Until April 30: Green Industries Questionnaire (City of Edmonton)

Keenan Pascal, the CEO of Token Bitters, says his latest trade trip to Japan is a way to bolster Edmonton's beverage industry — something he also does as a co-organizer of Edmonton Cocktail Week, which takes place from March 17 to 23.

"Reintroducing the bitters into the Japan market, as the cocktail scene evolves, that's where we see a lot of upside," Pascal told Taproot before flying to Japan. "The (number of) bars per capita there is like eight or nine times what it is in Canada. They have a lot of small bars, like a six-seater or like an eight-person bar. Here, we have larger concepts."

Token Bitters is one of 3,000 vendors at the FOODEX Japan trade show, which features vendors from 170 countries from March 11 to 14 in Tokyo. It is one of several Edmonton companies at the show with Edmonton Global, including SYC Brewing Co. and BeeMaid Honey. The trip is part of the economic developer's work to grow exports to countries other than the United States.

Pascal said the potential connections are both external and internal. "I think that's one of the best things you get out of these trade missions — travelling with Edmonton-based businesses," Pascal said. "In Japan, (you can go on a) night out and to karaoke, and you've got a new business deal kind of put together. I think there's a lot of opportunities to cross paths."

Token Bitters was established in 2016. It offers aromatic bitters, a flavour agent used in cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks, and cooking, as well as mocktails, sodas, and syrups. Token products are on the shelves of both liquor stores and non-alcoholic retailers around Edmonton.

After FOODEX, Pascal's company is next focused on Edmonton Cocktail Week, which showcases Token Bitters during a bartender contest on March 17 at Fu's Repair Shop. There, the finalists will duke it out for $500, bragging rights, a trophy, and other rewards. Tickets to attend and taste are just less than $30.

Pascal organizes Cocktail Week alongside Faaiza Ramji, a prolific entrepreneur who co-founded Jaya Chai Liqueur out of another company called Field Notes, as well as Dan St. Pierre of the communications and public relations firm Dept. of External Relations, and Robert Pellerin, who organizes the Alberta Spirits & Cocktail Festival that happens at the Edmonton Convention Centre during cocktail week.

Ramji's Jaya is taking a victory lap for its big win at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Signature cocktails made with Jaya will be offered by Bar Henry, Woodwork, and others throughout the week. But cocktail week isn't only about its organizers' success, Ramji said.

"We know that building success in one industry depends on success in the ecosystem around it," Ramji told Taproot in an email. "For the beverage industry to thrive, we need bartenders to stay here, build a following, and hone their craft; we need restaurants and bars to thrive and create a sense of vibrancy as well as successful businesses; and we need retailers to support and showcase innovative products being made here in Alberta."

Other vendors and venues taking part in Edmonton Cocktail Week include Above Average Drinks, EPIC Market, Sherbrooke Liquor, and more. You can find the full list of events here.